Poverty (2010 Q2)

Featured beneficiary in the POVERTY category for second quarter 2010:

ACTION AID INTERNATIONAL USA

Charity Navigator rating:

Annual budget: $4.6 million

We're ActionAid. We're people who are dedicated to ending the extreme poverty that kills 28 children every minute of every day. We're a non-profit and much more. We're a partnership between people in poor countries and people in rich countries – all working together to end poverty for good. Poverty matters. It matters to poor people, fighting to feed and care for their families in the face of injustice. It matters to ActionAid's supporters who want a better world for all of humankind. Together with our supporters and with poor people whose voices direct our work, we are making real change.

We listen to and learn from poor people to identify and help them fulfill their own needs, encouraging them to lobby decision-makers in their own countries, and campaigning and calling for change from those who hold power on the international stage.

Our community-driven approach works. ActionAid's founding and leadership in the Global Campaign for Education helped 40 million more children into schools in the last eight years. Our work in Ghana nearly doubled women's participation in the electoral process. In Kenya, we helped in a campaign that resulted in a 35 percent increase in the number of HIV and AIDS patients with access to treatment.

ActionAid works on the ground and in the halls of power to end poverty. In communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, our work includes on-the-ground provision of health care, education, food, assistance in the face of natural disasters and conflict, and developing capacity of civil society to effect change in the countries where we work.

Our work concentrates on women's rights, education, right to food, conflicts and emergencies, HIV & AIDS, and the right to fair and just governance. We recognize that women's rights must be addressed if we are serious about putting an end to poverty and the injustices that cause it. We are leading an international campaign to end violence against women and we fight daily – nationally, internationally and at the community-level – to fight for women's rights to land, inheritance and a living wage.

In our emergencies work we responded to major disasters throughout Africa and Asia, as well as continuing our recover work in Tsunami-affected areas and the area of Pakistan devastated by an earth quake two years ago. We also work on-the-ground to help communities prepare for disasters and to develop their resiliency to flood, droughts, and other natural disasters.

Poverty is our problem. But we are hopeful. Our optimism comes from the people we work with every day. They are making change in spite of the odds they face. They are an inspiration. Together, we will end poverty once and for all.