Our world today is both more advanced than ever before and yet also worse off. The number of Pacific Islanders affected by climate disasters has surged by 700% in the past decade while the economic costs associated with these disasters have increased eight-fold. 2 out of 3 women in the region will be subject to intimate partner violence in their lifetime, a rate that is higher than even the global average. Many of them will also go on to carry a disproportionate amount of unpaid care work – almost triple the amount performed by their husbands and brothers. Across the Pacific, families will have to walk hours to the nearest creeks to fill up buckets with fresh water while their daughters stay home from school when they are menstruating because they do not have the resources they need to manage their menstruation safely.

These daily realities for Pacific Islanders present them with choices they shouldn’t have to make. Choices between buying bread for breakfast or kerosene for the stove used to cook the family meals. Choices between getting a loan to rebuild a family’s home after a cyclone or paying for their children to go to school. Choices between drinking possibly dirty water from the nearby creek or not drinking anything at all.

But these aren’t actual choices – they are impossible situations that families have to deal with sometimes on a daily basis. More than that, they are unfair, unsafe and unjust. There is a misconception that this is just the way the world is, and that sometimes people are just dealt an unfair deck of cards. Nothing could be further from the truth. We know that poverty is not natural – it exists because of policies, politics and structures that allow for wealth to be accumulated by a minority and fought for by the world’s majority. We know that there is more than enough food available so that no one should ever have to experience extreme hunger. We know that natural hazards do not have to become disasters that ruin people’s lives and livelihoods.

When you donate to us and when you support our campaigning, you’re joining forces with a global community confronting the causes and consequences of poverty and building the fair future we want and the equal world we know is possible.

Experience shows us that when people unite – sharing beliefs, respect, expertise and resources – lasting change isn’t just possible, it’s unstoppable. That’s what makes us different. Our community-led approach connects vital humanitarian relief work, long term anti-poverty projects and campaigning for change that lasts. Because this connected approach is the best way to end the injustice of poverty.

With every donation, you’re joining local aid workers delivering emergency responses that blend the cutting edge with the tried and tested. You’re joining communities developing fairer solutions to poverty – from ensuring every girl can get an education, to spreading new techniques to growing food in the climate crisis. And across it all, you’re joining inspirational activists and experts pushing to end the unjust policies and practices that put people in harm’s way in the first place.

Every donation is a powerful way to uphold your belief in humanity and justice. You’re joining a global community that believes in the equal value of every human and everyone’s right to live a life of dignity, fairness and safety. It’s a different kind of charity for a fairer, safer world. A world that one day won’t need your donations.

A world that works for everyone