Press Release
8 May 2008
£5.5 million boost for local projects to fight poverty
Jacqui Afflick, volunteer presenter, in the studios of Preston FM - Prescap's community radio station.
Fair trade football tournaments, radio broadcast training for young adults and farm visits for 5-11 year olds are among the new
projects sharing a £5.5m Government funding boost, Secretary of State for
International Development Douglas Alexander announced today.
The new Development Awareness Fund (DAF) will back 26 new projects across the
UK designed to help more people – from schoolchildren to community and faith
groups – get personally involved in fighting global poverty.
The successful projects include:
- Using football tournaments, a website and international conference to
create youth advocates for fair trade;
- UK farm visits for 10,000 children to
learn about development by seeing sustainable African farming practices
- Training primary, secondary, FE & HE teachers in development education best
practice
Douglas Alexander said:
“This is the latest in DFID’s drive to involve British people from all walks
of life in tackling poverty in developing countries.”
“We trade more and more with people from all over the world so it is
important that we understand how our actions and choices affect the lives of
others and how we can make a difference by getting involved.
“These projects will engage and harness the enthusiasm and knowledge of
people of all ages into helping alleviate the grinding poverty that affects
millions throughout the world.”
The new projects - being funded over three years - bring the total number of
Development Awareness Fund projects currently running to 83.
Mr Alexander recently launched a new global volunteering initiative,
 'Platform2', for 18-25 year olds from less advantaged backgrounds. He also
announced work with VSO on a volunteering scheme to boost the involvement of
minority and ethnic groups, and announced a Government commitment to get more
public sector workers to volunteer overseas.
 Back
to top
Notes for editors
1. The Department for International Development (DFID) is the part of the UK
Government that manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to get rid of
extreme poverty.
2. The Development Awareness Fund, which has
been running since 1998, is designed to provide grants of between £10,000 and
£100,000 a year for projects that are designed to promote public knowledge and
understanding of development issues. The Fund focused on four themes:
- building
long term knowledge and understanding of the major challenges and prospects for
development;
- generating understanding of our global interdependence and in
particular that failure to reduce global poverty levels will have serious
consequences for us all;
- generating understanding of, and support for,
international efforts to reduce poverty and promote development including the
Millennium Development Goals.; and
- promoting understanding of the role that
individuals can play; enabling them to make informed choices with the knowledge
of how their actions impact on the world around them.
3. Preston Community Arts Project (Prescap) works to educate and involve
disadvantaged people in Preston in local and global issues through radio
broadcasting and other creative media. The Preston-based charity is set to
receive £103,545.
Through its Preston and Beyond project, Prescap will run a series of 18
workshops with local community groups, training them on global development
issues such as fighting global poverty and climate change and radio
broadcasting. The result will be the making of regular features on Preston FM
community radio designed to increase listeners’ knowledge of the challenges
facing the world’s poorest countries and how local action can make a global
difference.
4. Apply here for a Grant under the
2009/10 Funding Round
5. More information on the Fund, and the successful projects
6. The 26 new projects will receive £1.86 million in the first year and a
total of £5.6 million over their three year lifetime. The 83 DAF projects
running during 2008-9 will receive £4.5 million in total this year.
7. Details on recent DFID announcements, including Platform2
Back
to top
Links
 Back to top
| 
Directgov |
