Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA lead organiser Lachlan Batchelor. Photo: Christopher Hopkins
Formed in 1984 by Australian Nursing Federation member Helen McCue, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is the global justice organisation of the Australian union movement, supporting workers and social movements in locations in Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and Southern Africa. Helen, and Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA organiser Lachlan Batchelor, spoke at the 2024 delegates conference about their work.
The idea for APHEDA first came to Helen when she found herself in war-torn Lebanon in the early 1980s. She had been working as a nurse consultant with the World Health Organization, where one of her roles involved coordinating immunisation and other healthcare services for Palestinian refugees in the Beqaa valley – primarily mothers and babies who had fled the fighting.
In 1982 a fragile peace evaporated with the assassination of militia leader Bachir Gemayel, causing tensions to reignite. The brutal Sabra and Shatila massacre that followed was the final straw for Helen. ‘Palestinian patients, nurses and doctors were separated from the foreign staff and killed,’ she explained. ‘Nurses and women were mercilessly raped. Whole families were slaughtered.’
An idea born in a refugee camp
Helen resigned from the UN and made her way to Beirut’s Sabra neighbourhood and the Shatila refugee camp, where she met Dr Olfat Mahmoud. A lasting friendship between the two women formed.
‘I lived upstairs in the hospital and helped with nursing duties. I nursed a woman who had survived the massacre underneath the bodies of her entire family. I was also caring for a young girl who had had a leg amputated after being hit by a cluster bomb. These experiences and more led to a turning point in my life,’ Helen explained.
‘While the international community provided immediate post-conflict humanitarian relief, no organisation was helping to skill and re-skill nurses and other health workers. I felt strongly that Australian workers could do more to help.’
Solidarity not charity
When news reached Helen of the election of a Labor federal government led by Bob Hawke – the former president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) – she decided the time was right and headed home to Australia ‘with the idea of setting up a trade union-based aid organisation with a focus on solidarity, not charity’.
With the help of Cliff Dolan, the then head of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, the ACTU executive approved the establishment of an overseas aid organisation aimed at building self-reliance through support and training projects for workers. By January 1984, APHEDA was born.
One of their first projects was a program to help train Palestinian nurses, and ‘within two years we had health-related projects in a number of areas globally – including Lebanon, Vietnam, Eritrea, the Philippines, New Caledonia, Timor Leste and Zimbabwe,’ Helen said. ‘The response from the trade union movement was generous, and we were fortunate to have a Federal Labor government that supported this initiative with project grants.’
Forty years on
Forty years on and now known as Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA, they have 20 national and international staff and offices in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Timor Leste as well as Australia. They work in partnership with local trade unions and community organisations on healthcare, OHS and other projects that have included education and training around HIV AIDS, and a long-running campaign to eradicate the use of asbestos globally.
Other key areas of focus today are:
- defending workers’ rights and safety at work
- climate justice
- defending the rights of migrants and refugees
- women’s solidarity across borders.
Concluding, Helen said ‘APHEDA’s work began after my experience in the refugee camps in Lebanon. Tragically, the plight of Palestinians across the Middle East has changed little. The majority of the world community is calling for lasting peace, and recognition of just rights for all Palestinians and Israelis. We must continue to work for this – and for justice for workers and people worldwide.
‘APHEDA’s global development and advocacy work would not have been possible without the collective commitment of the Australian trade union movement, including nurses and midwives,’ she added.
‘Across the globe, hundreds of thousands of people have benefited from this work. Hundreds of nurses and healthcare workers have had access to education and training to improve their practice of care. Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA is a grassroots expression of our international solidarity with workers and unions struggling for liberation, for health, food sustainability, education, worker rights, and freedom from occupation. Our work is far from done.’
Just an Australian nurse getting stuff done, as usual
To elaborate on this, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA lead organiser Lachlan Batchelor took the stage. ‘Every time I hear Helen’s story,’ he said, ‘what I’m struck by is the sheer determination to see an idea through to reality. From a simple thought in a refugee camp to an aid organisation that’s now 40 years old with offices in five countries and an international reputation – it’s a testament to her dedication, just an Australian nurse getting stuff done, as usual.’
While Helen’s generosity continues, he added, ‘it’s now up to us to shepherd this organisation into its future. The solidarity that we can provide is meaningful. It’s important. And it’s needed now more than ever. The lasting way you can support Helen’s idea into the future, in an ongoing way, is to become a member.’
