Our History

In 1983, a young Australian nurse named Helen McCue, a committed member of the Australian Nursing Federation, was working as a nurse educator with the World Health Organisation in the Middle East.

Returning to Australia later that year, she took a proposal inspired by her experience in the refugee camps to the then ACTU President Cliff Dolan. Helen proposed the establishment of a global justice organisation in Australia.

She had been inspired while working in the Palestinian refugee camps alongside nurses from Norwegian People’s Aid, the overseas aid arm of the Norwegian trade union movement. Impressed by their focus on skills training, Helen felt that the Australian union movement could also make a difference in the lives of workers and marginalised people around the world.

With Cliff Dolan’s support, Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA was established in 1984.

Its international program has developed from a rights-based approach, with a focus on solidarity, not charity. Our work aims to build self-reliance through support to educational and training projects for workers and their organisations.

Today, as the global justice organisation of the Australian union movement, Union Aid Abroad-APHEDA works to support stronger union and social movements in thirteen locations in Southeast and South Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Southern Africa.

We do that by working in partnership with 42 local trade unions and community organisations across 14 countries, across Southeast Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Southern Africa, partnering with 42 local unions and organisations on over 30 impactful Projects and Campaigns.

Financial support for these projects comes from individuals throughout Australia, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), Australian unions and workplaces, international grants, as well as from the Australian government’s overseas aid agency, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).