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12 December 2000 Charities Board awards £3.4 million to nine nationwide charities.Children who are being bullied, missing persons, deafblind people and those with cystic fibrosis are among a range of beneficiaries of the latest round of nationwide awards announced today by the National Lottery Charities Board. The awards, totalling more than £3.4 million to nine major national charities, were made under the Charities Board's Community involvement and Poverty and disadvantage programmes, which seek to help those at greatest disadvantage and improve the quality of life in the community. The largest grant awarded today is £765,187, which will enable Deafblind UK to buy land to build a national centre for deafblind people. The centre will become the main resource for Deafblind UK and its membership and will help research into the condition of deafblindness by collating the experiences of deafblind people. The Cystic Fibrosis Trust receives a grant of £565,627. Through the project people with cystic fibrosis will be able to play an active role in the planning and delivery of NHS services. Seven people with cystic fibrosis will be specially trained and placed in hospitals where they will advocate on behalf of patients with the condition. Kidscape - the national child safety organisation - receives a grant of £136,000. The funded project is to ensure that all groups and communities have access to information by the development of an interactive website, which will provide a comprehensive, confidential resource for people who may be disabled, geographically isolated or too ashamed to seek help. The project will also provide on-site training to help groups develop specialist knowledge and skills relating to child protection issues, including bullying.The National Missing Persons Helpline receives a grant of £165,365 to pay for extra staff, who will be able to offer an improved service by extending the helpline to cover the night hours when people are at their most vulnerable. Diana Brittan, Chair of the Charities Board UK Committee, which awarded the grants, said: "Bullying of children is a major national concern at the moment. I hope that our grant to Kidscape will help children who are being bullied get access to the information and help they need. "Christmas is a particularly poignant time for the friends and families of people who have gone missing. I hope that by extending the work of the helpline people who have gone missing will have the opportunity to get a message back to those they have left behind. The project also provides invaluable support to relatives and friends of missing persons and works closely with the police." Media enquiries: Robert Blow, 020 7747 5227 Note to editors:
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