Jennifer Fash, community events officer

ActionAid’s York Supporter Group hosted its first craft fair this Tuesday and Wednesday at York’s Historic Guildhall.

The event was opened by the Right Honourable Lord Mayor, David Horton.

Although the group has been going for over 30 years in York, this event was a first for the group but it certainly didn’t stop them making it a success, raising £1,287.36.

The group asked the artists to make a donation to sell their work, selling refreshments including tasty homemade cakes and having an ActionAid stall with lots of bits including Christmas cards.

The proceeds from the event will go towards improving education for nomadic children in the Eastern Province of Kenya and helping vulnerable girls off the streets of Bangladesh.

“It was really good but exhausting! We’d like to thank the artists who have supported this event and have donated an item to the ActionAid table and we would like to thank the Guildhall staff, who have been very helpful and we would like to give a special thank you to the Civic Party for their support."
- Adelaide Morley, York Group and ActionAid supporter through Gifts in Action and Emergency Appeals.

• Read more about the group's up and coming events

Jennifer Fash, community events officer

Are you passionate about British companies taking responsibility for their actions?

Join ActionAid in London from 2-3pm on Wednesday 27th July outside the AGM of Vedanta Resources plc, a British-listed mining company. This is an urgent action to stop a mine being built, affecting the lives of thousands of tribal people and a unique ecosystem in India.

We will be protesting alongside Survival, Amnesty International, South Asia Solidarity Network, Foil Vedanta, and London Mining Network.

ActionAid has been campaigning here in the UK for several years in solidarity with the Kondh tribal people in the state of Orissa in India. In August 2010 we had a major breakthrough. The Government of India said that Vedanta should not have been given permission to mine and that the processing plant had been expanded illegally. This was a huge success!

However, Vedanta Resources are still pushing to build an their open-pit mine in the pristine Niyamgiri Hills.

Why target the AGM?

The AGM has been a big moment each year. In February 2010, two key investors, The Church of England and Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, withdrew their investments from the company on ethical grounds. This sends a powerful message to Vedanta’s other shareholders about the risks of investing in a company with such a poor human rights and environmental record.

Shareholders have another chance this year to refuse to allow their money to be used in this way.

Join us; 2pm Wednesday 27th July 2011 outside Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Westminster, London.

Liz Grant, community events coordinator

Six ActionAid supporters took part in the race of a life this weekend; as they hauled a bed on four wheels across road and river in a fast-paced pursuit to raise funds for ActionAid!

The Great Knaresborough Bed Race is an annual community event run entirely by volunteers. It has become world famous for its riot of colour and pageantry, the courage and endurance of its teams, and the glorious eccentricity of its entrants.

The team, from Wetherby based company, Avacta, successfully built a rolling, floating bed and decorated it in the race’s theme of “British History”, before physically pushing it (and one helmeted passenger) round a course of 3km. The team managed to get the 3rd fastest time for a new team, despite their fears that their bed was significantly heavier than their competition!

Team organiser, Rob Harrand, enthused that the event had a “great atmosphere and a colossal turnout!”

The team were even interviewed by BBC Radio York where their hastily nominated spokesperson, Steve, mentioned that they were running for ActionAid. The team raised a fantastic amount!

Visit their MyActionAid Page to sponsor them for all their hard work!

Jean Woodhouse, competition winner

When I entered an ActionAid sponsored competition in the Guardian, I didn’t expect to win. But win I did. This is my account of a truly unique prize: my first-ever visit to a developing country – four days living with a Rwandan family, immersed in their lives and Actionaid's work.

It is sunny and warm when we land in Kigali. The city looks like Tuscany, all red roofs, tall trees and hills. I’m met by people from ActionAid and my interpreter, Jolly, a lively, educated young woman. I’m surprised by how clean everything looks. The scenery as we wind our way through the hills is so beautiful it gives me a lump in my throat.

It’s getting dark as we arrive at the house. It is made of wattle and daub with a swept dirt floor. Our hostess Beatrice is self-assured with a lovely smile. Her husband Joseph is reserved. We meet the children: Christine, 17; Emirith, 15; Bienvenue, 12; Eriea, 10; Sandrine, 7; and Valance, 4. The couple also look after three orphans.

We sit down to help Beatrice peel potatoes for dinner. Then she straps Valance to her back, picks up an axe and chops firewood. I try to help but it’s hard. I like Beatrice. She looks into my eyes even though we speak through an interpreter. We are both mothers and I think that gives us an immediate bond.

Her experience of life must be so different to mine. She has no bathroom, no cooker, no washing machine or any of the consumer items deemed necessary for modern mothers. But she shines. She’s a woman in control. Her home is welcoming us. I don’t like it much though. We sleep on a grass mat in a cell-like room with a tiny shuttered window, and at night I am convinced there’s a rat. But at least I have a sleeping bag – the kids sleep with just blankets.

Colour and warmth

The day dawns with lots of chatter and we head straight to the school, where the children sit tightly packed on wooden benches. I try to join in their English class, but I think I confuse them more than I help them.

Later we go to Beatrice’s co-operative farm. They grow potatoes, and there’s a group of women in colourful cloth wraps, ploughing with heavy hoes. I think they’re fabulous, such fun and so warm to me. It makes me think of my girlfriends back home in Manchester.

It’s such a beautiful place with lovely warm people and yet abject poverty. Little kids in rags, thin, they have so little. It makes me want to empty my bank account, hand things out. But we are followed like the Pied Piper and no one asks me for anything.

Balloons, bubbles and balls

I give some balloons, bubbles and bouncy balls to Beatrice’s children, and later I see their father Joseph playing joyfully with a balloon – he thanks me and tells me he has never had a game that brought him close to his children before.

I’m followed by a little girl who doesn’t look like she gets much to eat. She lifts up her torn sweater and pulls out a little bit of popped balloon and strokes it before putting it back. Later in the yard a storyteller comes with his guitar to sing songs about broken marriages. This same little girl leans against me, holding my hand. I am nearly moved to tears. Beatrice tells me her mother has gone to the next town. The little girl goes home alone.

When we go down to the stream to do the washing, the children of the village follow. They look so dirty – Beatrice tells me they only have the clothes they are wearing. I want to undress them and add their torn clothes to our pile.

The stream, a mile from the house, is where Beatrice used to get all her water, but ActionAid has put some water butts at the school by her house, so she only has to come to do the washing.

A story to tell

My emotions are stirred by a visit to an ActionAid-supported HIV co-operative. The women sing us a greeting song, they smile and dance, and look so strong. We learn that they weren’t always so strong; they were sick, destitute and outcast. People didn’t want to touch them or eat with them for fear of contracting HIV.

Their leader, Jacqueline, explains how they got together and asked ActionAid for support, then built this house, where they meet and gain income by renting out rooms. They also grow maize and mushrooms to sell. Now the community sees them as strong and they are treated at the local health clinic.

A woman stands up and tells me her name is Lucy. She is thin and small in purple blazer and cream blouse. She wears patent shoes and reminds me of my mother-in-law in Belfast in her mass outfit.

Lucy’s story is horrific. She saw both her parents killed in the genocide and was gang raped. She was just 15. Pregnant with twins, she fled to the Congo. When she returned she found out she was HIV-positive. She was rejected by her family but found the co-operative and it helped her recover her dignity.

I am not easily moved. But I sobbed from my guts listening to her story.

Belly laughs at bedtime

And so, homeward bound. Homeward reflections. I see Beatrice washing Valence in a bowl. The rhythms of the women dancing. Peeling potatoes with the family in the dark. Belly laughs at bedtime. I’m not claiming to have done any more than peek through a small window to experience Shingiro with Beatrice and her family. It was moving. It was sad. It was funny. It was much more. You couldn’t fail to feel the fizz and bubble of the people I met or appreciate that they live it hard. It was amazing. I am privileged.