ActionAid Action Magazine

Action

QUESTIONS. IDEAS. INNOVATION. INSPIRATION.

ISSUE 06

SPRING 2011

We will be equal!

100 years of International Women’s Day

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CONTENTS

SPRING1 11 Are women’s rights ‘done’?

A recent ActionAid survey suggested many young people in the UK think so.

But our work around the world shows that, 100 years after the birth of International Women’s Day, we are far from equal.

EDITOR’S LETTER

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Action

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Please help us make it even more environmentally friendly by passing it on to friends or family when you have read it.

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Action magazine ActionAid 33-39 Bowling Green Lane London EC1R 0BJG

Women’s rights are central to everything ActionAid does and we explain why on page 10. With shocking inequalities still so prevalent, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But there are so many shining lights among the women we work with, so many examples of their amazing power, desire and ability to change the world, that there is much to celebrate too.

If these stories make you angry, excited or outraged, we want to hear about it.

And so do the women we work with. That’s why we’re launching our Get lippy campaign. We want you to send a personal message of support to women who are fighting for their rights.

We’ll create an online gallery and deliver your messages into their hands as they prepare for this year’s International Women’s Day. Just visit www.actionaid.org.uk/iwd for more.

FEATURES 10 COVER STORY 100 years of International Women’s Day: why we need to keep up the fight 16 VIEW FROM THE FIELD Florence Auma Apuri from ActionAid Uganda on her personal fight for women’s rights 18 THE BIG ISSUE Exposed: how SABMiller, the world’s second biggest brewer, avoids tax in developing countries 20 FEATURE STORY A journey and a half to help teach in India

REGULARS 22 WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY GO How we spent your Haiti earthquake donations during 2010 24 THE BIG QUESTION What’s wrong with biofuel?

25 FACTFILE ON...

Nepal 26 ACTION STATIONS Get your diary out for a run down of our 2011 ActionAid events

Want to run, rally or raise your voice with ActionAid in 2011? See page 26

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01460 23 8000 Email: action@actionaid.org

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ActionAid is a registered charity, number 274467.

Design: Neo Print: Brightsource

A bit of fe stive chee r the ActionAid way, see p age 9

Stephanie Ross Editor

Next issue: Summer 2011

10 actionaid.org.uk

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ACTION MAGAZINE

SCHTOP TAX DODGING

PAKISTAN FLOODS: OUR RESPONSE Many thanks for your generous response to our appeal after floods hit Pakistan in August. We have reached almost 130,000 families with food and household items, hygiene kits and livestock fodder.

Gul Mohammad, 90, fled his village in Punjab. “It rained for five hours and the river level started to rise. In the morning the water was chest deep. When I looked back our village looked like a lake. We walked for two hours with our children on our shoulders.” After the flood, Gul went to the ActionAid relief camp in Kot Sultan, Punjab, where health workers and doctors were on call around the clock.

We are set to reach nearly 11,500 more families over the next six months, with a focus on counselling and cash-forwork activities. In Punjab we are supporting 2,600 families by providing goats and poultry, establishing kitchen gardens and training women to set up small businesses.

ActionAid tax campaigners outside SABMiller’s London office.

PHOTO: MARK CHILVERS/ACTIONAID

SABMiller, the world’s second largest brewer and owner of brands such as Grolsch and Peroni, has been exposed as a tax dodger in a new ActionAid report, Calling time.

Our research shows the company is siphoning profits out of Ghana, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and India using a complex set of tax-haven subsidiaries. We estimate this deprives developing countries of £20 million a year – enough to put 250,000 children into school.

Incredibly, the multinational’s Ghanaian subsidiary, Accra Brewery, paid less income tax in the past two years than small trader Marta Luttgrodt, who sells beer on a stall in the market outside the brewery’s walls.

Martin Hearson, ActionAid’s tax policy advisor said: “SABMiller conducts its tax affairs behind a veil of secrecy. The company and its subsidiaries move money

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SPRING 11

out of African countries and into tax havens in Europe, playing the system to avoid paying its fair share of tax in developing countries.”

SABMiller has responded to ActionAid’s claims by denying that it engages in “aggressive tax planning”.

Developing countries need to invest in doctors and teachers to escape from poverty, and tax revenues are the best way to make this investment. ActionAid is calling for measures by governments to make it harder for companies to avoid tax in developing countries.

Action: ask SABMiller to stop tax dodging, visit www.actionaid.org.uk/schtop or call 01460 23 8000. See page 18 for more.

Did you know? African women and children spend 40 billion hours collecting water every year.

Women who lost husbands in the floods have found it hard to get government compensation because they have no marriage or death certificates to prove land inheritance rights, so ActionAid is helping them liaise with government authorities to prove entitlement. And ActionAid’s health education has successfully helped prevent malaria, dengue fever and cholera by stressing the importance of handwashing and purifying drinking water.

Action: you can still donate to our appeal by calling 01460 23 8000. in ActionAid’s Gul Mohammad camp. f lie Kot Sultan re AID PHOTO: ACTION

NEWS

uty leader of Harriet Harman, dep aks at the spe , rty pa r the Labou vember.

No in ActionAid offices /ACTIONAID PHOTO: MARK CHILVERS

POLITICIANS HEED ACTIONAID CALL November 25 saw shadow development secretary Harriet Harman give a speech at ActionAid stressing the importance of tackling violence against women. The date marked the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and Ms Harman added support to ActionAid’s call for a minister for violence against women to be appointed.

Later that day, the government announced that Home Office minister Lynne Featherstone will from now on have responsiblity for addressing violence against women in the UK and overseas.

IVORY COAST ELECTION CRISIS Tensions in Ivory Coast have forced over 20,000 people to flee to safety in neighbouring Liberia. Trouble began after November’s elections in Ivory Coast, when incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo refused to hand over power to rival Alassane Ouattara, who was recognised internationally as the victor.

The country remains on the brink of civil war, with fighting breaking out in several areas. The UN said the violence has so far killed 173 people, and its investigators also found evidence of extrajudicial executions, torture and arrests.

ActionAid has launched an emergency response in Liberia to support those fleeing the violence with food, shelter, water, clothing, sanitation and medical support.

Action: you can donate to this appeal by calling 01460 23 8000.

actionaid.org.uk

A lack of land means millions of Haitians are still awaiting permanent shelter after the earthquake.

PHOTO: CHARLES ECKERT/ACTIONAID

HAITI WARNING AS RECONSTRUCTION STALLS Over a year after the earthquake in Haiti, ActionAid has warned that reconstruction could cost an additional £32 million in emergency replacement tents unless the Haitian government and international donors address the land shortage critically hampering the nation’s rebuild.

“Aid agencies have the money and the means to help rebuild Haiti’s homes,” says Jean Claude Fignole, ActionAid Haiti’s country director. “But until the government frees up the land needed, we are forced to spend donations on replacing tents and other piecemeal measures designed to help people get by in overcrowded camps.”

Between 1.3 and 1.7 million people continue to live in increasingly squalid tents with little hope of moving. Fewer than 30,000 have found permanent homes.

Meanwhile, there is no strategic plan for shelter, land disputes are widespread and

tonnes of rubble still need clearing – much of which is thought to contain human remains.

ActionAid is urging the Haitian government and international donors to invest in a system of land reform that would redistribute multiple plots of land to poor communities and provide much-needed social housing.

Last September the Haitian government used emergency powers to appropriate land to build government buildings, shops and offices. ActionAid is urging them to apply the same sense of urgency to the housing issue.

“When it’s in the government’s interest we know they can move with astonishing rapidity. It’s time they applied the same sense of urgency to re-homing their people,” said Jean Claude.

Action: read about how we spent your donations to our Haiti appeal on page 22.

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UN SUMMIT BRANDED ‘EXPENSIVE SIDE-SHOW’ “The summit was an expensive side-show that offered everything to everyone and nothing to no one,” said Joanna Kerr, ActionAid International CEO, in the wake of September’s UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) in New York. “An avalanche of warm sentiment cleverly concealed the fact that no fully funded plans for tackling poverty were actually announced.”

ActionAid has been keeping a close eye on progress against the two MDGs that deal with hunger – halving both the number of underweight under-fives, and the number of people going hungry. Of 28 countries

measured, only eight are on track to meet both hunger targets, while 20 are off track on one or both.

“With the world still reeling from a global food crisis and the threat of another looming, world leaders should have initiated an emergency response here at the summit,” said Joanna. “UN summits will continue failing to deliver so long as leaders keep making empty promises on too many issues. With only five years to go, concerted action on the goals most off track is the only way forward. Spreading yourself too thin never gets the job done.”

good.

A bottle of Millione waits to do PHOTO: ACTIONAID

ON WAY TO A MILLIONE We had a fantastic reaction to our Millione giveaway in the last issue of Action. Congratulations to all those who won our complimentary bottles, and commiserations to those who didn’t.

But you don’t have to miss out, Millione – the sparkling rosé that aims to raise £1 million to build schools in Sierra Leone through the donation of £1 from every bottle sold – is now stocked by Waitrose, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Laithwaites Wine, for just £7.99 a bottle.

And if your local branch doesn’t stock it then please ask them to – we want it available in as many places as possible!

£120,000: A ‘TRUE’ SUCCESS Hundreds of wine buffs joined Clive Anderson, Michael Buerk, Brian Cox, Lucy Porter and Andy Parsons in November to raise over £120,000 at the glittering third annual Call my wine bluff.

It was a night of truths, lies, deception and superb wine – including a glass of the newly launched Millione rosé.

Highlight of the evening was an auction bidding war for a place in luxury tents at Glastonbury festival, which went under the hammer for £20,000.

ActionAid protestors outside the UN summit in New York.

PHOTO: CHARLES ECKERT/ACTIONAID

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SPRING 11

“We all had a wonderful night and were glad our bad lying helped raise so much money for such a great cause,” said comedian Lucy Porter. “The fact we got to drink fabulous wine as well was an added bonus!”

NEWS

Farmers in Gisagara, Rwanda, celebrate World Food Day 2010.

PHOTO: ACTIONAID

RALLYING FOR WOMEN AND FOOD Farmers worldwide celebrated World Food Day and Rural Women’s Day with ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign in 16 countries around the world in October, rallying to tell governments it’s time to help them grow their way out of hunger.

From marches against land grabs in Kenya to public hearings on food shortages in Afghanistan, thousands of people made their voices heard.

In The Gambia, 300 women farmers created a festive atmosphere by marching through Bikramaba town singing, whistling and carrying messages saying ‘To end hunger, support smallholder women farmers’.

actionaid.org.uk

SEGRO SMASHES TARGET!

And in Rwanda, over 800 women travelled to the capital Kigali to demand government support for them as the main producers of the country’s food, and protection from sexual violence.

Property development company SEGRO – one of our Charity of the Year partners – has raised a fantastic £119,018 for ActionAid’s work with street children in India. “We’ve been continually inspired by the extraordinary lengths SEGRO employees have gone to in raising funds to support us,” says Sophie Down, ActionAid’s company fundraising manager. “We would like to thank them and congratulate them on all that we’ve achieved together.”

“Empowering rural women farmers to produce more food for local markets is the bedrock of global food security,” said ActionAid Rwanda country director Josephine Uwamariya.

We’re now looking for new Charity of the Year partnerships, and as our corporate support comes from all sorts of organisations, could your workplace support us?

In Haiti men, women and children took part in a four kilometre rally carrying slogans such as ‘Haitian peasants can produce enough to feed Haiti’.

Action: contact action@actionaid.org

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BITE SIZE Back from exile...

Ex-dictator Baby Doc Duvalier returned to Haiti after 24 years in exile in January, and now faces charges of corruption and embezzlement dating back to 1971. Duvalier was 19 when he took over the reins of his father’s, Papa Doc Duvalier, brutual regime.

His return has added to Haiti’s political and social instability.

Up in lights...

What a feeling!

PHOTO: GRETEL ENS IGNIA

/ACTIONAID

BANISHING THE BLUES! It’s often said that a combination of Christmas debt, bad weather and broken New Year’s resolutions conspire to make January 17 – or blue Monday – the most miserable day of the year.

Space hoppers, hugs from our blue monster, puddles to splash in (complete with wellies), cupcakes and free massages all encouraged commuters to express positive vibes.

But in celebration of our new ‘what a feeling’ campaign, ActionAid decided on a more positive approach to the day, setting up a ‘happy bubble’ outside London’s Liverpool Street station to give people a taste of the good feelings you can get through supporting us. And what a feeling we gave people!

We also asked a thousand people what made them feel happiest, and most of their answers were things that can be done at any time of year and cost nothing.

The most popular response was helping someone in need, while hearing an unexpected compliment came second, followed by listening to the sea.

SEND MY SISTER TO SCHOOL ActionAid and other members of the Global Campaign for Education are teaming up to Send my sister to school – a campaign to get more girls into education. Most of the 69 million children worldwide currently missing out are girls.

“Every additional year a girl can spend in school has a positive impact on her future,” says ActionAid’s schools campaign manager, Nicola Cadbury. “It helps her earn more when she is older, escape poverty, keep her safe from HIV/AIDS infection, and reduce the risk that her child will die in infancy.”

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AUTUMN11 SPRING 10

Each year the Global Campaign for Education mobilises millions of teachers and students from around the world to remind their leaders of the important promise they made to get every child into school by 2015. And it is working; the number of children out of school is falling.

Schools and students can push the campaign further by taking part in our Global Week of Action (2-6 May) – or any time during May or June. You can order your free school pack including DVD, posters, stickers and teacher’s guide at www.sendmyfriend.org.

In December the Colombian army erected a 25m-high Christmas tree in jungle held by the left-wing rebel FARC movement. Decorated with 2,000 lights and sensors to activate them when guerrillas approached, the tree lit up with slogans advising an end to armed struggle such as, ‘demobilise – at Christmas everything is possible’.

DRC debt relief...

Nineteen creditor countries (known as the Paris Group) and Brazil have agreed to cancel US$7.35 billion of debt owed to them by the Democratic Republic of Congo. The figure represents more than half of the DRC’s total foreign debt.

Brazilian clear out...

Police have occupied several Rio shanty towns, taking control from drug traffickers for the first time in 30 years. The operation followed armed clashes between troops and gangsters in the city’s favelas.

President Lula described it as a “first step” to ridding the city of drugs gangs ahead of the 2014 World Cup.

Power of rap...

Yoweri Museveni, 65-year-old president of Uganda, has taken an unexpected side-step from politics by releasing a rap record. The song, called ‘U want another rap’, has taken the country by storm. The lyrics are not exactly typical of the genre – they are about making something out of nothing and getting ahead in life.

NEWS

BAH HUMBUG, ASDA? In October, three months after we launched our campaign calling on Asda to pay fair wages to the workers who make its clothes, we finally received a response from chief executive Andy Clarke.

Unfortunately it was a reworking of previous public statements made by Asda, and brought the company no closer to making a commitment to paying Asian garment workers a living wage.

Hundreds of ActionAid supporters kept the pressure on by phoning Asda to make it clear that anything less than a living wage was not good enough.

In December we also braved sub-zero temperatures to entertain employees with our Asda-themed carols, asking people to vote on whether they thought Andy Clarke should be Scrooge or Santa at Christmas. Not surprisingly, most wanted him to be Santa, committing to pay Asian workers a living wage to help them and their families escape poverty. Watch this space to see how Mr Clarke responds.

Fa la la la la... Actio nAid carol singers tried to get As da CEO Andy Clarke into the Christmas spirit in December.

PHO TO: GARY CALTON/ACTIO NAID

The UK government wants our petrol and diesel to contain more biofuel.

PHOTO: ACTIONAID

IS THE GOVERNMENT BEING BIO-FOOLED? Did you know that all petrol and diesel sold in the UK already contains 3% biofuel? The government now wants to more than treble this amount, despite clear evidence that biofuels push poor people off their land and cause climatechanging emissions.

Despite previously admitting they have concerns about biofuels releasing more greenhouse gases than the fossil fuels they were designed to replace, the government will soon be holding a consultation on whether to go ahead and raise our targets to 10%. It’s vital we take this chance to persuade the Department for Transport that biofuels have a terrible impact on the developing world.

You can add your voice by taking part in our ‘text’ action. We will be creating a petition with all your text messages –

actionaid.org.uk

and those of people in developing countries who are affected by biofuels – which we will then send to the Department for Transport. All you have to do is: Step 1: Get your mobile out.

Step 2: Write a text message explaining how you feel about an increase in biofuel use in the UK. Step 3: Make sure you add your name and postcode to the text.

Step 4: Text ACTION followed by your message to 82727 (it will cost the same as a text to a mobile number). We will gather all your messages and send them on to the Department for Transport.

Action: how much do you really know about biofuels? Find out on page 24.

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Celebrating International Women’s Day 2010 in Lima, Peru.

ACTION MAGAZINE

PHOTO: REUTERS/ENRIQUE CASTRO-MENDIVIL

We will be equal!

100 years of International Women’s Day March 8 this year marks 100 years of International Women’s Day – the big, beautiful and varied celebration of women’s achievements and struggles the world over. In China, people get the day off, in Bosnia women are given flowers and in Cameroon women dance in the streets showing off outfits made from that year’s women’s day fabric. But do we still need International Women’s Day? ActionAid works with thousands of women every day. We witness inequality between men and women in all areas of life – health, education, work and politics – which means women are harder hit by poverty and experience it differently to men. We work with women as a matter of justice and as the best means to tackle poverty. Here we look at some of the issues, and what ActionAid is doing to tackle them.

All work and little pay Income in the hands of women has a dramatic impact on the wellbeing of their families, since they spend a significant proportion of it on children’s food, health and education. But that’s only if they have an income in the first place. The majority of roles that fall to women – small-scale agriculture, animal rearing, water collection and childcare – are unpaid.

In notoriously difficult industries, such as garment making and supply chains for supermarkets, the workforce is invariably female-led. There are over 100 million people working in the garment industry across Asia, about 80% of them women.

Most work excessively long hours in return for wages that are around half what they need to provide themselves and their families with adequate food, education, healthcare and housing. Others, such as bangle makers in Bangladesh, work from home, where no health and safety laws can protect them from noxious fumes or long working hours.

Even when wages rise, they rise more slowly for women than for men. In India, men’s average income increased 26% between 2003 and 2005, but for women this figure was just 3%. Likewise in Pakistan, while men’s average income rose by 17%, women’s went up by less than 1%.

MERCEDES’ STORY “I learned that ActionAid was offering free courses on leadership and rural development,” says Mercedes Urizar from Santa Maria Semococh, Guatemala. “I enrolled immediately. The most valuable thing I learned was that women have the same rights as men.

“I was then elected as my community representative to the Municipal Development Council. This was a great achievement; I am the first woman out of 130 communities to participate at this level of local government.

“We organised a march to speak out against violence. More than 2,000 women joined us. For the first time in my life I held a microphone. I yelled, ‘Carry on women! Because the fight is constant! In the field and in the city, women are fighting for equality.’ This is just the beginning of our journey!”

Across Asia, many women have their profession decided at birth due to the caste system. Boys born into the badi caste in Nepal will grow up to be fishermen, while girls born into the same caste will grow up to become prostitutes.

Even within the sectors where women dominate, they rarely hold managerial jobs, and are thus excluded from decisionmaking – and therefore access to power – in the workplace.

Mercedes makes he r point.

PHOTO: ACTIONAID

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COVER STORY

Being seen and heard Increasing women’s involvement in local decision-making and politics is critical for bringing about change. But village leaders and chiefs are still overwhelmingly male, and local life reflects this. For example, water pumps are often situated outside the chief’s house, regardless of women’s role in collecting water.

Research in India found that, when a third of leadership positions in village councils were reserved for women, there was a smaller than average gender gap in school attendance, improved roads and better healthcare facilities.

There are more women in government today than ever before. The proportion of women MPs increased by 8% between 1998 and 2008, to the current global average of 18.4%, compared to an increase of just 1% between 1975 and 1995.

HAWA’S STORY Hawa Conteh, 30, from Freetown, Sierra Leone, is a member of the ActionAid-supported Youth Employment Scheme, where she trained in financial and business management. She now runs a successful small business and uses the profits to support her two children as well as two of her brother’s. Before attending the course she was a commercial sex worker.

However, the fact remains that less than 20% of heads of state or government are women. Quotas (reserving a number of seats for women) can make a huge and immediate difference. Rwanda jumped from 24th place in 1995 to first in 2003 in terms of women’s representation in parliament due to the use of quotas, and in 2008 became the first country in the world with more female than male parliamentarians.

But being elected isn’t the end of the battle. Recent research has shown that women are specifically targeted for violence as their participation in public life and politics increases, including when they run for election. But it’s a battle that can’t be lost – women’s political participation is a fundamental necessity for gender equality and genuine democracy.

actionaid.org.uk

Hawa is now a successful businesswoman.

PHOTO: AUBREY WADE/ACTIONAID

“The business is going well, as through the training I learned to study the community’s needs and what they want,” says Hawa. “So I invested in cool drinks and yoghurt as there are not many other sellers in the area.

People say that I am doing better now, they respect me more. I still get support, coaching and an accountant visits to check over my records – I want to be an international business woman!” she says.

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ACTION MAGAZINE The power of education Education is a basic human right, yet girls are missing out. The children of a woman with five years’ primary education have a survival rate 40% higher than that of women with none. Educated mothers immunise their children 50% more often than uneducated ones, and the spread of AIDS is slowed by 50% among educated girls.

Barriers to girls’ education are plentiful.

Every year, 60 million girls are assaulted at, or en route to, school. The resulting depression, unwanted pregnancy or HIV infection cause hundreds of thousands to drop out.

Long walks to school increase girls’ vulnerability to attack, and parents’ safety concerns may mean they are taken out of school. Pregnant girls (including those made pregnant through rape) are frequently excluded from education, including following the birth of their baby.

Few parents can afford to send all their children to school – even in countries where fees have been abolished, costs such as uniforms and books are still prohibitive – and education for young girls is often seen as a waste of time.

They are kept from school and sent to work to earn extra income or kept at

home to look after siblings, sick relatives or to do household chores. Meanwhile their brothers, perceived as future breadwinners, go to school.

Even if the decision is made to send them, many schools require a birth certificate for entry or to sit exams, but girls are less likely than boys to be registered.

Early marriage also takes its toll. There are an estimated 51 million child brides worldwide, and few will continue education once married. Cultural traditions such as female genital mutilation (FGM) also push girls to drop out of school.

TEGLA’S STORY Tegla Natao, 15, from Pokot, Kenya, took part in an ActionAid girls’ forum on female genital mutilation (FGM).

Her parents had wanted her circumcised, but she refused.

“At the forum they told us about FGM,” she says. “It is very bad. If I undergo FGM I will have to leave school and stop learning and my life will be bad in future.”

ActionAid is encouraging girls to act as peer educators in their community and school. As a result, more are aware of their right to resist FGM and are staying in school longer to complete their education.

“I talk to my friends about it. I tell them that FGM is bad and everybody should avoid it. If a girl’s parents have told her to undergo FGM, I say go to your village chief and tell him. Then he will go and tell the parents not to force their child to be circumcised.”

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Tegla (front right) with her schoolfriends.

PHOTO: SVEN TORFINN/PANOS/ACTIONAID

COVER STORY

ADAMA’S STORY Adama celebrates her increased harvest with her women’s group.

PHOTO: CANDACE FEIT/ACTIONAID

Denial of land Landlessness affects millions worldwide, but it hits women much more than men. In Africa and south Asia, women are denied their rights to cultivate, own or control property. The vast majority of women cannot afford to buy land, and can usually only access it through male relatives.

In sub-Saharan Africa, title deeds are in the name of the male head of household. In Kenya, women hold only 1% of registered land titles and only 5-6% share joint title with their husband. Even if they do end up inheriting land, many women and girls face eviction because of disputes with their husband’s or father’s extended family.

Traditions such as wife inheritance add to the problem. Families often justify forcing widows to be inherited by males in the family by arguing the woman is ‘family property’. Once inherited, a widow loses her husband’s property, which goes to the new husband.

actionaid.org.uk

Often the most vulnerable are widows or single mothers. In Rwanda, the dire situation of widows after the 1994 genocide led to fierce lobbying for reform of the law, which now allows widows to inherit property.

In Thailand, women who lost their husbands in the tsunami received no compensation if they couldn’t produce a marriage certificate, even if they had been together for many years and had children together. The same was not demanded of widowers.

Women on their own have little access to credit and other resources, because it is assumed they will be unable to meet financial obligations in the absence of a male. In various countries, married women still need the consent of their husband before taking a loan, a requirement that violates international human rights law.

Adama Mgane, 45, lives in ThiakhoMaty village, Senegal. She is head of her local groundnut producers’ group – set up with help and support from ActionAid. Adama encouraged women in her group to successfully lobby the rural council, which granted them a piece of land.

“Since we all got together to increase our production of peanuts and also to start growing vegetables and fruit, we have managed to buy oil and rice at the market and feed our families better,” she says. “To have access to land, seeds, manure and training has really changed our life so much. The health of our children has improved and we can send all our children to school. One of my daughters is going to high school.”

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ACTION MAGAZINE

SOPHAT’S STORY Sophat Soarn, 25, lives in Kam Pong Lor, Cambodia. She voluntarily tends the garden of her neighbour Pho, an ActionAid-trained women’s health healer. Sophat and Pho grow herbs and vegetables to improve the health and nutrition of women in the village.

“The health programme has benefitted the community a lot, and vulnerable women come for consultation and treatment, and when they have injuries,” says Sophat. “I run a small community shop and it is good for me to have a healer near my home. I can receive free traditional healthcare.

“Before the programme it was hard to get treatment, the health centre is far away and motorbike taxi is expensive, when I had no money I would walk or ride a bike the 8km. Now the healer gives medicinal herbs for free and I help take care of the garden.”

Sophat now has access to free traditional healthcare.

PHOTO: NICOLAS AXELROD/ACTIONAID

Health and wellbeing Around 50 million women give birth each year without medical help, and roughly 358,000 die in the process – women in sub-Saharan Africa have a 1 in 16 chance of dying in pregnancy or childbirth.

Pregnancy and unsafe abortions are a huge risk for teenagers who are physically and socially unable to cope with the consequences. Even married women producing daughters instead of sons endure stigma and violence. In India, the pressure for sons over daughters has led to an estimated 10 million female foetuses being aborted over the last two decades.

14 SPRING 11

Girls’ health is also neglected – a UNICEF study in Nepal reports that twice as many boys survive polio as girls – despite the fact that polio affects both sexes equally.

In rural areas, cultural norms mean husbands and family elders often decide whether a woman may have healthcare, and many say no if the health worker is a man. And the home itself poses risks. More than half the world’s population rely on open fires for cooking and heating, in huts with no ventilation. Women are especially vulnerable to the pollution, which claims 1.6 million lives every year.

Women and girls also bear the brunt of HIV and AIDS. In sub-Saharan Africa,

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teenage girls are six times more likely to be infected than teenage boys because of rape and other sexual violations, and have limited access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

But there is good news. Bangladesh has reduced its under-5 mortality rate by 64% since 1990 through tens of thousands of female health workers promoting family planning, safe motherhood and newborn care. Indonesia cut its maternal mortality rate by 42% thanks in part to its ‘midwife in every village’ programme. And Pakistan’s Lady Health Workers immunised 11 million women against tetanus during childbirth, halving newborn tetanus deaths.

COVER STORY

Violence and conflict One in three women is raped, beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her life, and each year during conflicts, tens of thousands of women and girls are raped, abducted, made pregnant or enslaved. Up to a third of women report their first sexual experience as forced.

HIV and AIDS are both a consequence and a cause of violence. For HIV-positive women, stigma can trigger violence against them, while older women and young girls are raped (and infected) on the assumption that they do not have, or can ‘cure’, AIDS. Up to 80% of the world’s 27 million refugees are women and children, and in emergencies women are often the means by which opposing sides settle scores.

Violence against women during conflict – including their deliberate infection with HIV – is now recognised as a tactic rather than a by-product of war. Even in postdisaster situations women are vulnerable – after the earthquake in Haiti, women had to protect each other from gangs roaming displaced people’s camps.

adult witnesses in order to bring a charge.

And an estimated 20,000 women a year now die in honour killings – the perpetrators often protected by laws allowing the victim’s family to ‘forgive’ the crime without trial.

Bangladeshi girls are sold into prostitution and forced to take steroids to fatten them up. In South Africa lesbians are raped and murdered through a phenomenon called ‘corrective rape’, an effort by men to ‘cure’ their sexuality.

You can support our work with amazing women such as Mercedes, Adama and Asha. You’ll find a donation form on your Action magazine cover letter, or call 01460 23 8000.

And traditions such as baad – the giving of infant girls to future husbands to settle disputes – affect thousands of girls. Laws such as Pakistan’s hudood until recently required rape victims to provide four male

ACTION:

Remember we also need you to Get lippy! Your messages will be of unique value to women as they demand their rights on International Women’s Day. Just visit www.actionaid.org.uk/iwd or call 01460 23 8000 to add yours!

ASHA’S STORY Asha Singh, 37, is an activist working with ActionAid in Madhya Pradesh, India, to persuade people to value daughters as much as sons. “Here in India women are blamed for all that is wrong in society. Men feel they can inflict pain, shame and dishonour on women because we are powerless to fight back.

I am determined to try and change this.

“It’s very difficult to witness parents determining that their baby is worthless because she is a girl. It’s also hard to witness how much neglect there is of girls in some of the villages I work in.

Change doesn’t come easily but I am convinced we can change things for the better in India. I’m proud I’ve become a role model for many girls in rural areas.”

actionaid.org.uk

Asha passionately believes in equality for women.

PHOTO: SANJIT DAS/ACTIONAID

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ACTION MAGAZINE

A woman’s worth

Florence Auma Apuri.

PHOTO: ACTIONAID

ActionAid Uganda’s sponsorship director, Florence Auma Apuri, Got Lippy with her family and society as a whole when she stood up for her rights as a young woman. She’s now putting that same passion to good use at ActionAid. I was 16 when my father was nearly beaten to death by his own brothers. His crime? Wasting family resources by educating me – a girl – instead of ‘selling’ me off in marriage to earn a bride price (my worth in cattle, goats and money) for our clan.

I was at boarding school at the time and, desperately worried, came straight home. My father’s reaction? I was to go back to school immediately and not miss any more of my education for something as ‘unimportant’ as this.

My parents, both teachers, drummed into me the importance of education – and the value of girls as well as boys – before the very earliest age. In this they were, perhaps, somewhat unique.

My society does not value women. We are ‘sold’ into (often early) marriage, inherited by men if they are widowed, unable to own land, expected to allow a co-wife if we cannot produce children, and unable to get a job or enter politics without the consent of our husband.

In Uganda there are so many dos and don’ts for girls as they grow up. But I could not stomach them. The more I heard something was a ‘do’ for a boy but taboo for a girl, the more I would go for it! How this would annoy my aunts and they would tell me off, saying I wouldn’t fetch them a good bride price.

Childhood interrupted I come from a small village in northern Uganda that has been caught up in the double menace of violent cattle rustling and a grinding guerrilla war waged by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

The LRA has brought 20 years of insecurity, death, suffering and hunger to my people. Although we are currently recovering from the war and there is at last some semblance of peace, the LRA is still at large.

16 SPRING 11

Warriors from traditional pastoralist groups (the Karamojong) continue to carry out widespread cattle rustling, raiding their neighbours’ cattle and, in the process, killing, raping and destroying property. They use sophisticated weapons bought over the border with the proceeds from stolen cattle. Small arms proliferation has been, and continues to be, a thriving business here.

My education was constantly interrupted by war, which displaced not only people but entire schools. Then, when I was 20 years old and at college, I was abducted by LRA rebels.

They broke into our dormitory in the middle of the night and rounded us up – 24 confused and terrified young women. We were walked, at gunpoint, for hundreds of miles over three days and nights, resting no more than 30 minutes at any one time.

After the first day’s walking, we were all packed in a tiny hut and told to sleep. No-one wanted to lie near the door for fear the rebels would rape us in the night, so we piled on top of each other by the corner of the hut.

Eventually we were taken to the rebel leader, Joseph Kony, who told some of us, including me, he was going to release us. We worried it was a trick to kill us, but eventually we believed him enough to flee.

Some of my classmates were not so lucky. They were raped and taken as sex slaves – gifts to our captors for a ‘job well done’.

For those who escaped, the stigma was almost overwhelming. None of us expected such a level of abuse and discrimination: labeled wives of rebels, victims of rape – most girls who were engaged were swiftly disengaged by their fiancés.

I do not know why Joseph Kony set us free. I can only thank God he did. But the terror of the experience, my life in the hands of men who

VIEW FROM...

UGANDA

cared nothing for me other than as a weapon in their war: that only strengthened my resolve to help other women overcome abuse. So, in 1995, I joined ActionAid Uganda.

I knew I was putting myself in a position to face challenges, but that is what I wanted. And I wanted to do it with an organisation that pushed the boundaries, not one that satisfied itself with preaching to the converted.

ActionAid and me Land is the single most important resource for poor women in rural Uganda, yet it’s also the most contested.

And it’s now under further pressure from people returning after the war, many

having spent 20 years in ‘temporary’ camps. They want to reclaim their land, but others have long since taken it over.

Their return has fuelled disputes and domestic violence, and exacerbated an already extreme lack of health and education services.

But we are meeting the issue head on, working with our partner, the Uganda Land Alliance, to establish three centres training paralegals to settle disputes and create awareness of local land rights. As a result, many women and poor farmers have been helped to claim access, control and ownership of land – a huge step forward.

I have watched women from different parts of Uganda help to build peace – work that culminated in the formation of a national peace forum. I also started up many local networks to fight corruption and domestic violence, and campaigned for the right to quality education in conflict areas.

I have seen change happen and it convinces me I was right to stand up to my relatives all those years ago. The impact of poverty on women and girls is not an accident, it is the result of discrimination. Unless the barriers that prevent women and girls from reaching their potential are tackled, we are condemned to poverty for good. A scenario I, for one, will never allow!

Girls in Kitemba, Uganda, can spend hours a day collecting water.

PHOTO: GEORGIE SCOTT/ACTIONAID

ACTION You can support our work with amazing women such as Florence. You’ll find a donation form on your Action magazine cover letter, or call 01460 23 8000.

Remember we also need you to Get lippy!

Your messages will be of unique value to women as they gather to demand their rights on International Women’s Day. Just visit www.actionaid.org.uk/iwd or call 01460 23 8000 to add yours!

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ACTION MAGAZINE

CALLING TIME ON TAX DODGING If we would just let developing countries gather the taxes they are entitled to instead of protecting big business, the world would be a fairer place, says former tax inspector and award-winning journalist Richard Brooks.

Taxes pay for the fabric of our lives – our schools, hospitals and roads. They pay for the police that keep us safe, the armies that defend us and the infrastructure that supports the business that generates our wealth. Taxes also bind us together in a social contract with the governments to whom we pay them, and which we expect to spend them well.

This is the case in all countries, rich and poor. Governments in all developed countries raise taxes to the value of at least 30% of national income, to spend on providing these services. Developing countries, too, are striving to do the same: most African governments raise the bulk of their budget not from overseas aid, but through taxes.

Multinational companies, which make billions of pounds in developing countries each year, need taxpayer-funded roads, hospitals and schools too. Yet ActionAid’s new Calling time report reveals that the world’s biggest corporations all-too-easily avoid paying tax in poor countries. The charity’s investigation into the operations of the world’s second largest brewing company,

18 SPRING 11

Want to know more about our 100 cover stars?

Go to www.actionaid.org.uk/100women

SABMiller, reveal a web of offshore firms and transactions that have allowed the company to pay no corporation tax in Ghana for the past two years.

And it is a complex web it has woven.

From its offices in Surrey, SABMiller ventures to remote locations that allow it to legally escape taxes. The company’s Ghanaian brewery uses malt grown in South Africa, bought via a subsidiary in Mauritius, whose unpublished profits are taxed at a lowly 3%. And while the malt itself travels up Africa’s Atlantic coast to Ghana, the paperwork for it goes the other way, via the Indian Ocean – meaning big savings all round.

And it doesn’t end there. Rights to sell the company’s iconic Castle beer across Africa are now owned in Rotterdam, where tax-deductible royalties for using the brand are paid to a Dutch company enjoying special laws that, in effect, exempt its income from tax. On top of this, SABMiller’s African operations pay huge management fees to a Swiss company whose accounts cannot be seen, again drastically spiriting away profits and thereby reducing tax bills.

TITLE THE BIG HERE...

ISSUE Outside the headquarters of Accra Brewery in Ghana.

PHOTO: JANE HAHN/ACTIONAID

Glass half empty ActionAid estimates these arrangements lop around £18 million a year off SABMiller’s African tax bills – small beer when compared to global profits of £2 billion and a worldwide tax bill of £400 million. But to African economies – and the quarter of a million children it could put through school – it is anything but.

SABMiller’s Ghanaian subsidiary Accra Brewery Limited has paid no income tax at all in the past two years, despite an income of almost £40 million. Its offshore arrangements saved it at least as much tax as it paid. Assuming the other big multinationals operating in Ghana apply the same tax-dodging techniques – which are routinely sold to multinationals by big accountancy firms – then the cost to developing economies is devastating.

The shocking fact is that some of Ghana’s smallest traders are paying more tax than brewing giant SABMiller.

Marta Luttgrodt’s small beer and food stall is a stone’s throw from the brewery in which her product is made. Marta’s business makes a profit of around £220 (Gh¢500) per month. She and her three employees work hard for this success, beginning to prepare food at 6.30am every day, and finishing at 8pm.

Marta’s income tax payments may seem small in absolute terms, but astonishingly they are bigger than those of her neighbour and supplier – Accra Brewery Limited. “Wow. I don’t believe it,” says Marta on hearing this. “We small businesses are suffering from the authorities. If we don’t pay, they come with a padlock [to lock our stalls].”

“aggressive tax avoidance” as “a serious cancer eating into the fiscal base of many countries”. Even the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), appointed by rich nations as the global centre of the fight against tax dodging, estimates that tax havens cost Africa several times in tax revenue what it receives in aid.

Scraping the barrel

Sustainable development can only happen when national economies are strong – and fair tax is at the heart of this. It requires multinational companies to treat their tax obligations as part of the ‘corporate social responsibility’ that they are so keen to shout about.

Governments, meanwhile, must write new rules of the international tax game, and allow developing countries to hold on to a bigger share of taxation from foreign multinationals.

Yet tax avoidance is part and parcel of the way big business invests in developing countries. The lucrative search for ways to pay less, creating complex corporate structures, routing money through opaque tax havens, and employing highly paid professionals to find loopholes, is legal: indeed, it is so common it is accepted as the normal way of doing business.

And it gives multinational companies a distinct advantage over their local competitors. But there are signs that the tide is turning against it. South Africa’s finance minister has described

ACTION: Read the full report on SABMiller at www.actionaid.org.uk/schtop

Together with her husband’s salary, the business must pay for the education of two children as well as the family’s living expenses. And although Marta’s situation is better than many, she says, “Business is difficult. People don’t have money to buy things.”

Informal traders such as Marta pay a fixed income tax based on the size and nature of their business; Marta must pay £11 (Gh¢25) per year to the Accra Municipal Authority, and £9 (Gh¢20) per quarter to the Ghana Revenue Authority. These are small amounts, but as staff at the Ghana Revenue Authority explained, they’re part of a longer term strategy to bring informal businesses into formal taxation.

actionaid.org.uk

Small trader Marta Luttgrodt has paid more income tax over the last two years than her neighbour and supplier, Accra Brewery Limited.

PHOTO: JANE HAHN/ACTIONAID

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ACTION MAGAZINE CHEMBAKOLLI

The life cycle of a teacher When teacher Daniel Bent heard an ActionAid talk about our work in the Indian village of Chembakolli, it lit his passion to travel and share his skills. Six months later he was teaching in the village school – having cycled every mile of the way.

Personally speaking, I like my classroom to be alive. Be that throwing paint at the teacher in art, climbing trees in maths, or creating animations in science. Not just a buzz will do either – I like the tiles on the roof to be vibrating, some days I even like to try and blow the roof clean off (I got into trouble for that one). If the children are looking out of the window it means I’m doing something wrong.

So when a teacher came from ActionAid to give a talk on Chembakolli, we were hooked. As she told us about the life and culture in this south Indian village, I started feeling a tingle that I wanted to head out there.

I struggled for a while to make the subject as exciting for the kids as it was for me.

When you’re eight years old it’s hard to imagine another life existing in stark contrast to your own. There was only one thing for it. I was going to go out there to put myself – a figure they knew well (and I hope respected) – in the picture. By the age of 11 I’d already decided I wanted to travel the world for charity. What better chance would I get?

When I told my class, one astute boy – fully clued-up on our school’s Green Awareness policy – asked how I was going to get there. Plane? Train? Bus?

20 SPRING 11

In contradiction to everything I’d taught them this year? I couldn’t. The other option was unthinkable. A shiver ran down my spine. Four words changed my life. “I’m going by bicycle.” Nine thousand miles to India. On my own. Carrying everything I needed on my steel-framed bicycle, affectionately known as Shirley.

A fat lip I would like to say it was meticulously planned to the nth degree, everything running like clockwork, tootling along on my bicycle without a care in the world. In reality that was far from the truth. I was arrested twice, chased by wild dogs, wined and dined by gangsters, propositioned by ladies of the night and forced to run away from stampeding elephants.

What on earth possessed me? I was raising money for ActionAid. The children at my school had raised vast sums of money in support of this venture, and the school in India was looking forward to my arrival. How could I let the children down?

So I pedalled on.

And in every country I met wonderful people who invited me into their homes, to play music, dance, sing, eat and share each other’s cultures, beliefs, history and way of life.

Teach in Chembakolli 2011-2012 Inspired by Daniel’s story? We are offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live, learn and teach alongside inspirational Adivasi tribal communities in the Chembakolli area of the Nilgiri Hills.

We are looking for two teachers with at least two years’ experience (primary or secondary) to teach children aged 5-14 at Vidyodaya School in Gudalur for a minimum of six months from September 2011 or April 2012.

This is a voluntary position, although we will cover flights (don’t worry, you don’t need to cycle!), accommodation and a local living allowance. The deadline for applications is Friday 4 March 2011.

For more information, email schools@actionaid.org or go to www.actionaid.org.uk/schools

FEATURE STORY

After six months’ cycling, with a fat lip, tattered clothing and a bike that looked like it had been run over by a soviet tank, I rolled into Chembakolli on my 31st birthday – 20 years since I first dreamt up the idea.

I was greeted by a carnival of people playing drums, singing, cheering, waving flags and banners saying ‘Happy birthday’. I wanted to be articulate, to thank them for this tremendous welcome, tell them my adventures, pass on messages from the children in England.

All I could do was crouch down and cry.

Tears of joy were rolling down my cheeks.

Balloons and bows For the next month I was to stay among this amazing community, learning about their way of life, customs, traditions and sense of humour.

The school is in the local town of Gudalur.

It’s now situated in the old hospital, but just months before my arrival children were still being taught outside or in a very small classroom. Chembakolli itself is in the middle of the forest, 30 minutes’ drive from the school. We could hear tigers calling in the distance.

actionaid.org.uk

The children here are all desperate to learn and extremely positive. Each school day starts with tribal dancing and singing, led by the older children. I showed them how to make balloon animals and they showed me how to shoot a bow and arrow. We were trying to knock my shoes from a tree branch!

Danny arrives in Chembakolli after his marathon journey.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF ACCORD

I was immensely sad when the time came to leave. If you take a trip to Chembakolli to teach you need to be prepared for your life to change forever.

People here will touch your heart in a way that nothing else can. The children and teachers gain so much from you and you will certainly learn a lot from them.

It is a fantastic thing to have on your CV and will supply you with activity ideas for the rest of your career. And for me, it was a dream come true.

ACTION Find out more about Chembakolli or book an ActionAid teacher for an assembly or workshop at www.actionaid.org.uk/schools If you’d like to buy Daniel’s book about his travels, please visit www.dannybent.com

Children at Vidyodaya School in Chembakolli, India.

PHOTO: TOM PIETRASIK/ACTIONAID

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ACTION MAGAZINE

WHERE DOES YOUR MONEY GO? £2,508,458 EMERGENCY FOOD AND HYGIENE KITS

One year on from Haiti’s devastating earthquake, ActionAid’s emergency response has reached 138,000 people.

In an extremely difficult working environment, our cash-for-work and livelihood schemes generated vital income for an additional 34,000 people. You helped us raise an amazing £8,431,373 million for our three-year recovery response, and over the past year we spent the first £3,437,627. Here’s how we put your donations to work.

£350,168 LIVELIHOOD TRAINING AND SUPPORT £224,249 SHELTER £115,774 EDUCATION £112,324 ADVOCACY £50,706 INFORMATION AND AWARENESS RAISING £49,975 COUNSELLING AND SOCIAL CARE £7,973 DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

£8.4 million

raised internationally for our three-year Haiti recovery work

£3.4 million spent on our emergency response during 2010 (approx)

22 SPRING 11

It’s a fact. Women own just 1% of the world’s property.

Petit-Goave • New area of child sponsorship established.

Roseaux • 1,500 school kits (backpack, geometry kit, ruler, pen, pencil, rubber, sharpener and four notebooks) to children.

• Bean and corn seeds to 1,109 internally displaced families and their host families.

• 2,400 people helped to process crops for market.

• Cash for work: 250 people paid £3.25 a day to help rebuild road to main market town.

YOUR MONEY

Lila Rene, 24, moved to Lascahobas after the earthquake and now lives with her family in a temporary camp.

“I participated in the cash for work activity from the start,” she says. “It’s a great initiative that ActionAid took to support Hinche displaced people. Since • New area of child the food distribution sponsorship established. had stopped, I was very happy to know I would be able to provide for my family.

Port au Prince • Emergency supplies: rice, fish, maize, flour, sugar, cooking oil, corn flakes, beans, salt and energy biscuits to 54,822 people.

• Hygiene kits: soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, laundry soap, towels and toilet paper, plus utensils and kitchen kits to over 57,000 people.

• Counselling sessions for over 27,000 people in temporary camps.

• 24,000 nappies, pins and baby food spoons to new mothers at Petits Fréres et Soeurs Hospital.

• 4,012 cholera kits.

Lascahobas

• Cash for work: 2,910 people paid £3.25 a day to help remove rubble from streets, rebuild roads and prevent soil erosion by erecting dry-stone walls and hedges.

• Five community centres set up, benefitting nearly 10,000 families.

• 24 solar-powered lamps provided for lighting in IDP camps, reducing threat of violence and allowing students to study at night.

Philippeau • Tarpaulin sheeting to over 66,000 people in temporary camps.

• Tents for 30 vulnerable families.

• Cash for work: 526 people paid £3.25 a day to help clean water channels blocked by rubble.

ALL PHOTOS: CHARLES ECKERT/ACTIONAID

Mariani

• Cash for work: 600 people paid £3.25 a day to prevent soil erosion by building a 5,000 metre dry-stone wall and planting 11,000 metres each of hedges and sugar cane.

“Every woman in my camp participated. I learned a lot, and I will use part of the money to take care of my family and buy a goat.

Without the cash for work activity I would not have the opportunity to travel to look for my parents.

I am really happy that this chance was offered to me. Thanks to ActionAid I can now call Lascahobas my new home.”

Thiotte • Community communication centre being built for locals and displaced people, benefiting over 10,000 people. Will provide internet access and double as informal school and temporary shelter when future disasters strike.

ACTION Read more about our work in Haiti and the challenges faced at www.actionaid.org.uk/action

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23

ACTION MAGAZINE

THE BIG QUESTION

Who’s bio-fooling who?

4 The UK wants up to 10% of petrol and diesel to be biofuel by 2020. What will this mean for global food prices?

A: they’ll stay the same B: they’ll drop by about a quarter C: they’ll rise by about a quarter D: they’ll rise by more than three quarters

50% the reduction in CO2 emissions from travelling by train, not car.

Well, they need somewhere to grow – and the planet isn’t getting any bigger. Using land to grow biofuel puts crops for people and crops for fuel in direct competition, especially in poor countries. So take our handy quiz to find out if this is a case of fuel, or fool...

2 How are they connected with hunger?

A: supermarkets use them to deliver food when you get the munchies B: if we don’t have them, we won’t be able fly in mangetout from Kenya C: you can stock up on pies at the service station D: land that used to grow food is being handed over to grow biofuel crops

A: the key to an energy secure future

PHOTOS: ACTIONAID, ATUL LOKE/PANOS PICTURES/ACTIONAID

C: foolish people who believe climate change doesn’t exist

B: yes, like ‘bio’ yoghurt, they’re good for you

MOSTLY Bs You are blinkered Turning a blind eye never got anyone anywhere.

Get yourself all fired up by contacting the Department for Transport about biofuels at www.actionaid.org.uk /biofuels MOSTLY Cs You are conscious Join our online debate at www.actionaid.org.uk /debate and make your valuable opinions heard.

MOSTLY Ds You’re driving the message home Congratulations – you’re no bio-fool! Make sure you’ve told Norman Baker MP at the Department for Transport that you want him to stop biofuelling poverty and hunger at www.actionaid.org.uk /biofuels.

6 If we’re not using

D: fuel made from agricultural crops (eg maize and wheat) and oil seeds (eg palm oil and rapeseed)

biofuels how can we tackle climate change?

3 When will we start using biofuels to fuel UK cars?

24 SPRING 11

A: of course, the government says so

D: no, most biofuels actually emit more greenhouse gases than the fossil fuels they replace

B: petrol made from baby bio

Estimated additional hungry people during the 2008 food crisis due to biofuels

environmentally friendly alternative to petrol and diesel?

C: they’re good and bad in equal measure

1 What are biofuels?

30 million

5 But aren’t biofuels an

MOSTLY As You’re awareness-free You seriously need to top up your tank on the impact of biofuels – visit the Q&A on our website at www.actionaid.org.uk /biofuels

A: end of this year B: end of last year C: 2015 D: we’ve been using them since 2002

A: we can’t, we may as well relocate to the moon B: swap the 4x4 for a sleek little saloon C: ban all cars and planes D: invest in more efficient (and electric) cars, do more cycling and walking and improve public transport ANSWERS TO ALL QUESTIONS: D

A few years ago biofuels were hailed as the elixir to quench our energy thirst and solve the climate crisis.

Something’s gone wrong.

But what?

THE RESULTS

FACTFILE ON...

NEPAL Average life expectancy: 67 Religion: birthplace of Buddha Population: 30 million Anything else? Though smaller than Florida, it’s said that if Nepal’s mountains were flattened out it would be the size of mainland Europe.

But despite its mountainous beauty and thriving tourist industry, it is also one of the world’s poorest countries – one third of people live below the poverty line.

Many live in steep mountain villages, and only 2% of the land can be cultivated – the UN says most people can only grow enough food for three to five months of the year, and then depend on food aid.

ActionAid has been working to improve education and the status of women since 1982. Much of this is helping rural women combat violence and reduce their workload through learning better farming techniques, including making organic fertiliser and pesticides, animal rearing and cultivating in forests. We are helping women become entrepreneurs and landowners, and play a bigger role in local decision-making.

A young woman in Lapilang village dances to a song encouraging women to challenge gender violence. She was one of 700 who rallied against violence and hunger as part of ActionAid’s HungerFree campaign.

PHOTO: BRIAN SOKOL/ACTIONAID

actionaid.org.uk

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Be an o, action her g in do someth amazing today...

ACTION MAGAZINE

new n r u o y Turn s resolutio ! year’ revolutionn ff a f o e-o o o r t a d n n i our 2011 cale o help you

ities t Here’s be d activ n a s nd may r that t a n – d eve l r muste the wo too. So sign change f l e s r u yo out and oice e y g r n a i a d h v c t get tha nd raise your , e v l o s re ly a un, ral d. up to r t of ActionAi or in supp

MARCH 8 GET LIPPY ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

JUNE 9 A CUP OF TEA, WITH YOUR MP...

Fancy having a chat and a cup of tea with your MP? Asking her or him what their thoughts are on developing countries and what their party is doing about poverty? Then our lobby event, Tea time for change, will be just your cup of tea (ok, we’ll stop with the tea puns now).

We have joined forces with Oxfam, Christian Aid and many others to offer all our supporters the chance to come together and lobby their MP on the same day.

We expect thousands of ActionAiders to ask some questions and munch some biscuits in parliament – why not join them?

Full, friendly support will be provided, so get in touch to find out more!

You’ve read about some of the amazing women we work with, why not let them know what you think about the work they are doing for themselves and their communities? By Getting lippy with ActionAid, you can upload a personal message of solidarity and support, we’ll gather them together and deliver them across the world as women prepare their own events on International Women’s Day. A great way to shout out for women everywhere!

PHOTOS: ACTIONAID, DES WILLIE/ACTIONAID, KRISTIAN BUUS/ACTIONAID, TOM PIETRASIK/ACTIONAID.

Just visit www.actionaid.org.uk/iwd, call 01460 23 8000 or email us at action@actionaid.org

RUN AWAY WITH YOURSELF! SEPTEMBER 18 THE GREAT NORTH RUN Get your running shoes on for this popular event from Newcastle to South Shields via Gateshead.

OCTOBER 9 ROYAL PARKS HALF MARATHON SEPTEMBER BACK TO SCHOOL WITH A DIFFERENCE We have a fantastic opportunity for two teachers to spend at least six months teaching children aged 5-14 in Gudalur, India. You must have at least two years’ experience (primary or secondary), and be able to start in either September 2011 or April 2012.

26 SPRING 11

This is a voluntary position, although we will cover your flights, accommodation and a local living allowance. But hurry! The deadline for applications is Friday 4 March 2011.

Starting in Hyde Park, the half marathon goes through St James’ Park, Green Park and Kensington Gardens, before heading back to Hyde Park for the finish.

“It was good to have my name on my vest as everybody was saying ‘Come on Ed, come on Ed!’ The crowds were absolutely fantastic.

“Ed Boden, ActionAid London marathon runner.

ACTION STATIONS A look a t what yo u can do i n 2011

NOVEMBER 19-29 HIMALAYAS, HOMES AND HAPPINESS OCTOBER 22-30 BUILD A CLASSROOM FOR KIDS LIKE THESE A brilliant trip to the idyllic Kenyan coast to help local people build muchneeded classrooms for their primary school. Currently mud-walled and without toilets, the school needs a lot of work to turn it into an inspiring learning environment. It’s a trip everyone will learn from!

Trek through the magical Himalayas and visit the vibrant, bustling city of Delhi, where you can help renovate a shelter for homeless adults and children. Meet the people whose lives you will be changing and immerse yourself in the culture of this wonderful country.

GET L IPPY WI ACTIOTH NAID (See ba ck cove r)

“The race was fantastic. I was expecting it to be really difficult, but I think it was the atmosphere, which felt absolutely exhilarating and I really felt like I had earned the sponsorship of all of the people that supported me. It was one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

Somaya Ouazzani, 25, lawyer from London

NOVEMBER 27 GREAT ETHIOPIAN RUN A very special invitation to travel to Ethiopia, the cradle of humankind, to take part in this 10k run through the capital Addis Ababa, and spend time visiting ActionAid projects and the people we work with.

It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But don’t just take our word for it. Somaya and Laura took part in the 2010 Great Ethiopian Run:

Laura,s Dad

Laura

“The atmosphere was incredible. It wasn’t about getting the best time, but chatting and joking with people along the way. It was just the most lovely environment and day out.”

Laura Laver, 33, civil servant from London

ACTION Call us now on 01460 23 8000 for more information on any of these events, or email action@actionaid.org

actionaid.org.uk

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Introducing our 100 cover stars: Rambati Adivasi, India Adama Mgane, Senegal Asha Singh, India Mage Maonga, Malawi Mary Chasela, Malawi Judith Atieno Basil, Kenya Tegla Natao, Kenya Jane Chebut, Kenya Janete Adhiambo, Kenya Caroline Achieng, Kenya Monica Aviso, Uganda Men Husal, Cambodia Mong Meon, Cambodia Chuan Chearth, Cambodia Ros Sukonthy, Cambodia Sophat Soarn, Cambodia Y. Suseelamma, India Phumela Masuka, South Africa Maria Ecicleude do Nascimento Almeida, Brazil Ieda AraĂşjo da Costa, Brazil

Nyota Muhabwa, DRC Lorrane Dos Santos, Brazil Nurun Nahar Begum, Bangladesh Sophia Moshi, Tanzania Rita Kasozi, Uganda Margaret Aikiriza, Uganda Sarah Katusime, Uganda Jahrna Akter, Bangladesh Beatrice Mayinala, Malawi Nungirai Sandengu, Zimbabwe Shaznaz Ahsan, UK Agonza Florence, Uganda Jane Harawa, Malawi Thabu Chidimba, Malawi Kanini Kilonzo, Kenya Xa Thi Lien, Vietnam Venice Ayielo Mbilu, Kenya Basilingamma, India Zaina Mambewa, Uganda Ramrati, India Basilingamma, India

Visit www.actionaid.org.uk/100women to learn more about these inspirational women.

Ghiniya Tharu, Nepal Feza Charlotte, DRC Immacula Jeanty, Haiti Chausiku Juma, Tanzania Sophia Kitenba, Tanzania Hawa Amiry, Tanzania Jalena Mohamed, Tanzania Mwanahamis Mpoyo, Tanzania Haja Mariama Kamara, Sierra Leone Theresa Kamara, Sierra Leone Fudia Brima, Sierra Leone Hawa Conteh, Sierra Leone Isabella Muntu, Uganda Jesica, Uganda Hajara Mukyala, Uganda Florence Masuliya, Uganda Victoria Munthali, Malawi Halima Nambunga, Tanzania Juli, Bangladesh Asha, Bangladesh

Elekanyani Munyai, South Africa Lizzie Dickson, UK Aminatta Tholley, Sierra Leone Fatmata Gbla, Sierra Leone Zainab Yaebu Touray, Sierra Leone Mary Conteh, Sierra Leone Florence B. Sesay, Sierra Leone Maureen Adson, Malawi Mudua Winnie Thivuadini, South Africa K. Saroja, India Nguyen Thi Anh, Vietnam Hue Tran Thi, Vietnam Doan Thi Ly, Vietnam Herminia Guarchaj Guachic, Guatemala Nicole Cox, UK Fatima Ali, Ghana Emma Woods, UK Mercedes Urizar, Guatemala

Lucy K. Fondo, Kenya Mary Banda, Zambia Mary Muntambwa Chibumba, Zambia Lila Rene, Haiti Naheed, Pakistan Nassam Zeriatu, Ghana Teresinha Leite da Silva, Brazil Sumera, Pakistan Marie-Grace Mukashema, Rwanda Mary Abraham, Ghana Latif Afishetu, Ghana Gladys Lariba Mahama, Ghana Ayisethu Bujri, Ghana Siana Pere, Kenya Marion Kamara, Sierra Leone Ophelia Brakwa, Ghana Marta Luttgrodt, Ghana Angela Lokichar, Kenya Beauty Akhtar, Bangladesh Labhutti Tharu, Nepal Tiffany Lake, UK