CARE 2020 Annual Impact Report CARE AUSTRALIA Thank you for Impact of COVID-19 your support In what has been a turbulent year for the world, Australians Thank you, your support enables all the lifesaving work have faced some serious challenges, including months of that CARE undertakes - it is your generosity which raging bushfires, and now the COVID-19 pandemic. leads to the success stories in this report. Organisations like CARE, who seek to reduce poverty, Thanks to kind hearted donors like you, in 2019-20: vulnerability and injustice internationally, have had to think • We assisted 2.3 million people across 25 differently about our work. Indeed, whilst we have been countries. adapting to worrying trends - with an increasing frequency • We responded to eight humanitarian emergencies and intensity of disasters and cases of deepening in 22 countries, including Tropical Cyclone Harold inequality and injustice - the need to continually adapt has in the Pacific, the COVID-19 crisis across the never been more pressing. Asia-Pacific, as well as protracted crises in Syria, and . The Coronavirus pandemic has required a simultaneous • 97% of our staff are local to the country where emergency response in virtually every country where they work. CARE operates. It has challenged how international aid is delivered, including in response to other emergencies, like We would like to share some stories with you, the category five cyclone that hit the Pacific as COVID-19 showcasing just a few of the communities that your was escalating. CARE Australia sees this as an opportunity support has touched. We hope that you enjoy reading to solidify our commitment to locally-led programming and about how you have helped make a difference. ensure we proactively adapt to changing circumstances. This will help ensure CARE not only continues to be Thank you for your compassion, respect and lifesaving effective in the present, but leads the way in anticipating, support. preparing for, and responding to future challenges. Barbara Charan Philanthropy Manager

2 CARE AUSTRALIA

CASE STUDY Impact of COVID-19 on women and girls Adolescent girls’ age, gender, and developmental The sessions also serve as a platform to connect stage make them particularly vulnerable during girls with community health workers and women times of crisis. As a result, they face an increased role models, such as entrepreneurs, for risk of exposure to a variety of protection concerns instruction on financial literacy and including gender-based violence, early and forced entrepreneurship, and as an entry point for marriage, human trafficking, and harmful work. training on vocations and income-generating activities. Local female facilitators from the region have been trained to ensure married and unmarried Amid service disruptions created by the adolescent girls’ receive social support and access pandemic, adolescent girls around the world are to information. Each group is made up of finding creative ways to adapt and reach their approximately 15-25 girls aged 15-19 from a single peers while being mindful of COVID-19 safety village. Girls follow a 24-session, participatory protocols. For example, in Niger and Bangladesh, curriculum designed to enhance their knowledge, through CARE’s IMAGINE project, CARE has skills, and self-efficacy related to sexual and worked with adolescent girl leaders to adapt reproductive health, relationships, and financial gender-based violence prevention and response literacy. Sessions address puberty and other services amid the pandemic. CARE staff reproductive health topics, decision-making, determined that girl leaders were best positioned communication skills, and gender and social norms, to advise on ways programming could be and a range of other issues. adjusted, and the decision was made to support girls to provide psychological first aid and referrals to necessary services. CARE AUSTRALIA

Bangladesh CASE STUDY

Rohingya Refugee Crisis Back in 2017, Delder literally walked for seven September marked the 3 year anniversary of the days with her young daughter to reach Cox’s mass atrocities in Rakhine State that forced Bazar. After 65 days of treatment at a local hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas to flee their hospital, they were provided shelter at Camp 14, homes. They risked everything to escape and which is “home” for them now. three years on, the majority of them remain— overcrowded—in what is now the world’s largest “When I fled , I was only 25. But the last refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. For three years, have matured me beyond time and them, returning to Myanmar is not an option until redefined the meaning of life altogether. I am still guarantees for their safety and protection of their trying to come to terms with the loss of my rights are provided by the Myanmar government. husband and sons but I find solace in contributing to my community here,” says Delder. For the 915,000 Rohingya refugees in She is one of the most active members of the Bangladesh, living in the most densely-populated Women Disaster Management Volunteers, CARE makeshift camp in the world has brought Bangladesh’s site management project. She has incredible challenges. Monsoons continue to received training in disaster management that damage shelters, and cramped living conditions includes Early Warning System, First Aid, and mean social distancing to avoid COVID-19 has rescue efforts, among others. been impossible.

CARE has been working in the camps since the beginning of the crisis and has reached more than 231,650 people with shelter kits, distribution of food, health clinics and safe- spaces for women and girls and survivors of gender-based violence, and access to clean water.

Our Water, Sanitation and Hygiene programming has been extremely important in light of the pandemic, and has seen the distribution of hygiene and dignity kits, restored access to clean water, and the installation of taps and handwashing stations.

8 Tanzania - Growing is Learning

Growing a prosperous future CASE STUDY 49-year-old Agatha is a mother of six children who has Women farmers in Tanzania comprise 54% of the been working hard as a farmer in Ibumila village in Iringa. agricultural workforce, yet they struggle to earn a living In the past three years, possibilities have opened for and provide nutritious food for their families. They have Agatha, after participating in CARE’s Growing Is been excluded from becoming agricultural leaders, Learning project. despite having generations of farming experience behind them — limited by customs and traditions which While working as a lead farmer, Agatha was given disadvantage them when it comes to education, access training on the best practice in agriculture, in particular, in to finance and decision-making. soya farming. She was also trained in home gardening, food types and nutrition, as well as business and Through the Growing is Learning project, CARE has finances, entrepreneurship and gender-based violence. been working in the rural district of Iringa in Southern Tanzania since 2017 to train local women in the CARE partnered with private company, Sundy Merchant production of soya — a highly nutritious, climate resilient Co. Ltd. to help local women farmers improve their crop that helps to enrich soil health. competitiveness and networks with suppliers and paraprofessionals — Agatha was one of the women who Thanks to your support, small-scale women farmers have benefited greatly. increased their production and income through soya bean farming, with 616 farmers (71% women) harvesting It was a huge step for Agatha to start her own small- 19,481kg of soya beans in the last season. scale processing of a soya bean drink and nutritional flour, and to then receive training on branding and packaging, which she now proudly sells as ‘Sote Lishe’, which means ‘nutrition to all’.

“It was an eye opener to go from training in processing to start doing it and selling products,” she says.

Agatha learnt the difference that better quality packaging and proper branding could have on her product and sales.

“I used to process 10kg of soya bean which I would pack in soft plastic and would take about a month to sell in my village. It didn’t contribute much to my family’s income. But after the training and changing my packaging and branding, I am selling my products in shops around town, at the national farmer’s exhibition and I am selling out and making more money.”

The opportunity to improve her sales and profitability has also meant that Agatha has been able to connect with other entrepreneurs and buyers, and she is optimistic about what the future holds.

“My product is now good looking, well preserved for a longer time, and it has all the competitive advantages which means increased sales and, of course, increased income for my family,” Agatha says.

With your support, CARE will continue helping women like Agatha by equipping them with the knowledge, skills and confidence to lift themselves out of poverty through farming. If you would like more information about CARE Australia or any of these projects, please contact:

CARE Australia 1800 020 046 [email protected] care.org.au ABN 46 003 380 890

National Office Ground, 243 Northbourne Ave, Lyneham ACT 2602 Ph (02) 6279 0200

Melbourne Office Level 8, 406 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Ph (03) 9421 5572

care.org.au