11 June 1998

Disadvantaged People Across the World Benefit from £25 million from the National Lottery Charities Board

Vulnerable children and young people in the most disadvantaged areas of the world are among the main beneficiaries of £25 million worth of grants awarded by the National Lottery Charities Board today. The grants, awarded to 134 UK charities working abroad, will help provide basic needs such as food, healthcare, sanitation and education in over 80 countries.

Save the Children (UK) benefit from the largest grant awarded today. The grant of £1,007,762 will be used to provide early childhood development and disability programmes for vulnerable children in the Middle East. It will also raise awareness of children’s rights.

The British Red Cross receive a grant of £372,814 to help nearly two million people living in the 38 most disaster prone areas of Bangladesh. The money will provide cyclone shelters, latrine and well construction and first aid equipment so people have a better chance of surviving natural disasters.

The Big Issue Company will use their grant of £92,488 to expand their existing work so that more homeless people in Cape Town, South Africa, can sell copies of the local Big Issue magazine.

Other projects will help landmine victims and raise awareness about the injuries caused by landmines; prevent and treat blindness; help children orphaned by AIDS; and teach charities in Central and Eastern Europe how to fundraise from their own communities.

Amanda Jordan, Chair of the Board’s UK Committee which awards these grants said: ‘These projects will be carried out by UK charities who will use their experience and expertise to work in partnership with organisations helping vulnerable people in the developing world. The Charities Board has awarded grants to projects which will directly benefit disadvantaged people by providing education, training and practical resources so that their quality of life is improved and they are helped to become self sufficient.’

This programme complements the Government’s goal (set out in a white paper in November 1997) to seek the active support of the British public in halving the proportion of the world’s population living in extreme poverty by 2015. In 1995 the British public donated £350 million to help communities in developing countries.