The winner for this category is:
Highly commended were:
“Improving workers’ conditions through ethical audits”
While there are increasing opportunities for small farmers in Africa, most trade stems from large businesses employing thousands of low income workers. ‘These jobs are extremely important for the poor and their families. The queues of people outside factory and farm gates are testament to that’, says Usha Kar, executive director of Africa Now. ‘When western media attention highlights abuses, whole sectors of employment are threatened, which in turn further threatens the vulnerability of the low income worker. Rather than boycott these facilities, why not seek to engage them to improve their labour practises, satisfy their customers, and safeguard their business and ultimately the livelihoods of their workers?’
In 2003 Africa Now became involved with the Ethical Trading Initiative. It became clear that there was a lack of local organisations in developing countries to report on working conditions. When approached by GAP to help them understand working conditions in their factories in Kenya, Africa Now saw a niche opportunity to build a business delivering ethical business services. In addition to helping to improve the conditions of factory workers, fees charged for carrying out ethical audits are put back into the overall work of the charity.
To date, Africa Now has audited over 130 factories and farms in 11 countries, improving the working conditions of approximately 130,000 workers in a range of sectors including textile, food manufacturing and packaging factories, and flower, fruit and vegetable plantations. Kar believes it is the local expertise which makes its audits so effective. ‘Without a network of trained local associates, our work would be like any other audit body seeking to make assessments from an external viewpoint. It is only with the skills and experience of these people that we can get to the real issues for workers.’
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Usha Kar |
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International HIV/AIDS Alliance
“Tackling HIV in Zambia”
Zambia has a population of 11.6 million people, with a national HIV prevalence rate of 17 per cent and over 1 million adults estimated to be living with the virus. ‘Our research in Zambia revealed a serious lack of information in communities about how HIV is transmitted and how it can be treated’, says Maresa Pitt, support officer for resource mobilisation at the Alliance. ‘The Zambian government had begun taking steps to tackle the high prevalence of HIV in the country, and we wanted to create a community environment that would encourage testing and treatment.’
To achieve this, the Alliance decided to implement a project which would meet the communities’ need for information, and which would also support people living with HIV through stronger links between health services and the community. As such the ACER (Antiretrovial treatment, Community Education and Referral) Project was initiated to partner with community and faith-based organisations in providing education, referral to clinics for treatment or testing, and buddy systems and support groups.
Project activities have reached around 150,000 people in three sites. Uptake of treatment and testing rapidly increased, with a total of 2,000 people referred to public health clinics in 2005. The judges were impressed by the organisation of the project, observing: ‘The board meets twice a year but any members of staff can attend, which is an interesting and radical approach. The Alliance started in 1993 with 20 partners and it has still got 17 of those, which indicates it must be doing something right.’
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Maresa Pitt |
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“Supporting neglected communities in Darfur”
‘I certainly had no intention of starting a charity in Africa. I was visiting my son who was working as a diplomat in Khartoum, and we went to Darfur. It was March 2001 at the time of a severe drought, and we came across a nine year old boy who had been walking for seven hours to get water. The shocking thing was that agencies were there but were doing nothing about it.’ Patricia Parker was so moved by this experience that she set up the charity three days later.
While the international aid community has focussed on the 2.5 million people who have fled to camps, 3.5 million remain in their villages, clinging to their homes and struggling to survive. Kids for Kids is virtually the only organisation providing support to these neglected communities.
Discussions with villagers revealed a particular need for goats and donkeys which had been lost to drought and the conflict, so made-in-kind goat and donkey loan schemes became a core part of Kids for Kids’ activities. Due to the security situation it was essential that communities could be self-sufficient, so the charity engaged in building management capacity, training villagers as para-vets and establishing a revolving veterinary drugs fund. The women of the villages also expressed a fear of childbirth due to the risk of death, so Kids for Kids also started training village midwives.
In total its projects are reaching over 100,000 people. In 2006, 3,914 goats and 573 donkeys were distributed to around 650 families in 21 village communities, while 42 village midwives have been trained and are working with young women. It is these activities which led the judges to describe it as ‘a really excellent, innovative project, which has shown adaptability’.
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Patricia Parker |
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