International grants Dec 03

Diana Brittan, Chair of the Community Fund said: “The organisations highlighted today all work towards providing a healthier and more productive environment for children who are living in disadvantaged countries. Our International Grants Programme award grants to development organisations based in the UK who are working in partnership with overseas organisations. To date this programme has awarded 639 grants to different organisations totalling over £145 million”.

Plan International UK, awarded £811,571, will expand the educational work that provides support to the Port Loko and Bombali Districts of Sierra Leone. Due to the recent civil war in Sierra Leone communities are experiencing severely disadvantaged conditions.

Patricia Ray, Programme Manager of Plan International UK said: “The project contributes to the essential work of peace, reconciliation and reconstruction in communities that were devastated as a result of the war. Children were the main victims, but also perpetrators of the violence. There is an urgent need to integrate ex child soldiers back into their communities and ensure that they have opportunities for education and a future livelihood. Communities are also now threatened by the spread of the AIDS pandemic. The aim of the project is to ensure that all children have access to high quality primary education in communities in which peace and reconciliation is built and which take measures to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“Plan UK and its partner organisations and communities are delighted to be able to contribute to this important work and look forward to working in collaboration with the Community Fund on this project”.

The International Children’s Trust, awarded £210,249, aims to help street children in Mexico and Ecuador who come from poor families where domestic violence and alcohol abuse are common.

Sarah Thomas de Benitez, Executive Director of International Children’s Trust said: “Hundreds of thousands of children who work on the streets of Latin America’s cities are forced to drop out of primary schools. These young girls and boys become trapped in cycles of poverty that will affect their entire lives. We are delighted that a new grant awarded by the Community Fund will allow us to tackle this problem head-on.

“This exciting new project by International Children’s Trust and the JUCONI foundations in Ecuador and Mexico will help primary schools understand and address the schooling needs of street-working children. Over the next 3 years we will build bridges between children, their families, their teachers, schools and communities, opening up primary school classrooms to the poorest of city children. Our project will serve as an example for use in other cities around the world”.

Children in Crisis was awarded £330,354 over three years to enable marginalised children in Tanzania to access education, through state schools or through non-formal education (NFE).

Mark McKeown, Chief Executive of Children in Crisis said: “Children in Crisis and its partner in Tanzania, Mkombozi Centre for Street Children, are delighted that their application to the Community Fund was successful. Over five thousand of the most disadvantaged children in Tanzania will gain access to mainstream education as a result of the proposed programme and the funds will also contribute to a significant reduction in the numbers of children living on the streets in the town of Moshi”.

Friends of Kirima Parents Primary School, awarded £98,960, aims to improve health education available to schools and the local community by providing access to clean drinking water and sanitation and a vehicle to transport the sick to the nearest hospital.

Peter Packham, of Friends of Kirima Parents Primary School said: “The lives of 4,000 people in the remote rural community of Kanungu, S.W.Uganda are about to be changed for the better. Community Fund's grant will enable a project providing healthcare, health education, piped clean water and most importantly a continuing income generator of tea growing to be put in place.

“The high incidence of death and sickness among parents and children arising from Malaria, AIDS and Typhoid, so often a feature of our school newsletters, will become a thing of the past. To quote our local Ugandan partner upon hearing the good news, “WOW, ALLELUIA and THANKYOU”.

Other organisations to receive funding today under the International Grants Programme are: African Medical and Research Foundation Limited £499,128; BasicNeeds £468,663; Concern Universal £490,230; Health Unlimited £399,110; Interact Worldwide £433,309; Intermediate Technology Development Group £737,986; LEPRA (The British Leprosy Relief Association) £575,279; Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund £156,193; The United Kingdom Committee for UNICEF £701,678; and Voluntary Service Overseas £534,173.

Notes for editors:

1. Community Fund gives out money raised by the National Lottery to charities, voluntary and community groups. Out of every £1 spent on the National Lottery the Community Fund gets 4.7 pence. Since 1995 Community Fund has awarded over 59,000 grants worth more than £2.7 billion to UK charities and voluntary groups.
2. Our policy directions from the Secretary of State require us to take account of the interests of UK charities and other voluntary organisations that work overseas, hence the International Grants Programme.

3. Next year the Community Fund is to merge with the New Opportunities Fund in advance of creating a new National Lottery distributor that will administer 50 per cent of all good cause funding. The merger will not affect current programmes, beneficiaries or applications. Further details on the new lottery distributor are expected to be available in Spring 2004.

4. The New Opportunities Fund distributes National Lottery money to health, education and environment projects across the UK. We intend to support sustainable projects that will improve the quality of life of people throughout the UK, address the needs of those who are most disadvantaged in society, encourage community participation and complement relevant local and national strategies and programmes. (Funding for programmes is divided between England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales on the basis of population weighted to reflect levels of deprivation).