ActionAid

ActionAid is a leading international charity working in over 45 countries. We work with the poorest women and children in the world, changing their lives for good. Our local staff provide immediate, hands-on support to women and children living on the margins of survival. Together we demand action at local, national and international level. We don’t walk away until we’ve achieved lasting change.

We work across Africa, Asia and Latin America, every day, all year round, and we listen to, learn from, and work in partnership with 15 million of the world’s poorest and most excluded people.

What we do

Across the world, women and girls are affected the most by poverty. From the moment they are born, girls face inequalities and injustice in almost every aspect of their lives. Girls and women experience violence, female genital mutilation, rape, early forced marriage, death through childbirth, unpaid labour, neglect and abuse. Often they don’t get the chance to go to school, earn a living, or even have any rights over what happens to their own bodies.

From more than 40 years of experience, we know that helping girls into education is the key to changing lives for good. An educated girl is more likely to grow up to be a healthy, empowered woman who can make her own choices, earn her own income, and protect and educate her own children.

ActionAid puts women and girls at the centre of our work across 45 countries. We make sure girls go to and stay in school, we work with communities to end gender-based violence, and we train women in the skills they need to earn a living. We also help women prepare for and recover from disasters, at a time when they can be at their most vulnerable – women like Shreya, pictured, who gave birth to her baby girl shortly after the Nepal earthquake in April 2015.

You can find out more about ActionAid’s work on the UK website here: http://www.actionaid.org.uk/ and watch videos about how ActionAid supports and empowers people to help themselves out of poverty on our YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/ActionAidUK

ActionAid in Guernsey

ActionAid Guernsey Support Group was founded in 1982, and is a fundraising branch of ActionAid UK. We are the UK’s highest achieving ActionAid fundraising group, raising over £40,000 annually. One of the ways we do this is through the World Aid Walk each year, but also through a number of other events. Events in 2014 and 2015 included an afternoon tea, two family fun afternoons, a quiz night, Live Below the Line Challenge, plant sale, flag days, book sales from the Mostly Books shop, Change 4 Poverty and stamp collections, and a bonus ball draw. The money raised from these events supports specific projects each year. In 2016 we’re supporting a two year project to make schools in Uganda safer for girls to attend, as well as the Emergency Action Fund, which helps to strengthen communities against natural disasters and crises. In the last couple of years this fund has helped to provide an immediate and appropriate frontline response to the Philippines Typhoon, the Ebola Crisis, the Vanuatu Cyclone, the Nepal Earthquakes, the refugee crisis in Syria, and the most recently Cyclone Winston in Fiji.

We have a number of events planned for 2016 already. Please put these dates in your diary, and check our social media pages (details listed below) in the coming weeks and months, or email/phone us for more details:

  • Flag day at various supermarkets – Saturday 12 March

  • Afternoon tea – date/time tbc

  • World Aid Walk, from Market Square – Monday 2 May

  • Plant sale at GROW Ltd – Saturday 4 June

  • Garden Party at White Meadows, Grande Rue, St Martin’s – Saturday 18 June

  • Annual Christmas Lunch at Les Cotils – Sunday 4 December

In recent years we have restructured our Committee and events calendar to help us reach a wider demographic and attract new supporters and volunteers in Guernsey. This has included setting up our own email address, Facebook page, Twitter profile, and Justgiving account, and more recently we have joined Instagram. The links for these pages are below:

We’re always keen to hear from our supporters, and anyone who would like to become a volunteer. We have opportunities for people to help at our events, with organising them, or promoting and marketing the charity. This can be done in as much or little time as you have available with no commitment or pressure, we’re grateful for any help we receive. Check out our page on the Association of Guernsey charities website for more information about the charity and volunteering opportunities: http://www.charity.org.gg/AGC_Charity_Page?id=59

If you’d like some more information about the work of ActionAid, what we do in Guernsey and our events, or how to volunteer with us, please email actionaidguernsey@gmail.com, or call our Chair, Natalie Tucker on 07781412711. We’d love to hear from you!