ActionAid uses FBB support to fight poverty

ActionAidFourth-quarter 2011 poverty beneficiary ActionAid USA gave us this report about how they are using the funds contributed by members of Foundation Beyond Belief. Members donated $3,905 to ActionAid last quarter.

ActionAid USA is grateful to Foundation Beyond Belief and its donors for their continued support.  Using funds received from FBB, ActionAid will take a rights-based approach to fighting poverty in developing countries on a variety of fronts, from gender-based violence to climate change.  In the United States, ActionAid conducts research, advocacy campaigns, and targeted outreach, both to inform the U.S. public and to build solidarity with the poor internationally.

In all our work, ActionAid takes sides with poor people to help them understand their rights and confront the injustices that hold them back. We campaign with governments to ensure that their decisions on aid, lending, and trade agreements respect the rights of poor people. Below is a sample of our programs:

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ActionAid Warns of Triple Threat to Food Security

In a recent report, ActionAid, our current poverty beneficiary, warned that one-quarter of the world’s population is on the brink of crisis due to the triple threat of climate change, depleted natural resources, and soaring food prices:

• At least 10 countries, accounting for more than 1.5 billion of the world’s population, are highly vulnerable to a climate-related food crisis. Overall, climate change could add another half a billion people to those facing chronic hunger around the world by 2050. Every rural community surveyed across Africa, Asia and the Americas said that erratic and extreme weather was crippling their ability to feed themselves.

• Unsustainable farming practices and an unprecedented rush from foreign investors to control resources such as minerals, oil, biofuel and water, could leave millions of the poorest people without enough arable land to produce food. In Africa alone, over 6 million hectares of degraded farmland must be regenerated to meet the demand for food from a population set to double by 2050.

• A dangerous new era of high food prices is set to push 44 million more people into poverty. The demand for biofuel – produced from wheat, corn, soybean and sugarcane – means that food prices will keep rising unless rich countries find alternative sources of energy.

Read ActionAid’s full report here: On the Brink: Who’s best prepared for a climate and hunger crisis?

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Thank You from GO Humanity

We’re sad to say we’re closing… Dear Supporters of GO Humanity, We have very heavy news. As of October 1st, 2023, GO Humanity must dissolve as an organization and cease to operate.  In 2009, we planted a seed which became the sapling of Foundation Beyond Belief which became the tree of GO Humanity. Now our…

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Fire devastates enormous Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh

More than 400 people are missing and 15 confirmed dead after a fire at the world’s largest refugee camp in Bangladesh. An estimated 45,122 people have been affected — mostly all Rohingya, who fled Myanmar from ethnic cleansing in 2017. Many are seeking shelter in nearby camps, friends or families’ shelters, and learning centers, according…

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Indonesian floods and the class divide

Indonesian flood

Monsoon rains that began December 31 have brought catastrophic flooding and landslides to Jakarta, West Java, and Banten in Indonesia, with more rain expected in the coming weeks. Over 35,000 people have been displaced and more than 1,300 homes damaged. At the time of this writing at least 66 people have been confirmed dead. One…

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“A People of Nowhere.”

Two years ago, Myanmar’s military launched a violent crackdown against the Muslim Rohingya population. Last week, local regulators compounded the Rohingya's sense of isolation by ordering a halt to all cellphone service in the area of their camps. Imagine that your own government has burned your villages into the ground, attempted to kill you, and…

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Cyclone Idai: How YOU can help.

Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) is currently monitoring the effects and recovery efforts related to Cyclone Idai. On March 14th, Cyclone Idai made landfall in Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Malawi causing widespread damage, fatalities, and misplaced people. Currently the death toll has risen to over 750 people (Mozambique 446, Zimbabwe 259, and Malawi 56), but with flood…

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Announcing FBB Beneficiary for Disaster Appeal: Kerala Monsoon Flooding

We are thrilled to announce our beneficiary for our Disaster Appeal: Kerala Monsoon Flooding. ActionAid USA's local partners are currently responding in the some of the hardest hit regions of Kerala where there is a high presence of tribal, minority, and Dalit people whose subsistence is largely based on informal labor. Their capacity to recover during emergencies is very limited.…

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