Solidarity in Action:
Our Projects

Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, as the global justice organisation of the Australian union movement, works to support stronger union and social movements in thirteen locations in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Southern Africa. We do that by working in partnership with thirty-nine local unions and community organisations through thirty projects and campaigns.

Our approach to development and movement-building work is centred in values of partnership, solidarity, equality, justice, and accountability.

We provide on-the-ground assistance which aims to address the causes of injustice and inequality, not the symptoms.

We support organised movements of people to make their own change possible, by exerting political pressure for just and sustainable solutions.

We recognise our solidarity with the working classes and marginalised people of the Global South and stand with them, as together we struggle for a better world.

We seek to deploy funds in effective and strategic ways, with accountability to partner organisations, funding bodies and our own members.

Here are some of the projects and campaigns we undertake in collaboration with communities in our region and beyond:

By working to support strong movements of people, we can fight inequality and corporate greed. History shows us we can demand a just world.

Kate Lee

Executive Officer, Union Aid Abroad - APHEDA

To learn more about how we put our solidarity into action, take a look at the 2023 Annual Report, where you can read about our partnerships and projects, the activism and advocacy of our members, and the progress of our campaign to ban asbestos across Asia.

The Samoa First Union is calling for a major pay rise to fight poverty in Samoa, where the minimum wage can buy you bread, but no butter.
On the Thai-Myanmar border, women are building their collective power to build peace in their country and well-being in their communities in the face of growing militarisation and a precarious peace.
This year the Working Women’s Centre took to the streets with hundreds of Timorese Domestic Workers to celebrate International Domestic Workers Day and restate their demands to the Timorese government for dignity and rights at work.
The response to the climate crisis is not handouts, but campaigns for land rights, food sovereignty, sustainable agriculture, and access to water by defending the rights of rural women, farm workers, and small-scale farmers.
On the Thai-Myanmar border, a local medical clinic emerged from conflict to care for the villagers who were forced to flee their homes and seek safety in the Loi Kaw Wan refugee camp.
With the twentieth anniversary of East Timorese independence approaching, we’re celebrating the “journey of courage and resistance” of the Timorese people in rebuilding their country.
In the Philippines, the fight for a dignified wage and secure work has geared up, as Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA’s partner, Kilusang Mayo Uno, campaigns to end sham contracting and unites with other labour unions for a living wage.
APHEDA's partner in Timor Leste is organising farmers to defend their rights to access land and to undertake sustainable farming practices.
dsc03447_IMAGE BY KAREN NEWS
The Karen struggle has been ongoing for 70 years. Today, the situation remains challenging for both the Karen people and the environment.

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