The ACTION Support Centre (ASC) works in Africa, with men and women, with communities and their organisations, and with the people and institutions they are linked to and separated from, including colleagues, comrades and companeros from across the globe.
It is only by linking individuals together, and finding the organisations that can support and strengthen us that we can realise the collective potential and the power we know we have. We have learned that people in situations of violent conflict need each other, and that in situations emerging from violence that continue to be wracked by tensions and conflict the links between people become even more important. The more robust and durable the relationships are the more resilient and effective the forces for change become.
These lessons inform and guide the ACTION Support Centre. Our work is centred on empowerment and solidarity. We see conflict as a source of energy, with the potential to bring the change we need, but also as a danger with the potential to become destructive. We learn how to understand it, how to use it, and how to use the relationships we form to manage it, to harness it, and to transform it. We focus on individuals, and organisations. We work together to become stronger, and more powerful. And we focus on how we can support each other and those who value the solidarity we need and are able to offer. Most essentially we work to build relationships. The relationships between us as individuals, between the organisations and movements we form and belong to, and between the leaders from whom we demand change and the people who are doing the demanding.
Africa is rich. The diversity of our people, the value of our cultures, the fertile land which nourishes us and the minerals hidden within it have all been used against us for too long now. A continent as wealthy as Africa can no longer be expected to endure the legacy of poverty with which so many associate it. The ancient wisdoms of our traditions and our modern skills of making things work, of relationship building, of nurturing, and of surviving against all odds have made us strong. Another world is possible, and Africa is ready to be part of that another world!
Aluta Continua!
ASC Team