Support movements, don't build them.

Sometimes NGOs, with ActionAid as no exempt, has a tendency to approach movement building as a way to build its own base - instead of realizing its role in assisting the strengthening of already existing movements on the ground, and how it helps sustain these movements and bring new knowledge and opportunities to movements bringing them forward. Sometimes it's trainings and funding, sometimes it's just an office space.

Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan, one of the core movement leaders in the overthrow of the former dictator of The Gambia, Yayah Jameh, tells insights from their struggle and how the mass mobilisation was realized after years of rooted organising with young people and local communities. In this short video he dwells on the role that ActionAid played, the challenges he personally faced in this relationship and pulls out lessons for current and future struggles where ActionAid has a role.

In this short story Søren from Denmark tells about how he was part of the initiative Welcome to Denmark, which played a central organising role in the months after the recent influx of refugees to Europe and Denmark, and how ActionAid played a key role in its making - right there in the office space!