Don’t miss UnionAID’s new South Indian photo exhibition
Supported by UnionAID
12th – 25th March
De Luxe cafe
Next to Embassy Theatre, Kent Terrace, Wellington
Supported by UnionAID
The sixth issue of Solidarity, the newsletter of the Unions Aotearoa International Development Trust, is available below. This issue introduces new projects in Sri Lanka and the Pacific, as well as updates on ongoing projects in Tamil Nadu and Mae Sot.
UnionAID has had an active few months developing new project options.
A new project in Sri Lanka, starting in the new year, will establish a Women’s Centre in Eastern Sri Lanka from which two organisers will provide support and union organisation for more than 5,000 Tamil women workers in garment factories which have been established in this area previously under the control of the Tamil Tigers.
In Mae Sot we are funding an extension to our very successful occupational skills training centre, to include cooking and embroidery skills. We are also establishing a scholarship programme to enable twenty graduates from the FTUB high school to gain vocational skills training at the Thai Government vocational training college.
UnionAID is also working with partners in Vanuatu and Samoa on possible projects which will help them to better protect the interests of workers coming to New Zealand on the seasonal employment scheme, and to organise a union for workers in the private sector in Samoa.
Generous support for our fundraising this year has made these projects possible. So a sincere thanks to all of our supporters.
Increasingly experts are questioning the role of aid in the reduction of poverty. Some are even suggesting that at times it might contribute to the problem. So what development programmes should we support?
The United Nations has claimed that co-operatives not only achieve the common goals of their members but also promote “poverty reduction, employment creation, empowerment of women and food security…” . Accordingly, they have declared next year as the International Year of Co-operatives.
So the Tamil Nadu Labour Union (TLU) is way ahead of the play. The focus of their work to date has been on participatory development, where Dalit (untouchable) and Tribal (indigenous) people are brought together so they can collectively identify their priorities and develop strategies to improve their lives. This first step has seen communities of more than 30,000 of the poorest and most oppressed people benefit from their union bargaining power. Building on this collective strength UnionAID is now funding a TLU project to set up five workers’ cooperatives. These will provide members with marketing and organisational skills to set them on a sustainable path to economic independence.
Helen Wilson
Gareth Morgan has agreed to match us dollar for dollar up to $30,000 a year with our fundraising for the new Tamil Nadu project. Thanks to hard work from UnionAID activists, and generous donations from our supporters, we are on track to meet that target for the first six months of the project. Our sincere thanks.
In Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, new migrants from Burma are learning valuable work skills thanks to the Occupational Training Centre set up by the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) with support from UnionAID.
Yin Yin and La Ka Prae Moo crossed the border in the hope of finding work in Thailand and have come to the training centre to learn the sewing skills they need to get jobs.
Yin Yin, who is from the Irrawaddy Delta region of Burma, said that life became hard after her village was hit by Cyclone Nargis and her family home was destroyed, so she decided to try to find a job in Thailand. She likes to sew and hopes to make a living by sewing when she returns to Burma. In the meantime she will get a job at a sewing factory in Thailand and save some money to take home.
La Ka Prae Moo comes from Karen state, where she said “it was very hard to survive”. Her family needed income, so she decided to come to Thailand in search of work. “My ambition is to save some money in Thailand for the next two years and then with my sewing skills and savings I will return to Burma to be a tailor.” She said that the sewing course was very useful, especially since it included learning how to sew details like collars and pockets.
As part of the course, the trainees learn about Thai labour laws and the role of workers’ organisations like the FTUB. The trainees are aware that employers don’t always follow the law and that workers’ organisations are there to help if there are problems. Yin Yin says that “learning about labour laws was good, but we don’t know yet what it will be like in practice, because we are new here”. As La Ka Prae Moo added, “if we have problems at work we know we can contact the trainer and also to the workers’ organisations.”
Nick Henry
An online database has been developed with the help of Susan Iversen of Karo Data Management in Wellington. This will provide statistical information to evaluate the Tamil Nadu economic development project.
To gather this data a small survey was designed in collaboration with project directors in India. This covers demographic data and three measures which will identify changes to: a) daily income b) household indebtedness and c) school attendance for boys and girls. It was decided that these three ‘indicators’ would be a simple way to provide evidence of improvement in the lives of participants without making too much extra work for the project staff.
Because the majority of participants are illiterate the information is collected orally. The data is then entered onto the LimeSurvey database by staff in the Labour Union’s Madurai office. Twenty five surveys can be entered free each month and Karo has generously sponsored another 2000 extra entries. To date 528 surveys have been completed and data entered for agricultural workers and basket weavers who have signed up to the first two co-operatives.
UnionAid is planning a study tour to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border from the 23rd to the 28th January 2012
As well as visiting the new UnionAID Occupational Skills Training Centre the study tour will be a unique opportunity to talk to Burmese people on the border about their hopes and aspirations for a democratic Burma, to learn about international aid and development and the work of UnionAID partner the Federation of Trade Unions of Burma, and other groups fighting for a democratic Burma.
The study tour is designed for people with a genuine interest in international aid and development, and the Burmese situation. UnionAID is looking for people who will use the experience to learn, share and educate when they return home. Solidarity members of UnionAID will get priority.
Expressions of interest welcome.
For more information please download the programme and application form – Burma Study Tour or email: rossw@nzctu.org.nz
An exciting new UnionAID project in South India will develop 5 cooperative based businesses and more than 120 micro-enterprises over the next 3 years.
This new project will build on the UnionAID project work of the past 3 years which has organised more than 30,000 people in Dalit and Tribal communities and will help them to achieve their goal of economic independence. India may be prospering economically but this prosperity has failed to impact on two of India’s poorest and most disadvantaged groups: Dalit (untouchable) and Tribal (indigenous) people.
The goal of this project is to take up this challenge at a grass roots level and, by breaking the cycle of poverty and discrimination, improve the livelihood choices and economic security of Dalit and Tribal (including previously nomadic) communities in Tamil Nadu, South India over the three year term of the project. The project will assist these communities to:
Basket makers' president Angali
