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Insight, debate and development news from ActionAid's media team

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Tornados, floods and storms: why encouraging disaster resilience within at-risk communities matters

Jane Moyo's picture Posted by Jane MoyoHead of media relations
 

The massive tornado that hit Oklahoma city is a reminder of the devastating power and unpredictability of natural disasters, and the death and destruction that follows in their wake – even in the richest country on earth. Yet the Oklahoma tornedo is just one incident. A Guardian graphic shows the impact of disasters worldwide in 2012, reporting that more than 32 million people fled their homes last year because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes – and that 98 per cent of displacement was related to climate change.

ActionAid always responds to natural disasters in communities where we work and a roll call of recent disasters shows just how important that is: the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods all required massive coordinated and collaborative relief responses. Yet just as important is work to encourage resilience within at-risk communities.
 
In particular, the effects of climate change – floods, cyclones and crop failures – are growing and have a much bigger impact on people in poor countries because they don’t have the resources to protect themselves. They suffer the most, even though they have contributed the least to global warming.
 
That’s why we’re working with communities in vulnerable areas to help them adapt to natural disasters caused by climate change. And with more and more poor families living on marginal land, it’s a development field that ActionAid is investing in. We’re helping communities identify the risks they face that make them vulnerable and we're developing their skills to push their governments to provide the services that will help them survive in a world where climate change is making the world a less safe place.
 
ActionAid has placed reducing vulnerability to disasters at the heart of our emergencies work and it makes a difference. Just recently my colleague Alice Klein reported that when Tropical Cyclone Mahasen passed through Bangladesh casualties were thankfully minimised. Much of that was due to investment by the Bangladesh government and aid agencies. Millions living in low-lying coastal areas in the Bay of Bengal were evacuated and ActionAid had three emergency teams on standby in the coastal region where we have many sponsored children.
 
Helping small communities cope with increasing stresses and shocks is also a reason why we’re a member of the Global Network for Disaster Reduction which seeks to put poor people at the heart of responses to disaster risk reduction. As ActionAid’s advisor on disaster resilience, Jessica Faleiro has written about how empowered people are able to strengthen their own communities to be better prepared and adapt to rapidly changing environments.

MPs join thousands of supporters in call to end biofuel use

Nina Kelly's picture Posted by Nina KellySenior Press Officer
 

Today MPs joined some of our lovely campaigners (not to mention staff!) to call for an end to burning biofuels in our cars. At ActionAid we have long believed it is a travesty that food crops are burned as fuel in many of the world’s richest countries, meanwhile 1 in 8 on our planet go hungry every day.

ActionAid campaigners and staff stand amidst a field of voices against biofuelsActionAid campaigners and staff stand amidst a field of voices against biofuels

Biofuels, which were once thought to be a green answer to renewable energy demands, have long since been proven to not reduce greenhouse gasses in their current form. Nonetheless, central government policies ensure their continued use, leading to land grabbing in developing countries and food crops lost to those that need them most.
 
ActionAid’s campaigns team collected nearly 9,000 petition signatures from around the UK on symbolic ‘grains of wheat’, which today were combined to create a ‘field’ outside the Houses of Parliament, bringing the call directly to the doorstep of government.

>> Download the 'Biofuelling the global food crisis' report

Tags: biofuels

Photos: Enter Shikari and Huw Stephens play special gig for our youth network

It’s not often you hear 2,000 voices crying ‘Bollocks to Poverty!’ in unison, but that was one of the highlights of Friday night’s Enter Shikari fundraiser show for ActionAid, as singer Rou Reynolds got the crowd lifting the roof in support of us.

Celebrating ten years together as a band, Enter Shikari marked the occasion by returning to their local venue the Hatfield Forum, raising an amazing £10,000 on the night – plus loads more that was texted in throughout the evening by the crowd.

The show was hosted by ActionAid supporter Huw Stephens, who spoke about his trip to Kenya with us a few years ago and introduced the bands.

We were there with our youth network Bollocks to Poverty, handing out stickers and filling people in on how they can fight poverty with us by putting on a gig or backing one of our campaigns. 

We’ll be back later in the week with some exclusive video, as we interviewed Rou and Rob from the band about why they support ActionAid and what it was like to celebrate their tenth birthday back home.

Missed out but still want to get involved? Just text ‘ACTION’ to 70300 to donate £2 to ActionAid – and if you do it before 3 May, thanks to our Ready for Anything appeal your £2 will be automatically doubled. It could be the best £2 you spend all week.

>> Find out more about Bollocks to Poverty, ActionAid's youth network

 

Bangladesh building collapse tragedy – how you can help

Nina Kelly's picture Posted by Nina KellySenior Press Officer
 

Senior Press Officer Nina Kelly blogs on the collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh which has left over 300 people dead.

A spotlight shines again on working conditions and infrastructure safety for garment workers after the collapse of an eight-storey building housing clothing factories in Dhaka.

Bangladesh survivor in garment factory collapse

More than 300 people died and thousands were injured in the disaster on Wednesday in the Bangladeshi capital.
 
ActionAid Bangladesh has long been working with local people to call for safe and fair working conditions. ActionAid partners are on the ground in Dhaka supporting the rescue effort. Our staff have been blogging about what they've seen on our international website.
 
Highstreet clothing giants Mango and Primark, among others, are being called on to defend their use of factories in the building as criticism centres in on ‘sweatshop’ style working conditions and scant regard for workforce welfare.

Many of our brilliant supporters have already been in touch, particularly via social media, asking how they can help.

If you are keen to contribute to the rescue effort and support the ActionAid’s work in Dhaka, please donate via our Emergencies Action Fund.

Tags: Bangladesh

Ready for Anything appeal: 79-year-old ActionAid supporter rows to victory

Leslie Sinoway's picture Posted by Leslie SinowaySenior PR Officer, ActionAid UK
 

Last Friday one of our super supporters - Margaret Doak, 79, from Kent - rowed a half-marathon distance in her local gym to raise money for ActionAid. Completing the distance in just two hours she raised a whopping £2,200 - with pledges still coming in. All the money will be doubled - as part of the ActionAid Ready for Anything appeal which sees the UK government matching all funds raised until 3 May 2013.

Margaret said, “I was delighted that I completed the row in that time. I’d done it a few times before, but you just never know on the day.” With her local paper popping in to the gym on the day - and friends and fellow gymgoers lending support, I was in no doubt that Margaret would achieve her goal.

I had spoken to her a couple of weeks previously and was wowed by her enthusiasm and tenacity. She had heard in passing about the idea of rowing to raise money and decided to give it a go. Formerly a teacher, Margaret, hasn't always been an active person though. It was only after an accident when she broke her leg at the age of 41 that she got into physical activity.

But as a charity-focused person, raising money to benefit other people was nothing new for Margaret. She had even founded and run her own charity. When I asked her why she chose to support ActionAid this time around, she told me:

“I’ve always felt a passion for helping the world's poorest people.” Margaret told me that she had researched the charity and that she liked that ActionAid raise money for the people who need it the most, with input from local organisations and communities as to how funds should be spent. ActionAid's emphasis on the effect of poverty on women also appealed to Margaret - from girls who have to stay at home rather than go to school, to women who care for other people's families as well as their own in a conflict situation.  

What an inspirational woman! Why not check out top tips on how to fundraise and be active for ActionAid - and change the lives of people throughout the world through creating your own challenge.

 

Ugandans in outcry over sexist legislation

In a move that has garnered outrage on Twitter, the Ugandan minister for ethics and integrity has announced plans to plans to ban the miniskirt as part of the religiously conservative country’s severe anti-pornography bill. This particular portion of the legislation is meant to lessen a woman’s chance of being raped. Under the law, women caught wearing miniskirts will be arrested.
 
The thinking behind this move, that women ‘invite’ sexual assault by their way of dressing or behaviour, is lamentably not new, nor limited to Uganda. You need only look to the Slut Walks of 2011 to see that women face this institutionally entrenched prejudice around the world.
 
The legislative tactics here are also not entirely new: in 2008 the previous ethics minister attempted to prohibit the wearing of low-cut dresses, saying it was like walking “naked” in the street, thus distracting drivers and causing road traffic accidents.
 
Uganda is no stranger to socially conservative policies and actions – earlier this year it deported the UK producer of a “gay” play – so the miniskirt announcement should not come entirely as a surprise. But as suggested by a number of Ugandans who took to Twitter to protest with #savetheminiskirt, the government has bigger fish to fry. Poverty, health, education and infrastructure, for starters.

But this is not just about the Ugandan parliament overlooking critical domestic issues to debate womenswear; it’s an ominous attempt to curtail the rights of women and cast them as licentious beings who are to be blamed if they are sexually assaulted.

Rape is a serious problem in Africa that does deserve legislative attention, though it is neither helpful nor productive to place responsibility on the shoulders of the victims by proscribing items of clothing. Rape in Africa is part of the larger problem of violence against women globally, but is also borne of the continent’s own unique issues, one of which is vast gender inequality.

Women's rights form a large part of the work of ActionAid Uganda. We’ve operated in-country since 1982 and run a number of programmes focused on educating women about their rights and on improving gender equality. This includes not only challenging sexist stereotypes and protecting women from sexual and physical abuse, but also informing women of their rights to land ownership, food and education.

 

 

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