Annual Review – What ACTAsia got up to in 2022

2022 has been a very successful year for ACTAsia having reached greater numbers of children, consumers and professionals through our ground-breaking work. 

As life got ‘back to normal’ in the west, but with Covid still causing major disruption in large parts of Asia, we have worked tirelessly with the global challenges to educate and innovate with our programmes. 

Major highlights of 2022

ACTAsia hosted our 8th International Fur Free Sustainable Fashion Festival in 2022. Events included the online Compassion in Fashion Forum in May involving esteemed speakers who discussed working towards a fur free future. In September, the Festival heralded ACTAsia’s Fur Free Runway Show, in conjunction with Fur Free Retailer MTG, a first to be on the official agenda at Shanghai Fashion Week. ACTAsia’s Festival concluded with ACTAsia’s Compassion in Fashion Forum in October, forming part of Shenzhen Fashion Week (SZFW) with ACTAsia once again featuring on the official Fashion Week agenda. Shenzhen is a highly respected fashion-centric city, boasting a high concentration of designers and manufacturers. ACTAsia was honoured to be part of this festival as SZFW is widely recognised for its progressive and sustainable agenda. ACTAsia’s active involvement with the Shanghai and Shenzhen Fashion Weeks’ marks a huge milestone in promoting our fur free work.

ACTAsia promoted Earth Day in April as part of our Caring for Life education for children. Taught over six years, this pioneering education programme is integrated into the curriculum at our selected Pioneer Schools. This year Earth Day was celebrated with a range of new activities, teaching resources and competitions for children and educators, with topics focusing on the issue of plastic pollution and how younger generations can make a difference. We reached five times more children than we did in 2021.

In September 2022, ACTAsia launched our innovative Plant Forward campaign across six Asian countries. Organised by ACTAsia’s Compassionate Choices Network, Plant Forward is the first event of its kind in Asia with the goal of increasing understanding of plant-based eating and why plants are a vital part of a sustainable future. Over two weeks, chefs hosted live cooking demonstrations with plant-based ingredients; doctors talked about the health benefits of a plant-based diet for mental health, helping patients with diabetes, and gut health and its links to a longer life span. 

ACTAsia in the News

Our CEO and Co-Founder Pei hosted a global One Health webinar on food and farming alongside renowned international speakers. The webinar addressed the need to examine our diets and how reducing our meat consumption or adopting a plant-based diet can make a meaningful impact on animals, people and the environment – thereby promoting One Health. 

Pei also spoke at the opening of the side events at the UN’s Ocean Conference in Portugal alongside notable speakers including global ambassadors from Portugal and Sri Lanka. In addition, Pei spoke at the UN’s High Level Political Forum side event, organised by the NGO Major Group, to share ACTAsia’s experience on promoting the SDG 17 partnership goals across ACTAsia’s programmes. 

Pei was grateful for the opportunity to speak at the UN events to share ACTAsia’s vision and how our pioneering work with our recently founded Compassionate Choices Network (CCN) is aligned with the UN’s blueprint for the future. The goal of ACTAsia’s CCN network is to focus on issues affecting animals, people and the environment.

Pei is regularly interviewed by numerous global media outlets who seek her expertise in One Health, development goals, humane education, social changes, sustainable fashion, wildlife trade and education. To find out more, visit our In the Press page. 

Awards for ACTAsia in 2022

ACTAsia’s Caring for Life (CFL) education for children was awarded ‘Good Practice’ for the UN Transforming Education Summit (TES) by the UN Transforming Education. In awarding Good Practice, the UN recognises that:

‘ACTAsia’s Caring for Life children’s education and professional education is SDG specific, scalable and replicable and ready to be used in primary education to support development of emotional intelligence and responsibility.’ 

Being awarded Good Practice by the UN at the TES event in 2022 is a major highlight for ACTAsia’s work. It demonstrates that our Caring for Life six-year curriculum is transforming education and that this is being recognised by the education community. Our work in educating the next generation is helping to ensure that children develop into compassionate and emotionally intelligent consumers who build sustainable development into their decisions and future choices. ACTAsia was also delighted to win Best Charitable Collective Award at the China Charity Festival 2022. 

Major events for ACTAsia in 2022

ACTAsia unveiled our new website. ACTAsia’s vision is for ‘a compassionate world for animals, people and the environment’ and the new website conveys this vision and celebrates our pioneering work. ACTAsia introduced a new feature‘Success Stories’to showcase our amazing teachers, vets, educators. These heartfelt stories are testament to ACTAsia’s incredible impact and how our team are changing lives and protecting the planet.

1 ACTAsia’s Caring for Life (CFL) Education additional successes

ACTAsia’s CFL education runs programmes to educate children, consumers and professionals to promote kindness and compassion for people, animals and the environment across Asian societies for future long-term sustainable change. These are just some of our successes in 2022:

2 Caring for Life (CFL) Education for Children

ACTAsia’s unique six-year curriculum for all primary school years has educated 11,946 children at nine pioneer schools in 2022. The curriculum encompasses social welfare and citizenship, animal welfare and environmental issues and recognises the interdependence of all living things. Since its inception in 2012, we are thrilled that 125,292 children have been involved with our CFL education programme.  CFL education for children has held special seminars on the subjects of Earth Day, children’s mental health, (involving more than 5,500 psychologists, educators, academics and people from all walks of life)and raised awareness about the use of plastics.

ACTAsia’s Success Stories highlightedthe amazing work of Mrs Fangwho is championing rural education in China and the incredible positive impact that CFL education is having on her students and the wider community. We are delighted that Mrs Fang’s work implementing CFL has now gained recognition from the provincial government.

3 Caring for Life (CFL) Education for Consumers

ACTAsia recruited a record number of new Fur Free Retailers in 2022. Fur Free Retailer is the world’s leading program to connect fur-free companies to consumers seeking ethical goods. The program specifically aims to encourage companies to go fur-free and further the spirit of ethical consumerism.

ACTAsia’s online Compassion in Fashion FutureLearn (FL) course saw 987 enrolments from 99 countries. ACTAsia is the first NGO to create a fashion course focusing on fur free, on the FutureLearn platform, that is globally accessible, making it a major milestone in fur free education. The course has 12 guided learning hours and covers the impact of fur in fashion on animals, people and the environment.

ACTAsia built on its success with the newly launched Compassionate Choices Network (CCN). The goal of the network is to focus on issues affecting animals, people and the environment. ACTAsia invited selected Asian non-governmental organisations to join the CCN to find solutions to social and political concerns in order to promote a shift in behaviour patterns amongst consumers in Asia.

4 Caring for Life Education for Professionals

ACTAsia’s Vets for Change Dr Yin, spoke at a Pet Welfare Conference in Xiamen with 100 people joining the event and 8,100 joining by livestream. The conference focused on the importance of a veterinarian’s role and animal welfare. ACTAsia’s Vets for Change programme has continued to train and inspire vets across Asia in 2022. 

ACTAsia and IUCN SSC co-organised a Captive Wildlife in Entertainment webinar with renowned experts from around the world taking part. ACTAsia’s work and research was featured in the film Slay which investigates the negative effects of fur on animal welfare, the environment and humans.

ACTAsia’s 2022 Success in Numbers

ACTAsia’s unique six-year curriculum for all primary school years has educated 11,946 children at nine pioneer schools in 2022.

ACTAsia recruited a record number of new Fur Free Retailers in 2022.

ACTAsia’s online Compassion in Fashion FutureLearn (FL) course saw 987 enrolments from 99 countries.

ACTAsia’s Vets for Change Dr Yin, spoke at a Pet Welfare Conference in Xiamen with 100 people joining the event and 8,100 joining by livestream.

What we want to achieve in 2023

  • To publish the full Caring for Life curriculum in Chinese 
  • To have an even greater number of children involved in our Earth Day events
  • To reach more children in rural China and teach compassion and empathy
  • To conduct a public opinion survey on fur in fashion in China (both quantitative and qualitative) 
  • To launch the 9th International Fur Free Sustainable Fashion Festival with cross sector collaborations 
  • To add more fashion brands to the Fur Free Retailer scheme
  • To continue building the Compassion Choices Network enabling like-minded groups in Asia to work together
  • To launch the Plant Forward 2023 campaign and reach more Asians to educate them that a plant-based diet is the future
  • To roll out ‘Train The Trainer’ veterinarian training in rural China
  • To reach more university students and young professionals to enrol on ACTAsia’s sustainable fur free fashion course in China
  • To work tirelessly to create a compassionate world for animals, people and the environment