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Acid Survivors Trust International
THANK YOU TO HELM AND STAFF FOR SUPPORT
 Staff at HELM started to support the work of the Acid Survivors Foundation in Bangladesh in 2000 and I thought you might like to know what that support achieved. Acid violence is the deliberate throwing of acid onto the faces and bodies of victims and the majority of those attacked are women and children. I was living in Bangladesh and started a charity, the Acid Survivors Foundation - Bangladesh (ASF-B) to help the survivors. HELM was one of the very first organisations to support our work. That support was critical in helping us get off the ground. ASF-B has gone from strength-to-strength and now has its own 40-bed hospital and a staff of seventy. However, what is important is their success. When I left in 2002 there were over 500 attacks a year. Last year this had fallen to below 200)
Acid violence is not confined to Bangladesh and is common in many Asian and African countries. The Acid Survivors Trust International (ASTI) was established in the U.K. to support Acid Survivors Foundations in countries where there are acid attacks and we now assist organisations in Uganda, Cambodia, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh. We are also in the process of helping to establish organisations in India and Nepal. We have a small office in central London (courtesy of a larger NGO) and have two part-time members of staff.
It was not only HELM as an organisation that supported our work but individual members of staff donated generously to help us get off the ground and I thought those who did so at the time may wish to know that their donations contributed to our success. In addition Mike Fraser, Gareth Williams and John Wallace became involved in our work whilst in Bangladesh and I would like to publicly thank them.
If you would like to know more about our work you may wish to visit our web-site at www.asti.org.uk
Again, thank you HELM and staff members.
Dr John Morrison, OBE
Chair
Acid Survivors Trust International
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