Most of us want to do more for the world, but you know how it is - things crop up, you get busy...

In this section you'll find seven very good reasons why we think you should get involved with us.

We consider everyone who contributes an activist - from young campaigners overseas fighting for their rights, to the artists who designed our website banners, to our MySpace friends who leave supportive comments - every voice is a voice for change.

And if you don't believe that you can make a difference, just look here and here and here. And if you still don't believe us, read why Salamina, an ActionAid activist from South Africa, thinks that we can make a difference in her community.

Conflict and emergencies

Good old Britain. We’ve got our fair share of problems, but if you compare us to somewhere like Rio’s City of God, where 20% of kids don’t survive their teens, we’re not doing too badly. We live in a relatively secure nation with 11 ½ months of drizzle a year, but elsewhere, about 300 million people have to flee their homes every year to escape natural disasters and conflict, and the effects of climate change are threatening to make this worse.

There are lots of aid agencies but ActionAid is different. We work hard to predict emergencies and prevent conflict (in fact the UN gave us an award for it) and because we’re international, we don’t need to fly out expensive assistance in an emergency – we already know what's happening on the ground. And we don’t go home afterwards – our partners are in for the long haul, helping to alleviate the lasting impact made not only on the physical environment but also on people’s mental well-being.

To find out more about ActionAid's work on conflict and emergencies, click here