Nepal

Will the US make history and vote for its first woman president? At ActionAid women's leadership is at the core of our approach and our organisation. As a young girl growing up in the US, ActionAid project manager Kiran Gupta admired Hillary Clinton, and continues to be inspired by women leaders the world over. 

If you head to London today you might see something a little unusual. This morning, mannequins appeared in front of Marble Arch to mark International Safe Cities for Women Day. Safe Cities Day is celebrated all over the world from Australia to Zimbabwe, and calls for an end to violence against women on the streets of their cities.So what’s with the mannequins?

Helen Pattinson visited Nepal in May 2015 in the aftermath of two earthquakes that killed thousands of people and left millions homeless. She found scenes of utter devastation; families torn apart, living in tents, children too frightened to sleep. Since then ActionAid has been working with Nepalese communities to rebuild homes and provide shelter to the most vulnerable. Six months after her visit in May, Helen went back to see how the families of Nepal were faring as the bitter winter sets in.

“I’m on my period.” Four words describing a perfectly natural bodily function that we very rarely hear being said aloud in public. Why? It’s because of a misogynistic myth that a bleeding woman’s or girl’s body is somehow impure and must be hidden away.

Over the last week the ever more shrill criticism of international aid found a new target - the practice of giving money directly to some of the poorest and most vulnerable people, otherwise known as cash transfers. The allegation made was that this amounted to setting up UK-funded cashpoints for the poor. Aid money should never be misspent or wasted, but the criticisms of direct cash transfers - giving money directly to people in need - misunderstand the issue. Here's why.

Today marks the Global Day of Parents – a day to celebrate families across the world. It also gives us an opportunity to reflect on the incredible mums we work with. Many parents know all too well how difficult it is to juggle a career with childcare. We're working with Nepalese mums to address this issue.