ActionAid

ActionAid is a unique partnership of people who are fighting for a world without poverty, in which every person can exercise their right to a life of dignity. It works with poor and marginalised people to help eradicate poverty by overcoming the injustice and inequity that cause it. ActionAid was founded by British businessman Cecil Jackson-Cole as a child sponsorship charity (originally called Action in Distress) in 1972, with 88 UK supporters sponsoring 88 children in India and Kenya. Its focus was on providing children with an education. During the first decade it established long-term programmes in India, Rwanda, Kenya, Burundi and The Gambia. Its work expanded to include long-term health, sanitation and agricultural projects that would improve living conditions for children and their families.

The 1980s saw a huge increase in the number of countries it worked in. The affiliated organisations were established in France, Spain, Ireland and Italy.

The focus shifted to tackling the root causes of poverty, not just the symptoms. It began to work with communities to boost agricultural production, improve water supplies, gain access to basic healthcare and find new sources of income. It helped poor people organise themselves to challenge injustice and demand their entitlements from their own governments. In 1987 ActionAid funded a new organisation in Uganda, called the AIDS Support Organisation. Since then HIV & AIDS work has greatly expanded.

In 1988, in response to UK teachers' requests, it produced 20 school resource packs. These were so successful that by 1994 half the schools in the UK were using ActionAid's education materials. Today these include CD-ROMs, videos, photo-packs and reference books for use in geography, literacy, citizenship and modern languages classes.

During the 1990s ActionAid launched two international campaigns, on education and food rights. 'Reflect', the innovative approach to adult learning, was piloted in Uganda, Bangladesh and El Salvador, and is now used in over 50 countries.

It increasingly focused on ways of supporting people to bring about positive changes in their communities and began to lobby governments and agencies like the World Bank and UN to take poor people's needs into account. It started working on peace building and reconciliation in a number of African countries, to help prevent violent conflict and cultivate peace in post-conflict situations.

In 2003, ActionAid launched ActionAid International as a coalition fighting poverty across the globe. It established a new head office in South Africa, and began the process of making all country programmes equal partners, with an equal say on how ActionAid should operate.

Now it is helping over 13 million of the world's poorest and most disadvantaged people in 42 countries worldwide. In all its country programmes it works with local partners to make the most of their knowledge and experience.