About us
ASF Network
The work of our partner ASFs varies in different parts of the world. Supported and partly resourced by ASTI and its expert volunteers, the Acid Survivors Foundation’s (ASF) work with NGOs, Governments and the international community to:
- ensure survivors have better access to quality medical care
- assist with survivors’ psychological and social rehabilitation
- campaign and engage in advocacy work to prevent further attacks
- provide survivors with support to access criminal and legal justice systems
Skip to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan, Uganda
ASF in Bangladesh
From humble beginnings in 1999, The Acid Survivors Foundation Bangladesh, now serves as the model for all other Acid Survivors Foundations.
The work in Bangladesh has attracted international attention, recognition and support. Princess Anne visited ASF Bangladesh in 2001 and has shown continuing interest in its work. Monira Rahman, the Executive Director of Acid Survivors Foundation, was awarded the Amnesty Human Rights Award for her fight against Acid Violence in March 2006.
ASF Bangladesh plans a recovery programme for each individual survivor with the aim of helping them become physically and economically independent.
The Foundation has also successfully worked with ordinary citizens, social activists and – very importantly – the government itself, to campaign against acid violence, change legislation and bring perpetrators to justice. The results of this campaigning effort have proved very successful.
Acid violence peaked in Bangladesh in 2002 with 500 attacks. In 2009 that figures is expected to fall below 100. Great work is being done to reduce the incident of acid attacks, which only serves to strengthen our commitment to eradicate acid violence in Bangladesh all together.
For further information please refer to the website of ASF in Bangladesh
Cambodia Acid Survivors Charity (CASC)
As a result of a fact finding visit to Cambodia in 1995, ASTI helped set up the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC). It not only helps survivors receive medical and surgical attention but offers counselling, provides vocational training and runs an Acid Burns Survivors’ Group, where people meet to share problems and experiences, and which is often visited by specialist helpers and advisers.
CASC intends to follow the example of ASF Bangladesh to push for significant social and legal change, and to try to reduce the incidence of this crime in Cambodia.
In Cambodia the majority of victims are poor rural women. Their children sometimes also become victims because they are being held by their mothers when acid is thrown. Medically, the children’s injuries require more complex medical treatment as their rate of growth requires more staged operations and more intensive physiotherapy.
Increasingly, more men are becoming victims of acid attacks due to loan defaults and land ownership disputes.
For further information please refer to the website of the Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity
ASF in Pakistan
Acid Survivors Foundation in Pakistan (ASF-P) was founded in 2006 when ASTI successfully secured funding to pay for a three-year project to establish a new 25-bed nursing and rehabilitation unit. The Acid Burns Nursing and Rehabilitation Unit project, was confirmed in August 2006 and the first patients were treated in January 2007.
ASF-Pakistan operates a varied programme which includes re-constructive surgery, nursing care, counselling and psychological and psychiatric treatment. Rehabilitation programmes include job placement and self employment assistance. They also run an art therapy programme and do campaigning work on awareness and prevention.
The work in awareness and prevention includes plans for:
- identifying and establishing links with national social activists, medical specialists and related practitioners for both support and for practical involvement.
- enlisting the various public media in the campaign against acid violence
- lobbying senior politicians, government institutions and civil bodies about the social issues which characterise acid violence
- lobbying for the establishment of an adequate public (government-run) burns unit in each of Pakistan’s four provinces.
- campaigning for the rights of women
- achieving sustainability through financing and national and international forms of support.
For further information please refer to the website of ASF Pakistan
ASF in Uganda
Acid Survivors’ Foundation Uganda (ASF-U) was established in 2003. It is a registered non governmental organisation and operates across Uganda with an office in its capital city Kampala.
The organisation was established by survivors and a Ugandan doctor, helped by the Chair of ASTI. The Uganda Acid Survivors Foundation seeks to help victims of acid violence by:
- enabling survivors of acid attacks to get the best medical treatment
- offering legal support and advice to acid survivors and their families
- assisting in the rehabilitation, education and training of acid survivors
- advocating for the reduction and eventual elimination of acid attacks
- advocating for reform in the penal law with regard to acid violence
Some survivors help the Ugandan ASF in its administration and with its counselling services. Funding and support has been found to help survivors progress to higher education or undertake forms of training to help them find gainful employment.
For further information please refer to the website of ASF Uganda
