Unsung heroines (4)

Georgina Downs of Chichester, West Sussex, has spent the last ten years trying to ban pesticide-spraying near homes, schools and workplaces. She is sure it causes serious health problems.

She herself has suffered sore throats, blistering, muscle wastage and other ailments that have stopped her doing what she wanted with her life.

They have led to her not having a partner or children and not pursuing her chosen career in musical theatre. Instead she started the UK Pesticides Campaign to force the government to restrict pesticide spraying.

How can it be right, she says, that chemicals labelled "very toxic by inhalation" can be pumped out yards from people's homes? How come the sprayers themselves have to be properly protected against the chemicals but householders can breathe them in regardless?

In November 2008 the High Court ruled she had produced "solid evidence" that rural dwellers facing repeated exposure had suffered harm, and that the government "must think again" about the use of pesticides.

But eight months later the Appeal Court ruled the government was doing enough to protect its citizens.

Now Georgina is planning to take her case to the European Court of Human Rights and write a book on the subject.

She has researched the harmful effects of pesticides exhaustively and is convinced indiscriminate spraying can cause any number of severe conditions including cancer and Parkinson's Disease.

She says the government's claims that people are properly safeguarded aren't backed up by the evidence and they have misled and misinformed the public.

It's tremendous that people like Georgina won't be fobbed off by government reassurances about their health but are determined to get to the bottom of the matter and fight every inch of the way for better protection and more responsible attitudes. We could do with more people like her.

Unsung heroines 3: Salome Mbugua
Unsung heroines 2: Camila Batmanghelidjh
Unsung heroines 1: Gareth Peirce

Unsung heroines (3)

When Salome Mbugua first arrived in southern Ireland in 1994 from Africa, she got a friendly welcome as black people were rare. But when she came back four years later people were more hostile.

There were a lot more immigrants and she was told "Go home, nigger." She met other black women who were meeting similar prejudice and having trouble finding suitable jobs.

With the support of Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic religious order, she set up AkiDwa, the African Women's Network, to provide support for black women and find out what their needs were.

Now the network, which expanded to help other women arriving from countries like Iraq, Afghanistan and Romania, has 2075 members and five permanent groups and is transforming the lives of previously marginalised newcomers.

They have had problems with racism, vandalism, domestic violence and even people saying they shouldn't have children. Around 60 per cent of them have had to take jobs that didn't match their skills. Overseas qualifications were often not recognised in the Republic.

AkiDwa advises them on how to improve their employment prospects and how to deal with discrimination, domestic violence and other problems that are holding them back.

Salome, a qualified social worker with a Master's degree from University College Dublin, originally wanted to work with the United Nations but now says she is too passionate about her work with AkiDwa to consider anything else. It has become her big mission and has been a much needed lifeline for thousands of vulnerable and victimised women.

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NB: I can't give a link to the recent Irish Times article as it's subscription-only. But here's another piece from the Irish Independent.

See also: Unsung heroines 1: Gareth Peirce

Unsung heroines 2: Camila Batmanghelidjh

Unsung heroines (2)

Children psychologically damaged by inadequate parents and carers often get little help and are left to grow up into seriously maladjusted adults.

It's thanks to Camila Batmanghelidjh that some 32,000 British children a year are now getting the help they desperately need through the two charities she set up - The Place To Be and Kids' Company.

She had to cope with severe childhood trauma herself after her wealthy Iranian father was arrested during the Iranian Revolution in the late seventies and had all his assets seized.

Then Camila's sister killed herself and all Camila's personal possessions were burnt by the Revolutionary Guard. She has never been able to return home.

She decided to devote her life to helping children similarly traumatised and disturbed by providing counselling, education, art therapy and other forms of support.

The children have experienced every possible crisis from physical abuse to mental health problems, substance abuse and homelessness.

Camila has remortgaged her North London flat twice as well as defaulting on mortgage payments in order to fund her two charities.

Now in her mid forties, she chose not to have children of her own so as to devote herself totally to other needy children. She works practically non-stop and is said to have not taken a holiday for 11 years.

Coming from an entrepreneurial family, she says she could have made a fortune from a commercial business but was only interested in working with less fortunate children.

I'm just astonished by her unwavering passion for those who have had such a raw deal in life when like many others she could have said "It's a terrible tragedy but there's nothing I can do about it." She thought differently and decided firmly that she could do something.

NB: All facts and figures are from Wikipedia and the BBC. They may not be completely accurate.

See also: Unsung heroines (1): human rights lawyer Gareth Peirce

Unsung heroines (1)

Not many people in Britain know who Gareth Peirce is, but she is one of the most effective human rights lawyers in the country.

Most notably, she got the alleged IRA bombers, the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six, freed after being in jail for 14 and 16 years respectively.

Her intervention led to Judith Ward, another supposed IRA bomber, getting her conviction quashed. And she won freedom for Frank Johnson after he served 26 years for murder.

She has defended terrorist suspects in the UK and Guantanamo Bay and represented the family of Jean Charles de Menezes, the alleged terrorist shot dead by police in London. In the 1980s she opposed the detention of striking miners.

Now in her sixties, she is a notoriously private person who consistently refuses interviews and publicity and works tirelessly to right miscarriages of justice. She treats those she represents as personal friends and not with the usual professional detachment.

It is said that it was her work as a journalist in the USA during the Civil Rights Movement that created her passion for human rights.

She is absolutely tenacious about her cases and refuses to give up however daunting the legal difficulties. If necessary she works 12 hour days to get at the truth.

Her extreme dedication is astonishing in a profession where lawyers are not always conscientious about their work and may turn up to court knowing little or nothing about their client's case. She finds such behaviour quite unforgivable. If only there were more like her, fewer innocent people would be languishing in jail.

Footnote: In the film about the Guildford Four, 'In the Name of the Father', Gareth Peirce was played by Emma Thompson.