BIG funding to give disabled people hope for the future

Area:

UK-wide

Programme:

International Grants

Release date:

6 3 2013

Disabled children in Ethiopia and adults in Tanzania will have brighter futures thanks to grants totalling more than £720,000 from the Big Lottery Fund (BIG).

The projects are among six receiving funding from BIG’s International Communities programme, which supports projects tackling the causes of poverty and deprivation and the impact they have on people’s lives.

A project in Ethiopia will get £499,142 to improve the opportunities for disabled children as they grow up. Disability and Development Partners will help foster a culture change in schools by making their training programmes fully inclusive to disabled people. A special educational needs training department will be established at the local teacher training college where activities amongst teachers will include disability awareness-raising, sign language and Braille. The project aims to support 5,290 disabled primary school children, 570 secondary school age children and 300 young adults.
 
Project Officer Simon Godziek said: “When we talked to young disabled people in Hawassa in southern Ethiopia, they told us how difficult it is for them to go to school and earn a living.  We learnt that their lack of education opportunity and the discrimination they face daily mean that they have few, if any, chances to provide for themselves and their families, condemning many to lives of poverty.

“Together with our Ethiopian partner organisation, Handicap National, we decided to help create opportunities for young disabled people from their first day at school through to the world of work.  We’ll establish a special educational needs department in the local teacher training college so that all new teachers will know how to meet the needs of disabled kids in the classroom.  We’ll also work with four skills training centres in Hawassa, giving them the knowledge and understanding to be able to include young disabled people in their programmes.  And then we’ll set some of the disabled youngsters up in small businesses of their own.

“The result will be better chances - the chance for disabled children and young adults to go to school, to be trained in a trade, to escape poverty and lead more fulfilling lives.”

Meanwhile, Disabled people in the Lake Victoria region of Tanzania will benefit from a £223,807 grant to help them gain skills and employment. Disability Aid Abroad will train people with disabilities and provide employers with free training, to help them enter the labour market as self-employed workers. Training will include sewing, welding, food processing and business skills. Beneficiaries will be given training on how to manage cooperatives and information on employment rights.

Peter Ainsworth, Big Lottery Fund Chair, said: “Disabled people in the UK face many challenges, the kind of which magnify ten-fold in parts of the developing world. Disabled people can face huge barriers to employment, resulting in a downward spiral of poverty from which there can be little hope of escape. So we are very pleased to be funding projects that will help break this cycle and provide disabled people in Ethiopia and Tanzania with accessible schooling and training to have a brighter future.

“We are also very proud to fund projects that will provide access to safe water, protect vulnerable children’s rights and address the impact of climate change on agricultural land.”

Other projects receiving funding are:

Also launching today is the report of Clore Fellow 2012, Bally Sappal, who has been working with BIG, on the insights of cross-sector collaboration in the international sphere, exploring the best ways for funders to help facilitate future collaborations between sectors. The findings will be launched at an event at the Guardian, where the different sectors will be brought together to consider some of the barriers and how funders and umbrella organisations can offer solutions.

Bally Sappal said: “The research I have undertaken focuses on how funders can collaborate with the private sector and charities. Twenty six interviews were undertaken in the UK, India and USA with multinational companies, funders, charities and experts including Unilever, Fujitsu, Oxfam, Comic Relief and Christian Aid. The research provides a framework for successful collaborations and makes recommendations on how impact can be increased internationally by funders to aid multi-sector collaboration.”

The Guardian’s Public Services Editor David Brindle said: "This is an important and timely contribution to the growing debate about how funders in international development need to work with the private sector to capitalise upon its shift of approach from philanthropy to much more strategic corporate social responsibility.
 
"There are practical ideas for collaboration here that could make a real difference to the lives of some of the most impoverished people in the world."

Big Lottery Fund Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500 572
Full details of the Big Lottery Fund programmes and grant awards are available on the website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
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Notes to Editors

• The Big Lottery Fund (BIG), the largest distributor of National Lottery good cause funding, is responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised for good causes by the National Lottery.
• BIG is committed to bringing real improvements to communities and the lives of people most in need and has been rolling out grants to health, education, environment and charitable causes across the UK. Since June 2004 BIG has awarded over £6bn.
• The Fund was formally established by Parliament on 1 December 2006.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, 28p from every pound spent by the public has gone to good causes. As a result, over £29 billion has now been raised and more than 383,000 grants awarded across arts, sport, heritage, charities, health, education and the environment.

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