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.

400 x 250 timor leste
In October 2018, Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA Timor Leste welcomed Sharon Claydon MP and Australian Ambassador Peter Roberts to meet our partner organisations.
400 x 250 vietnam people with disabilities program
The number of people living with a disability in Vietnam is staggering. Union Aid Abroad has been working with people with disabilities to attain greater equality in the workplace.
MICS-TUsF rally in Mandalay_9 December 2018
Myanmar news: Around 300 workers from 20 factories in the Mandalay Industrial Zone protested on 9 December 2018 decrying unfair dismissal of union leaders.
400 x 250 Image MICS Myanmar_Tharabar Gate Hotel Workers Strike_NOV 2018
Myanmar news: Workers in from the Tharabar Gate Hotel have been on strike since 12 October 2018 after their employer terminated 12 workers in August.
400 x 250 Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions_Image Munashe Chokodza
In November 2017, the dictator Mugabe was deposed in a coup, but the newly elected government has plunged the working people of Zimbabwe into a deep social and economic crisis.
400 x 250 Samoa First Union Fight for 3_Feb 2016
Samoa First Union (SFU) has been educating workers and the commmunity in their campaign to lift the minimum wage in Samoa.
400 x 250 Balibo Five - Roger East Fellowship_Pricilia in Melbourne_image by MEAA
In September 2018 former refugee, Pricilia Fonseca, returned to Australia as part of the Balibo Five - Roger East Fellowship to take on an internship at Channel 7.
400 x 250 KWO
For decades, the Karen Women's Organisation (KWO) have been leading the struggle for peace, democracy and equality in Karen State, Myanmar.
Based on the Thai-Myanmar border, the DARE Network provides culturally appropriate treatment and prevention education to reduce substance abuse within refugee communities.

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