Guernsey ActionAid’s 2013 Fundraising.
ActionAid has chosen four new projects for 2013:
Human rights in Pakistan’s brick kilns
Children as young as five years old are forced to work in Pakistan, often in bonded labour resulting from debts or child trafficking. Entire families can be found working 14 hours a day in the kilns, shaping mud into bricks for just £10 a week.
WHAT DOES THIS PROJECT AIM TO DO?
- Conduct training, to help increase workers’ wages
- Provide child workers with primary schooling – for many the first education they have ever received.
- There is a severe lack of drinking water in the kilns. Providing the workers with clean water will reduce the high levels of cholera, diarrhoea and death.
- Provide legal services to help families fight for their rights and access basic healthcare services.
Sierra Leone: Education
In Sierra Leone, a decade of civil war ended in 2002. The war funded by “blood diamonds” destroyed families, infrastructure and wealth. Education is a key factor in enabling progress and development. The Government has been given priority to Secondary education, leaving much primary schooling to the local communities – who have no money.
WHAT DOES THIS PROJECT AIM TO DO?
ActionAid has been working in several communities across Sierra Leone to produce new primary schools. This project will focus on the next phase of delivering training and campaigning to help get girls back into school in two communities, with particular attention on violence against girls. It will also involve providing children with the equipment they need for a primary school education, including text books and learning materials. The project will also build one fully furnished library with fully trained staff and librarians.
Lesotho: Food Security
In Lesotho 60% of people live below the poverty line, and the country has 400,000 AIDS orphans. The textile and mining industries collapsed during the global recession. Numerous valleys have been flooded to provide South Africa with fresh water, which has dried up a third of Leotho’s wells. All these factors have reduced the supplies of food – leaving many people starving.
WHAT DOES THIS PROJECT AIM TO DO?
- Help communities, in particular households led by women, cope with the current food crisis.
- Support cash for work activities including the promotion of homestead gardening, livestock programmes, sustainable agriculture and school feeding programmes.
- Support people affected by disaster to meet their basic food needs.
- Construction of clean water facilities including water tanks and small scale irrigation systems.
Global Emergencies
Every year, ActionAid responds to the world’s silent emergencies. 300 million people are affected each year by natural disasters or conflict. When these don’t make the news, ActionAid still responds – helping thousands of people to rebuild their lives. In 2012 the charity responded to numerous emergencies, which included: fighting in Democratic Republic of Congo, floods across the globe and cholera in Sierra Leone. Please help us to continue responding to the world’s silent emergencies that never make the headlines.
