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 Australian Council for International Development (ACFID), the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA have called for the Australian government to use its international influence to push for an immediate end to the crisis and for
Vietnam is a country in transition. Since 1975, Vietnam has been seeking to build a better life for its people and to rebuild after the devastation of over 100 years of colonialism and war. As of March 2018, trade union
Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA has been working with Samoa First Union (SFU) in what has had a busy year developing and implementing organising plans across the private sector workplaces of Samoa.
The private sector investment in Lao PDR is booming ... as are reports of workplace injuries and incidents and deteriorating working conditions.
A new Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA project aims to improve the lives of Timor-Leste’s farmers. The nation’s farmers stand at an important cross road in the country’s development. Project Officer - Vietnam, Cambodia & Lao PDR Karine Laroche explains how organising
producing thatched roofs
Australian unionists gave generously to provide support to workers and communities who had lost housing and livelihoods due to Vanuatu's Cyclone Pam in 2015 and Fiji's Cyclone Winston in 2016.
myanmar unions
Myanmar (formerly Burma) has come through the turbulence of its federal election in good stead and there is a bright future for the nation’s young democratic trade union movement if it can harness the new opportunities.

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