Action Magazine Spring 2016

“EVEN IN DROUGHT, I CAN FEED MY KIDS” Your support can help women living on the brink of survival in Somaliland

Issue 9 Spring 2016

“My kitchen garden has protected me and my family”

Orphaned during the Rwandan genocide and abandoned by the father of her children, 23 year-old Beatrice has rebuilt her life thanks to an ActionAid cooperative scheme.

From growing food

and keeping animals, to starting a brickmaking business, the women-run coops decide how and when they will spend their money. “Every time I see my kids have something to eat and

they are laughing and smiling then I am really happy,” says Beatrice.

“I grow vegetables, spring onions and herbs. The cow helps me with income from the milk. It has changed my life.” ●

Girish Menon ActionAid UK Executive Director

Follow me on Twitter @GirishMenonAAUK

Six months into my new role, I’m immensely proud of the difference we’re making to so many lives across the world Our team in Greece has been heartened by your generous support for our vital women’s centres there. For the mothers and children on Lesvos, the nature of the crisis is changing almost daily.

We remain committed to supporting vulnerable refugees fleeing violent conflict. Do follow me on Twitter to get the latest updates.

I’d like to thank everyone who donated to our FGM appeal which has been instrumental in helping girls affected. Don’t miss Gladys’ courageous story inside. With your continued support, we hope to make our featured spring appeal equally successful.

As I write, a devastating drought in the Horn of Africa has left millions hungry, while families in Bangladesh face the prospect of losing their only crops to more frequent floods. Anything you can give to help mothers feed their children through our urgent appeal would make a huge difference.

Your commitment is what helps mothers like Sabat (pictured on the front cover) stay determined and resilient in the face of increasing hardships.

Thank you so much.

Girish Menon supportercontact@actionaid.org 01460 238 000 wwww.actionaid.org.uk ActionAid is a charitable company limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales (Company number 01295174). England and Wales charity number 274467, Scottish charity number SC045476. Registered office 33-39 Bowling Green Lane, London EC1R 0BJ. Cover: Despite experiencing Somaliland’s worst drought in 35 years, mother-of-five Sabat grows oranges using water from a well built by ActionAid. Photo: Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid Crystaline Randazzo/ActionAid

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I “For the first time in ages, the women don’t feel totally alone. They regain a piece of their dignity.”

Anna Pantelia/ActionAid

A lifeline for refugees on Lesvos 4

When ActionAid’s Ditte Bloch Noer heard we needed Arabic speaking women to staff our women’s centres on the Greek island of Lesvos, she knew she could help actionaid.org.uk

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had worked with refugees in Denmark before, so I thought I’d be ready for what I’d witness in Lesvos, but nothing could prepare me for how heartbreaking it was.

Every day boatloads of mothers and children would arrive in Lesvos with nothing but the clothes they stood up in. They were cold, wet and traumatised, after long and dangerous journeys at the hands of human traffickers.

Many had lost loved ones, including tragically for some, their children.

Like all mothers, they wanted the best for their kids, but they didn’t even have simple things like blankets. At our women’s centres, we gave women wipes, soap and nappies, so they could clean their children – many for the first time on their journeys. My team and I provided warm clothes and a safe space to breastfeed in private, as well

as to talk and grieve with other women who shared their experiences. For the first time in a long time, these women didn’t feel totally alone. They regained a piece of their dignity.

My work was constant and very emotional, but also hugely rewarding. What most women needed was someone to communicate with. Many had left a dangerous country, only to arrive in a situation that was very hard and confusing.

Because I spoke Arabic I could answer their questions and help prepare them for the journey ahead.

Near the end of my secondment to Lesvos, a woman came up to me and gave me a hug. She said she was happier and stronger and wanted to thank me for helping her and her children.

That hug was a huge reward for me. It was proof that what ActionAid does works. I’ll never forget it. ● 5

WITHOUT RAIN, BUT NOT WITHOUT HOPE How your support is helping mums in drought ravaged Somaliland Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

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Hodan,20, from Western Somaliland fears for her two-year-old daughter Naima’s life if the drought continues Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

s the lush green grass withered to dust and the wells dried up, Hodan’s flock of 40 sheep began dying, one by one.

“It took about a month,” she says. “The drought killed all of them. They had no grass to eat or water to drink.”

Now the 20-year-old fears the drought might also claim her two year old daughter, Naima.

“If the drought continues I am scared my daughter might die,” says Hodan, who lives in western Somaliland and struggles to feed Naima one meal of rice a day.

“All parents here have that fear.”

Hodan’s village is not alone in its suffering. Every day 800 million people struggle to grow or buy enough food to eat.

Many of the world’s poorest people rely on agriculture to survive, but unpredictable and extreme weather is making farming increasingly difficult.

This year El Niño – the naturally occurring warming of oceans – has caused the lowest recorded rainfall over parts of Africa in 35 years.

Nearly 380,000 people across Somaliland and Puntland, a region in northeastern Somalia declared

an autonomous state, face severe food shortages and the UN has warned about ‘alarming’ levels of malnutrition in the region.

HOW ACTIONAID IS HELPING ActionAid has responded to this crisis by providing emergency food aid to more than 32,500 people in El-Niño-struck Ethiopia, Somaliland and Zimbabwe.

In villages such as Hodan’s where farms can only be irrigated by rain this support has been vital.

In other parts of Somaliland, where there are reserves of water below ground, ActionAid has helped mothers to access it and water their crops.

Mother-of-five Sabat grows oranges, beetroot and cabbages using water from a well built by ActionAid. “I can give my children an orange a day,” says the

Our emergency response in the worst hit areas 1,800 sacks and boxes of food

500,000 litres of water

3,515 women recieved loans

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30-year-old. “They also eat vegetables from my farm.

“Life would be much harder if we didn’t have this well.”

Although the well has cushioned Sabat from the worst effects of the drought, she still needs rain to replenish her water supply.

That’s why ActionAid has been working on longer term solutions to help women to diversify their income and become less reliant on agriculture and livestock.

LONG TERM SOLUTIONS Under the corrugated tin roof of her food stall, Khadra, 30, is busy serving customers.

The mother-of-five got a loan from an ActionAidfunded women’s group which allowed her to grow her business and boost her annual profits from US$140 (£98) to US$300 (£210).

“Feeding my family used to be a problem,” said Khadra, as she poured a steaming cup of tea from a huge steel pot for a customer. “They didn’t get fruit or vegetables. We didn’t eat meat.”

After getting a loan of US$300 Khadra extended her tin-and-timber hut and bought a greater variety of stock. Packets of pasta, rice and sugar are neatly lined up beside bottles of soft drinks and battery packs on Khadra’s shelves.

“To do well in business you need to have something new to attract customers,” 10

she added.

Today Khadra can feed her children a varied diet, including meat once a week. She also sends her daughters to school and can afford to take her children to a clinic if they fall ill.

“When I think about the way I am now, the fact that I can send my children to school, I can give them the necessary things they need, I feel good,” she said. ●

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Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

Business woman Khadra, from Western Somaliland, now makes enough profit from her food stall to feed her family and send her children to school

The strongest El Niño weather phenomenon on record has already left 34 million people in Africa without enough food and water. Combined with climate change, these events are devastating the lives of some of the world’s poorest people – many who rely on the land for food and income.

In Ethiopia, over 10 million people are in desperate need of emergency food assistance. Farmers – many of them women – have lost up to three quarters of their harvest in some of the worst affected areas. In Zimbabwe and Somaliland, low rainfall and high temperatures have destroyed crops and killed livestock. In Lesotho, people are reported to be going whole days without eating.

Families are hungry and farmers in debt.

And while El Niño ravages parts of Africa, we see people struggling to grow and buy enough food in many other countries we work in. Hunger is hurting people all over the world.

Because of climate change, floods and droughts

“I can give my children an orange a day. They also eat vegetables from my farm.”

Sabat Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

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Mike Noyes, Head of Humanitarian Response, explains the challenges of supporting those pushed to the brink by El Niño-driven drought and climate change

Spring 2016

in Bangladesh are becoming more frequent and intense, land and water more scarce and difficult to access, and growing crops even harder to achieve.

ActionAid’s humanitarian response is twofold – our local staff respond to immediate needs through providing emergency food aid. But communities themselves are at the forefront of our long term adaptation and recovery programmes.

In drought-prone areas, where there are reserves of water below ground, we help others to access it and irrigate their farms. In places affected by inland flooding we provide salt resistant seeds, and in the scorching temperatures of northern Bangladesh we work with local mothers to breed heat-resilient chickens.

The challenges we face are immense, but it is vulnerable communities themselves, with ActionAid’s support, who are developing the strength to cope with increasing droughts and floods. ● 11

URGENT APPEAL

Help mothers feed their hungry children this spring

With your support, we can build a future free from hunger for children like Reeath

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iving on the precarious floodplains of the Padma River in Bangladesh, Fatema struggled to care for her baby son, Reeath. And when the riverbanks overflowed, her home and the few crops she was able to grow were completely destroyed.

“I tried to breastfeed my son and give him my share of food,” she said.

“My stomach would ache with hunger.

When you are hungry nothing feels good.”

When the floodwaters finally subsided, Fatema’s farmland was saturated with sand and utterly

ruined. She had no way to grow food.

With ActionAid’s support, Fatema was given a plot of land to farm above the flood levels and training to grow crops and keep livestock.

“My favourite thing about this place is the green surroundings. I’ve learnt to grow my own crops and how to raise my cow, feed him grass and make sure he stays healthy.

I grow spinach, sesame and okra. I use the crops to feed my family and sell in the market.”

Today, Fatema grows enough to feed her children. She dreams of their future rather than just

struggling to stay alive.

Your generosity could help provide tools, seeds and training for other mothers like Fatema – everything they need to feed their children and build a new life.

With your support, we could: ● Provide fruit saplings and hardy, flood-resistant rice plants for hungry families to grow food ● Give women tools like spades and hoes to help them plough land and plant crops ● Train women in essential farming skills such as irrigation and compost-making. ●

We urgently need to help mothers feed their hungry children.

Please make a donation today. Visit www.actionaid.org.uk/hunger Mahmud/MAP/ActionAid

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“I am against the cut” Last summer we asked you – our amazing supporters – to protect girls in Kenya from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). You donated an incredible £134,900 to support girls who have been cut and keep thousands more safe from harm

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hen Gladys was ten years old, her uncle and grandmother took her to be cut. “I fainted during the ceremony,” she told us. “I lost a lot of blood.” She was kept in a small room for three months with her legs bound together by rope.

When she was finally allowed out, Gladys discovered she was to be married to a much older man. She ran to her parent’s house – only to find that they planned to marry her to the same man. Desperate, she fled.

“I didn’t know where I was going,” Gladys said. “After many miles I met a woman at a food stall. She told me about an ActionAid group who help girls like me.”

Gladys now lives at an ActionAid rescue centre in Kenya’s Rift Valley where she can go to school and stay safe from child marriage. “Before coming here I didn’t even know how to hold a pen. Now I love going to school. I want to be a doctor,” she told us with a big smile. “And I want others to know that FGM is not good.”

Thanks to your support, girls like Gladys are finding the confidence – as well

Our Kenyan girls clubs and rescue centres have directly helped over

6,000 women and girls affected by FGM

“I want to be a doctor. And I want others to know that FGM is not good.”

Gladys (right) has made good friends at Naraman School in the Kongelai, where she is now building a new life Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

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Former cutter Jane now educates her community about the dangers of FGM

Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

as learning the skills – to stand up against injustice. And with the help of local women we’ve introduced a new ceremony which doesn’t involve cutting, so girls can now celebrate their transition into womanhood without the trauma of mutilation.

Sadly, many girls like Gladys don’t have a safe place to go to. So we’re building rescue centres across Kenya to protect more girls from child marriage and FGM. Your donations aren’t only helping girls; they’re educating the whole community. At ActionAid we’re training teachers, traditional birth attendants and community leaders to speak out for girls at risk. People like Jane.

Jane used to be a cutter. She stopped when she found out that a girl who she had cut died from complications during childbirth.

Now, Jane is part of a women’s group supported by ActionAid which educates the community about the dangers of FGM. She says: “One thing I want to tell mothers of girls is please, when your daughter grows, talk to her and tell her to never think of having FGM. Also, please send your girls to school so that they can help themselves to make the most of their lives.”

ActionAid is working in nine countries across Africa to end this traumatic practice and support those who have undergone the cut. Thanks to you, we’re one step closer to a world free from FGM. ● 15

Celebrating inspirational women To mark International Women’s Day in March, our ground-breaking work with women and girls gained recognition at the highest levels

Leading women: ActionAid’s Korto Williams (left) with actress and ActionAid ambassador Sarah Alexander, hostess Samantha Cameron, our Chairperson Margaret Casely-Hayford, and TV personality Floella Benjamin celebrate at No.10

TV presenter Charlie Webster arriving at the event in Surrey, where she gave a heartfelt speech about putting a stop to violence against women

10 Downing Street

Getty Images

Downing Street event a resounding success

Flagship fundraiser

Hosted by Samantha Cameron, our special event at “Number 10” celebrated the women who are leading change in their societies.

The room fell silent as Korto Williams, now Director of ActionAid Liberia, explained

ActionAid UK Chair Margaret Casely-Hayford brought together the inspirational women in her life to launch our Tea and Inspiration campaign on 20 March. Against the backdrop of beautiful Gravetye Manor

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how after surviving 15 years of violent conflict in her country, ActionAid helped her and many other women to rebuild their resilience.

“Our engagement with ActionAid increased our confidence and provided

the opportunity to reclaim our lives despite the pain, loss and residual elements of the civil war.” Samantha Cameron spoke of her pride in the UK as a global leader on women’s rights. “At the heart of achieving gender actionaid.org.uk

equality is the requirement to make sure we are giving inspirational women the resources, support and power to do their work.”

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in Sussex, guests including actress Greta Scacchi and TV presenter Charlie Webster helped raise vital funds for our work with women and girls. Find out how you can host your own event on p.22. ● 17

FEARLESS CAMPAIGN

“I am doing good work, so I don’t need to be afraid” As our Fearless campaign ramps up, Sarah Carson, Women’s Rights Campaign Manager, explains why ActionAid is supporting women’s rights organisations to end violence against women

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lobally, five women die every hour at the hands of a partner or family member. That’s one woman every 12 minutes. But around the world, fearless women are taking on violence against women – and winning.

Women like Thuzar Tin. When a devastating cyclone hit Myanmar in 2009, she found many women were at a greater risk of violence and in need of support – so she set up a local women’s organisation.

We met at her makeshift office in her home in Yangon. Thuzar Tin told me that despite being very poor, many women in Yangon are forbidden from working by their husbands, leaving them financially dependent on their partners.

Thuzar Tin and her volunteers train women to sew clothes and make soap so they can set up their own businesses and earn their own income. They also provide counselling and legal support to help women through their experiences of domestic violence and to access justice.

Women frequently arrive having been beaten by their husbands. As we spoke, several women came to the door wanting to talk to the volunteers.

Speaking to Thuzar Tin about the lives

Kalika Bro-Jorgensen/ActionAid

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of the women she supports, I was struck by how many of them saw domestic violence as a normal part of life. Thuzar Tin’s training was often the first time they became aware that they have a right not to be beaten.

Yet this work comes with its own risks.

Thuzar Tin has been harassed by the police and questioned by relatives of the women she helps.

But she won’t give up. “I am doing good work, so I don’t need to be afraid,” she says.

Evidence shows that the work of independent women’s rights organisations like Thuzar Tin’s is the single most effective way to end violence against women and girls. Thanks to your support, we can continue to stand with fearless women around the world. ●

Find out how you can stand with fearless women like Thuzar Tin to end violence against women and girls.

Visit www.actionaid.org.uk/ fearless

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SUPER SUPPORTER

Going the extra mile to help us change lives for good

Welsh mother and daughter, Alison and Joanna, meet children in the school they have supported for years in the Gambia

were now able to trade, and it was benefitting much more than the local community.”

It was the women in the village who had identified the need for the wall. “ActionAid then made it possible for them to have it.”

Alison and Joanna met another women-led committee, who had recently organised the building of a much-needed primary school. “The community identified who would make good teachers, and ActionAid paid for them to be trained and educated. In the meantime, they provided the materials, and the local people then built the school.”

One in three children in The Gambia has been to a school supported by ActionAid.

It was her belief in the importance of education that inspired Alison to start sponsoring children in the small east African country, back in 1983. “I would go back any day,” she says with a smile.

Across the world in Myanmar, Tracy Jenkins from London met San Winn, the boy she has sponsored since 2012. Amazed at his confidence and reading skills, Tracy was especially impressed to hear from the community leader how donations from child sponsors like her have benefited the whole community.

ActionAid has helped the community build a well for clean drinking

water, stocks the school library, runs a women’s empowerment project – even teaches negotiation skills. “The village leader successfully negotiated with the government and installed solar panels for each house, just a week before we were there.”

After her visit Tracy has absolutely no doubt of the incredible difference she makes by sponsoring San Winn. She’s eagerly looking forward to her next handwritten letter! ● Sponsor a child today and see the difference it can make both to the child and their whole community.

Visit www.actionaid.org. uk/sponsor-a-child.

ActionAid

“It was a lifechanging experience” Two super supporters recently had the chance to visit the communities they have been sponsoring. Here, they explain how small changes are making a big difference to people’s lives

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aving had the newsletters for years and years, I wanted to see if I could meet some of the people I’ve supported and it was fabulous,” Alison Warner, says about her visit to ActionAid in The Gambia 20

last Christmas with her daughter Joanna.

Seeing the project she regularly donates to – the building of a 500m wall to prevent salt water from flooding the fields – Alison was astonished to see the

massive impact of this simple scheme.

“The women explained how the wall not only changed their lives, but enabled them to become self-sufficient. They’d actually had a bumper crop, actionaid.org.uk

“The women said the project had not only changed their lives, but enabled them to become self-sufficient.”

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Child sponsor Tracy Jenkins visits San Winn at school and meets his family in their village in Myanmar Tracy Jenkins/ActionAid

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into action Get involved… Spring and raise funds

On your bike

We are thrilled to have comedian and ActionAid supporter Hugh Dennis on the RideLondon100 team this year! The route of the UK’s biggest cycling event is on traffic-free streets, and takes in London’s famous landmarks as well as beautiful Surrey countryside. If you fancy cycling alongside Hugh, sign up today!

RideLondon–Surrey 100 31 July 2016 To book a place visit: www.actionaid.org.uk/ridelondon

Change more lives with Gift Aid Greg Funnell/ActionAid

Everline escaped her abusive husband and set up her own tea and chapatti business in Kenya, thanks to ActionAid support Jennifer Huxta/ActionAid

Celebrate inspirational women by hosting a tea party this spring Do your bit for the amazing women around the world – by inviting the wonderful women in your life to a special get together.

It’s simple: invite all your inspirational friends, family or colleagues. Bake a

delicious cake. Brew a big pot of Fairtrade tea and ask for a donation.

The money you raise will help ActionAid support inspirational women around the world to fight injustice and feed their families. ●

NEW! Swim the Serpentine

To order a pack filled with great ideas to get you started, go to: www.actionaid.org.uk/tea 22

Matthias Foag

Tea and inspiration

actionaid.org.uk

Make a splash this summer with a spot of open-water swimming in Hyde Park’s famous Serpentine Lake.

You’ll join 6,000 swimmers for a fun and exhilarating one mile swim, while raising Spring 2016

money to help women and girls across the world.

Swim Serpentine, London 24–25 September 2016 To sign up visit: www.actionaid.org.uk/ fundraise/adrenaline/ swim-serpentine

Gift Aid is a wonderful way to make your donations go further – without paying a penny more. UK tax payers can sign up to Gift Aid, allowing ActionAid to reclaim the basic rate of tax on every pound you donate.

If you’re already signed up and you pay insufficient tax in any tax year, you will be liable to pay the difference. This won’t affect most of our supporters but if you have any concerns, please contact our team on 01460 238000 or email supportercontact@ actionaid.org 23

id Mitzi De Margary/ActionA

Take a lifechanging trip to Cambodia

Cambodian school girls laughing during the 2013 First Hand Experience Miranda Harman/Actio nAid

Volunteer with ActionAid to help build a much-needed classroom for a village primary school in Kampot province, South Cambodia

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his November, why not take on a challenge of a lifetime?

Working alongside other volunteers and local people, you will build a new classroom block at Jang Hoan Primary School.

The poor state of the current school is causing many children to miss classes, and even drop out. In Cambodia, most children only complete a few years of education, and many have to travel long distances on foot

or bicycle to reach school.

Through this First Hand Experience, you will help give children the education they need, and see for yourself the difference your support is making.

Your tasks will include brick-laying, mixing cement and digging foundations.

No experience necessary – we welcome people of all ages and abilities.

All you need is enthusiasm and the desire to make a difference! ●

Cambodia First Hand Experience 2016 4 – 13 November 2016 Visit www.actionaid.org.uk/cambodiatrip or for more information call 01460 23 8000 24

@ActionAidUK ActionAidUK

@ActionAidUK www.actionaid.org.uk actionaid.org.uk