Work it for ActionAid

Universal Music Group’s Lizzie Dickson volunteering in South Africa, where she and her workmates helped Khubvi community build a much-needed community centre – a space for village meetings, healthcare training, and education sessions on legal and civil rights. Photo: ActionAid

Your guide to supporting ActionAid in the workplace

Give through your pay.

Through your payroll and with no

additional tax forms to fill in, you

can make monthly donations of an

amount specified by you directly

from your pre-tax salary; this means

every £1 you donate will cost you

only 80p. It’s the easiest and most

cost-effective way to give. Talk to your

payroll team to get started – and if

your company doesn’t support payroll

giving, ask why not! We can help you

and them get started.

Sponsor a child. Donating £15 per month will help

improve the life of a child and their

community. You’ll receive messages

and update reports to track how the

community is progressing on a regular

basis during your sponsorship. You

can also become a sponsor through

your payroll. Your money could help

children like Sadia (pictured top right)

and their communities, making sure

your child’s future is safe.

Run, walk or build

Fancy a marathon or getting physical

in Nepal or Malawi? Or maybe

volunteering to build a school on

one of our First Hand Experiences

overseas? You and your work

colleagues could have the experience

of your lives and transform the lives

of others on one of our unique

challenges, just like Lizzie (on the front

cover) and her colleagues.

Work it for ActionAid!

At Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) we’ve supported ActionAid for at least five years. Each year we hold an assortment of fundraising activities in support of ActionAid. This culminates in us trying to encourage as many staff as possible to come to work in fancy dress. Each year I bake and gather raffle prizes to help raise funds for HRG Day – we’re already talking about what we can do for the next one.

Joy Cross Manager, Business Service Support, Hogg Robinson Group

Here’s how…

Organise a fundraising event at work.

Whether it’s a dress up or dress down

day, a team adventure day or an after-

work pub quiz, we can offer you a

variety of fundraising tools and ideas

to ensure your fundraising efforts

are supported, celebrated and put

to the best use, helping the poorest

communities around the world.

Speak up

Spread the word among colleagues

and create your very own ActionAid

community in your workplace.

Whether you’re nominating ActionAid

as your Charity of the Year partner at

work, or giving talks to staff at your

company to promote the work of the

charity, we need your voice.

Become an Emergency Fundraising volunteer

Join ActionAid’s Global Emergencies

Team – a nationwide network of

fundraisers pre-equipped with the

tools and resources to kick-start your

fundraising at work as soon as an

emergency strikes, instantly saving

lives. It couldn’t be simpler. You’ll be a

key part of a global team supporting

people when they need it most.

Visit www.actionaid.org.uk/team

to get involved.

Hello

We know you’re busy, but we’d love to have just five minutes of your time to show you a handful of easy ways that you, your employer and colleagues can make a big difference to communities around the world.

We’d like you to join us, and help others like Jindan, featured on the back cover. ActionAid works alongside some of the world’s poorest, most powerless people from women to children, farmers to small traders. But that’s not all. By raising funds for our work to lift people’s standard of living – through better education, accessible healthcare, improved agriculture and making their voices heard – we can tackle the poverty that’s keeping a billion people hungry and nearly 70 million children away from school.

You can start today, it’s simple.

Murm belongs to an ActionAid-

supported farming co-op that trains

women in seed preservation and

sowing, and lends seed to farmers

in lean times, preventing hunger.

Photo: Nicolas Axelrod/ActionAid

By supporting ActionAid through child sponsorship, you’ll be helping children like Sadia, whose community has been hit by drought in Kenya, ensuring they have fresh water and emergency food supplies.Photo: Piers Benatar/Panos Pictures/ActionAid

Case study

Jindan & ActionAid get to work

Jindan Mai, 50, lives in Truri, south Punjab, Pakistan. Her family was badly affected by severe floods in July 2010. ActionAid provided immediate rescue and relief for Jindan’s family and hundreds of others, including food, basic household items, hygiene kits and plastic sheets for shelter. Women were helped to set up kitchen gardens to help reduce hunger and malnutrition, and some were given funding to start small businesses. This work reached almost 120,000 flood-affected people.

One year on, Jindan is running a village shop. “I lost my cattle and grains in the floods and was left with no source of income,” says Jindan. “With ActionAid’s help I managed to set up a shop. In my village it’s not very common for women to run a business, therefore I faced challenges in the beginning. People said I won’t be able to do it. But I worked with honesty and dedication. Soon my shop business picked up and now I make enough to live comfortably.”

By selling everyday items such as biscuits, detergent, soaps, hair pins and embroidery thread, Jindan is able to buy food for her 10 children and pay for their education.

“If my husband were alive, he’d be so proud of me” she says. “I have set an example for other women. They shouldn’t feel shy coming out of their homes to make a living.”

Sadia, Murm and Jindan’s stories show just some of the ways we’re helping people make their lives more secure in the face of poverty, conflict and disaster.

If you would like to support our work or find out more, contact our Company Partnerships team by emailing companypartnerships@actionaid.org or call (020) 3122 0682 today.

www.actionaid.org.ukRegistered charity no 274467

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