Oxfam celebrated its third annual Bookfest in theatrical style as Liverpool’s Bold Street shop welcomed Hollyoaks’ actress Phina Oruche through its doors.
Reading an extract from Willy Russell’s Liverpool-based play Educating Rita, Phina performed the parts of both Frank and hairdresser Rita to perfection.
Talking to the eager crowd, who gathered to watch this special performance, Phina explained why this play means so much to her.
She said: “The reason I love this book is because while I was living in America, I started to feel a bit lost.
“I wasn't Scouse anymore; I wasn't American - I kind of fell through the cracks.
“My sister came to visit me and brought a Marian Keyes book, as well as Educating Rita, to remind me of who I was and told me to 'Get Scouse kid, you're not an American.”
The event was a fantastic coup for the Bold Street shop and Phina was happy to be part of Bookfest, as it is a festival she is passionate about.
She continued: “Words are powerful, words have transformed my life.
“I started off as a woman born and bred in Toxteth and if it wasn't for the power of the word, I wouldn't have a television career, I wouldn't be on the radio and I wouldn't be asked to come and talk about words and do a reading in Oxfam today from a play that I enjoy very much.
“And the reason I am here today is because words are going to transform lives of people we've never even met.”
Book sales have been helping Oxfam in its fight against poverty for more than fifty years, and every book sold makes a difference.
Bookfest celebrates the central role that books play in people’s lives, and the impact that donating a book or buying a book from Oxfam can have on the lives of poor people around the world.
The charity is currently working around the clock in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, to deliver food, water and medical assistance to three million people who are facing up to desperate food shortages following the worst drought of the last 60 years.
Olivia Sloane, deputy manager of the Oxfam shop on Bold Street, said: “We are absolutely delighted to be able to celebrate Bookfest with Phina in our shop here in Liverpool and to remind people that our Merseyside Oxfam shops and bookshops are bursting with life changing books.
“The sale of three books could provide ten days’ worth of basic food rations for a family in East Africa right now”.
Last year Bookfest 2010 resulted in a £400,000 increase in book sales for Oxfam.
This year the charity is hoping that it will be even more successful, especially in the face of crisis like the one that is affecting East Africa.
For more information about Bookfest and to find out about events in the local area see: www.oxfam.org.uk/bookfest.
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