About ActionAid

ActionAid’s mission is to work with poor and marginalised people to eradicate poverty by overcoming the injustice and inequity that cause it.  We believe that by fighting poverty together – working with poor local communities, national governments and international organisations – we can help bring about real and lasting change to the lives of poor people.

ActionAid works to:

• enable poor people and communities to overcome their poverty and secure their basic rights
• build lasting and inclusive local institutions and broad-based alliances dedicated to poverty eradication
• address and overcome the root causes of poverty and marginalisation by influencing the powerful.

ActionAid’s work focuses on all aspects of discrimination arising from poverty, however more specifically our key project areas are:

Education
Education saves lives, and protects mothers and their children from devastating diseases like TB and HIV/AIDS. It opens doors out of poverty. In poor people's struggle to free themselves from discrimination and injustice, the liberation of the mind is the most powerful weapon.

HIV/AIDS
The fight against HIV/AIDS has become a global priority. The epidemic has already claimed millions of lives around the world. ActionAid has been pioneering work in HIV/AIDS prevention and community-based care for the past 15 years.

Food rights
For most of the communities that ActionAid works with, farming is the main source of food and employment. Improving agriculture is vital to fighting poverty, but global rules on food and trade are increasing the gap between rich and poor.

Emergency relief
Overcoming poverty in the long term is made especially difficult when people are affected by emergencies such as flood, earthquake, volcano eruption. A drought, for example, can wipe out several months' hard work, taking with it not only a badly needed harvest but also the seeds for next year's planting. And in some areas such emergencies recur, giving people little time to build up their lives again before the next crisis hits.

The role of gender
Women bear the brunt of poverty throughout the world, particularly in developing countries. Despite frequently being the main breadwinner for their families, women often lose out to men economically, politically and culturally.

International aid
The governments of rich countries provide over £37 billion every year to poor countries to support their efforts to halve the numbers of people living in poverty by 2015. Making international aid as effective as possible is therefore vital if poverty is to be reduced.

Peace building
Over 80% of casualties are civilian in the contemporary armed conflicts of the world. High rates of civilian casualties in Africa are partly a reflection of the fact that modern warfare can occur in villages, schools or communities, often between former neighbours and friends.

Our history

When ActionAid was founded in 1972, there were 88 UK supporters sponsoring 88 children in India and Kenya. The focus then was on delivering specific services to individuals and providing children with an education.