Wales-based Charities awarded £508,206 to help disadvantaged people across the world

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

Three charities based in Wales have been successful. Wales Gurkha Villages Aid Trust, Carmarthenshire, receives £68,671 to develop low cost technology to support village craft industries in Nepal. Global Connections, Pembroke, receives £74,922 to raise awareness of international development issues by developing educational resources for teachers and youth and community workers in West Wales. The Thomson Foundation, Cardiff, receives £364,613 to improve health education for young people in Bangladesh using television and radio.

UK wide groups receiving grants include Save the Children (UK), which receives £1,007,762 to provide early childhood development and disability programmes for vulnerable children in the Middle East and raise awareness of children’s rights. The British Red Cross receives £372,814 to help nearly two million people living in the 38 most disaster prone areas of Bangladesh by providing equipment to ensure a better chance of surviving natural disasters. The Big Issue Company receives £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 which 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 raise awareness or 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."

Wales Director, Roy Norris said, "Wales has a proud tradition of charitable work overseas and I am pleased the Charities Board is able to support the work of these groups through the International grants programme. Three very different groups in Wales have been awarded a total of £508,206 today. The Wales Gurkha Villages Aid Trust project will provide direct practical help to villagers in Nepal to earn their livelihoods, the Thomson Foundation will raise awareness of health issues in Bangladesh and the Global Connections project will raise awareness of development issues overseas in West Wales schools. We look forward to seeing the progress of these projects and the long-term benefits that they will bring to disadvantaged people overseas."

The 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.