40 years of fighting poverty: a short history of ActionAid s education work

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1 40 years of fighting poverty: a short history of ActionAid s education work PHOTO: JANE HAHN/PANOS PICTURES/ACTIONAID ActionAid is a registered charity no Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

2 ActionAid in the1970 s Child sponsorship became very successful because it created a Founded in 1972, ActionAid has been fighting poverty worldwide for 40 years. Originally known as Action in Distress, the charity was set up to give children in India and Kenya the chance to go to school. strong link between people in different countries. The UK sponsors received drawings or letters from the children and were able to see the difference they were making to their lives. People in the UK began to support our work by sponsoring a child. Money from child sponsorship was spent on school uniforms, fees and equipment. PHOTO: DES WILLIE/ACTIONAID Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

3 ActionAid in the1970 s continued As the 70 s went on we wanted to expand our work so that it would benefit whole communities rather than just individual children. By supporting the ramshackle schools where sponsored children lived we began to help their brothers, sisters sand neighbours to go to school. PHOTO: PIERS BENATAR/PANOS PICTURES/ACTIONAID Money was spent on building low cost classrooms using local materials. Enthusiastic parents pitched in to help build the schools. (We also supplied physical essentials to the communities like seeds, farming equipment and water pumps.) UK sponsors were happy because they could see concrete evidence of the changes they were helping to make. Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

4 ActionAid in the1980 s Governments of developing countries were being asked by By the 1980s our work had expanded across three continents. We worked with communities to boost agricultural production, improve water supplies and set up small businesses. PHOTO: GISELE WULFSOHN/PANOS PICTURES/ACTIONAID global lenders like the World Bank to reduce their spending on education. This meant that even tiny local schools were being encouraged to charge user fees by national governments. Many families had no cash income and often needed their children s help at home or in the fields to survive. Their children had no choice but to drop out of school. However, despite our tireless efforts, there were still millions of children out of school in countries like Kenya. The reasons for this were a complex mix of global, national and local factors: PHOTO: LIBA TAYLOR/ACTIONAID Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

5 ActionAid in the1980 s continued Parents were involved in running the centres and setting the timetables. This meant that children could learn in the morning, afternoon or evening and could still help out their families in the fields or at home. PHOTO: ACTIONAID ActionAid began to work with local communities to create non formal education centres to help the poorest children in the most remote areas go to school. The centres were free and were run completely independently from governments. The centres were very popular with parents and children. Learning was stimulating, fun and focused on the core skills of reading, writing and numeracy. The centres were replicated across many countries. PHOTO: NICOLAS AXELROD/ACTIONAID PHOTO: CAMERON MCNEE/MISSION MALAWI/ACTIONAID Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

6 ActionAid in the1990 s However, children attending ActionAid s non-formal education centres found it difficult to get into secondary school because their learning was not recognised by government schools. So we started to work with governments to provide integrated, quality education. PHOTO: JANE HAHN/PANOS PICTURES/ACTIONAID ActionAid started working with parents, community groups and local leaders in many countries to call for an end to school user fees. By meeting together and discussing the reasons why children were not in school, these groups were able to come up with their own solutions. The cost of going to school was still the main obstacle for most children from poor families. Governments in countries like Burundi, Ghana and Uganda continued to encourage even the most basic primary schools to charge user fees. For example, parents joined school committees and began to play an active role in the running of their schools and how the money was spent. Local groups connected across countries and national campaigns grew. This people power helped abolish user fees in many countries such as Burundi, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda. Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

7 ActionAid today From small beginnings ActionAid has grown into an international organisation working with millions of people in over 40 countries, fighting for and defending their human rights. PHOTO: BRIAN SOKOL/ACTIONAID We think and act globally as well as locally to address the root causes of poverty. Today parents living in poverty still have to pay a whole host of hidden costs for their children s education. Uniforms, books and equipment are common costs but some schools even charge pupils to go to the toilet or to drink water! PHOTO: CAMERON MCNEE/MISSION MALAWI/ACTIONAID Today we go beyond meeting people s immediate educational needs, like classrooms and learning materials, to focus on supporting families to demand a free, government education as their human right. PHOTO: VASILIKI MARKOLEFA/ACTIONAID Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April

8 ActionAid today continued Our vision is: a world without poverty and injustice in which every person enjoys their right to a life of dignity Our mission is: to work with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice Are we meeting people s basic needs? Our work on the ground is driven by the following questions: Is there anyone who could support us locally, nationally or globally? How will people meet and analyse their situation? Whose human rights are being denied? Are we thinking and acting globally as well as locally? Who has the power to change this? How will our actions benefit women and children? Part of The Work of an NGO resource ActionAid schools April