Voices from the field

Hannan (not her real name) lives on the edge of the sprawling Zaatari refugee camp. Set up just eight months ago to provide shelter for the growing influx of Syrian people; it is now home to more than 90,000 refugees who have been forced to flee their country.

As we sit in her caravan, Hannan’s daughter sits in her lap, her blue and pink tracksuit covered in a film of dirt from the dusty camp, her cheeks chapped by the dust of the desert. The little girl’s name is Malak, Arabic for angel.

Hannan is 9 months pregnant and the hospital has told her that she will have the baby within the next four days. I ask her how she feels about having her child here, "I’m scared" she says, "this is not a suitable environment to bring a baby into.  I am worried it will get ill here. But what can I do?  My husband sent me here so I can have the baby in a place that is safe."

Hannan’s husband is still in Syria and she hasn’t seen him since she left. Hannan is just one of the thousands of female Syrian refugees who have fled their country to bring up their children alone. The UN estimates that one in every five households is female-headed. With last week’s announcement that the number of Syrian refugees has exceeded one million, that’s more than 200,000 women who are supporting and raising their family alone.

Thankfully for Hannan, her mother is here to help her.  They explain that they walked in the rain and cold before being picked up and brought to Zaatari. Like many of the families here they weren’t able to bring much with them. Hannan and her mother were some of the first women to receive one of ActionAid's women's kits, including clothing and hygiene items. She says,  "We don’t have any money so when I received the clothes I felt very happy."

Based on discussions with refugees about what support they require, ActionAid is providing clothing to women, as well as basic but essential hygiene items such as washing powder and soap.  Over the coming weeks and months we will also be supporting people to overcome the emotional impact of the crisis, as well as developing initiatives to promote the protection of vulnerable people, such as women and children, in the camp.

>> Please support our Syria emergency appeal

It’s Red Nose Day in the UK on Friday. This is a fact probably unknown to most people here in South Africa, but for one group of women this year’s event has a special significance.

An exciting three-year project funded by Comic Relief to protect women's rights is about to begin. Set up by ActionAid South Africa (AAISA) and the Forum for the Empowerment of Women (FEW), the project will work with young lesbian women in urban areas in and around Johannesburg to build leadership and activism to help them fight for their rights.

For some years now, both locally and internationally, the situation of discrimination and violence suffered by lesbian women and particularly black lesbian women in South Africa has been in the news. Stories of brutal rapes and murders of young lesbian women, mostly living in urban areas have created brief sensations in the media and elicited responses from the public, government and civil society alike.

In most cases however the fury soon dissipates, there is rarely any form of legal justice and survivors and their families are soon forgotten and the culture that made this injustice possible remain unchallenged.

Below the sensational lies the day to day reality of lesbian women in South Africa for whom, verbal, physical and sexual abuse have become commonplace. These violations often perpetrated in the name of religion, culture or morality are given legitimacy by the often unchecked homophobic hate speech emanating from political, social and religious leaders. This, despite the existence of a progressive Constitution which specifically protects the rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people from discrimination.

At the heart of the work of ActionAid is the belief that there is power in people.  It is the role of organisations such as ours to create partnerships with local organisations to develop programmes that seek to empower and support people who face discrimination to claim their rights. With this in mind, we are proud to work with FEW, an organisation with a long history of work that is for and by black lesbian South African women. They undertake a great deal of work in the fulfillment of this mandate including organising the annual Soweto Pride March. 

This Comic Relief grant will contribute significantly to empowering Black South African lesbian women to claim their rights and by doing so will help build a network of informed and empowered activists capable not only of securing their own rights within their communities but also of contributing to change and equality for all LGBTI people in South Africa.

>> Find out more about our work in South Africa
>> Make a donation to ActionAid

With Red Nose Day just around the corner, we reflect on the success of our Comic Relief-funded project in Kenya, which has helped to improve the lives of women and children living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. As part of this project, our partner, Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK), provided HIV/AIDS orphans with vocational training opportunities.

Here, we find out how one young woman has progressed since taking part in the training.

Caroline Taaka is 24 years old. Her mother and father both died after becoming HIV positive so Caroline had to move into her grandmother’s home. Life became increasingly hard for Caroline and she was forced to drop out of school as her grandmother was unable to pay her school fees.

After visiting her community, staff from WOFAK realised Caroline was in need of support and enrolled her in the 2-year vocational training programme focusing on hairdressing. After finishing her course in 2011, she had the skills to apply for permanent jobs, and managed to secure a hairdressing position with A-2-Z hair salon in Bumala, Kenya.

Caroline is very grateful for the support WOFAK provided through the Comic Relief funded project: "WOFAK helped me by taking me on the vocational training programme and I would really urge them to continue supporting other orphans like me. If it wasn’t for WOFAK I wouldn’t be able to support my aging grandmother."

Caroline hopes that one day she will be able to save enough money to start her own salon and she is keen to pass on her skills by mentoring other orphans in her community.

>> Read more about the work we do in Kenya 
>> Make a donation to ActionAid

ActionAid is not impartial in emergency situations. We take sides with the poorest and most vulnerable, because in every emergency, it is the poorest and most vulnerable – mainly women and children – who are hardest hit.

The evidence is there. When the Haiti earthquake struck, more than 300,000 people were killed. In Chile, a few months later, an earthquake which was 500 times more intense killed only 100 people. This fact shows starkly the impact that poverty has upon the effect of disasters.

Poor people have limited capacity to cope with, and take much longer to recover from, the impact of disasters, because they lack the social protection enjoyed by wealthier individuals.

This link between poverty and vulnerability is precisely why ActionAid prioritises people living in poverty and exclusion.  If you think about it, it’s logical:

How can we address the relationship between poverty, powerlessness and disasters, without looking at the underlying factors involved?

To do this, we must be political, working alongside communities to analyse and address the root causes of the poverty and injustice which define their lives.  ActionAid is clear that we do take sides – not with governments or warring factions - but with the poorest and most vulnerable.