ActionAid's 50 Year History

Delve into our history spanning nearly 50 years as an international organisation, and 10 years since ActionAid Australia was founded.

2009

Building on our 42 year legacy as Austcare, we joined the ActionAid federation, a global leader in rights based approaches supporting people living in poverty to drive change from the ground up.

2010

We stood in solidarity with Palestinian women supporting 14 local organisations to advance women’s rights through public education on inheritance rights and grants for women to establish small businesses.

2013

We launched our ground- breaking transitional justice work to support women survivors of violence in Uganda, Kenya and Democratic Republic of Congo to define justice from their own perspectives.

2015

We launched a global campaign to make cities safer for women and responded to major emergencies in Vanuatu and Nepal supporting safe spaces for women and resourcing women’s leadership.

2017

We secured a major win stopping Australian funding of a proposed Australian-run coal mine in South Africa that would undermine women’s rights, and we launched the Shifting the Power Coalition in the Pacific.

2019

We drove gender responsive alternatives to climate change by supporting 8000 women in Vanuatu, Kenya and Cambodia to influence climate change policy from the local to the global and launched the Transform Trade for Women

2024

We celebrated 15 years as ActionAid Australia, and ActionAid’s global impact on the lives of 500,000 women in 70 countries.

ActionAid Australia was originally founded as Austcare, an NGO dedicated to defending rights of people seeking asylum and protection in emergencies. In 2009, Austcare joined the ActionAid Federation. 

Since then, ActionAid Australia has sharpened our expertise in human rights and poverty eradication, with a focus on supporting women in low-income communities around the world to campaign for their rights.

Over the years, we have firmly established ourselves in Australia as a global women’s rights organisation, supporting women living in poverty and exclusion around the world. We have also begun campaigning in Australia and across the globe to address the structural causes of injustice and inequality, using an intersectional feminist lens.

About our Human Rights Based Approach

Watch this video and find out more about the four elements that make up our approach to everything we do across programs, campaigns, and fundraising.

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Leadership Team

Michelle Higelin Executive Director

Michelle has nearly three decades of experience working to advance women’s rights in Australia and internationally, including as the former Deputy General Secretary of the World YWCA. Michelle has served on global advisory groups to the UN Population Fund and the World Food Programme, and chaired the NGO Working Group on Peace at the UN in Geneva. She is currently Vice President of the Australian Council for International Development and Co-Chair of the Australian Civil Society Coalition on Women, Peace and Security.

Maeva Freeman Head of Partnerships & Impact

Maeva is the Head of Partnerships & Impact at ActionAid Australia, leading the organisation’s philanthropy and strategic partnerships strategy to catalyse and scale the impact of our work. Maeva was instrumental in establishing an ActionAid initiative, the Arise Fund – the first ever global fund resourcing women’s leadership in emergencies. Maeva is currently a Board Director of Emergency Action Alliance, and she served on the Executive Committee of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, NSW.

Katherine Tu Head of Policy and Campaigns

Kat is the Head of Policy and Campaigns at ActionAid Australia. She has ten years experience working in the progressive campaigns space, with expertise in digital campaigning and fundraising, corporate campaigning, and community organising She is particularly passionate about equity, racial justice, and intersectional feminism. Kat holds a combined Bachelor of Arts and Law from the University of Sydney.

Vikram Chowdhary Head of Fundraising

Vikram is the Head of Fundraising at ActionAid Australia, leading the organisation’s Digital, Direct Mail and Donor Service teams to growth. Vikram has almost two decades of experience as a senior fundraiser in International Development. In his relatively short time at ActionAid, Vikram has led his team to doubling cash appeal income in 2024.

Sophie Ford Head of Programs

Sophie is the Head of Programs at ActionAid Australia, leading the development and implementation of our programming responding to the growing impacts of the climate crisis on women’s rights.
Sophie has 18 years’ experience working in humanitarian and development programs across Asia and the Pacific. Her career has been driven by a deep commitment to advancing gender equality and climate justice. She worked for Australian Red Cross, Oxfam and UNICEF before joining ActionAid Australia as Head of Programs in 2025.

Board of Directors

Belinda Morrissey Board Chair

Belinda is the CEO of the English Family Foundation and brings deep experience within the Australian social enterprise sector and an extensive leadership background in both corporate and not for profit organisations spanning three continents. Belinda works across sectors to develop systems-based solutions that will mobilise capital and the ecosystems needed to create long term social change both within Australia and globally. She is also Chair of Social Enterprise Australia and is on the Board of the Social Impact Hub Foundation.

Kate Lappin Board Member

Kate has worked and organised across labour, feminist and human rights movements in the Asia and Pacific regions for more than 25 years. She is currently Asia Pacific Regional Secretary for Public Services International. She headed the Secretariat of the Asia Pacific forum on Women, Law and Development in Thailand for eight years, and has been a member of the civil society advisory board to UN Women Asia Pacific and several other human rights and feminist boards and committees. She is currently a director of the Center for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research.

Georgina King Board Member

Georgina has over 15 years of senior fundraising experience with for purpose organisations. She has been recognised as a Fellow of Fundraising Institute of Australia and is a certified coach with the International Coaching Federation. Georgina is passionate about building the capability, competency and wellbeing of our sector for greater social impact. She is a Culture and Development Consultant at UNSW and the Founder of Raucous Caucus which provides strengths-based mentoring, coaching and leadership development for social impact professionals.

Nicole D'Souza Board Member

Nicole is an experienced government, regulatory, employment and litigation lawyer and domestic and international human rights advocate who has worked in Australia and globally for government, non-profit and private sector organisations, including as a legal and industrial officer for a trade union and before the UN Human Rights Council. She has worked in the corporate sector, promoting respect for human rights in business operations and supply chains, leading work on business responses to the risks of modern slavery.

Kristina Stefanova Board Member

Kristina is the co-founder of Bundaleer Sustainable Investments and has more than 15 years of experience working with the public and private sector in Australia, the US, UK, and across regions.

Jan Cossar Board Member

Jan has over 30 years of experience working in international aid and development across the Asia-Pacific and Africa regions. She is Managing Director of Strategy Matters, a consultancy company specialising in program design, monitoring evaluation and research and organisational review and strategic development. Jan holds postgraduate qualifications in Organisational Management and Evaluation, is a Board member of the EcoCentre in Melbourne and works as a pro-bono advisor to the Marninwarntikura Women’s Resource Centre in Fitzroy Crossing.

Frank Burke Board Member

Frank has over 25 years of experience in the finance and accounting, specialising in operational and commercial support in fast growth environments. During his time in finance leadership positions, he has worked extensively with medium to large sized businesses from a range of industries including medical devices, fashion retail, telecoms, hospitality and manufacturing. Frank has extensive board experience in the human services sector and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

Trent Wallace First Nations Advisor

Trent Wallace is a First Nations person who grew up in regional Australia where he started his career as a lawyer. Trent is currently the First Nations Advisor at Ashurst – the first and only Aboriginal person in this role in a global law firm. He is also a lecturer, writer, co-chair of the Legal Profession Reconciliation Network and is on the Executive of Just Reinvest NSW. Trent has been able to bring his lived experience and cultural expertise into each role he has held, which has included being on the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability and Australian Government Solicitor.