News

A further three organisations have secured Small Charities Challenge Fund grants

We are pleased to announce that Cerebral Palsy Africa, the Lorna Young Foundation and Mosaik Education have all been awarded Small Charities Challenge Fund grants. These are in addition to the 13 most recent organisations that were announced by the Department for International Development (DFID) on 1 March 2019.

Just over 50,000 of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable are expected to benefit from the work of these projects, with three of the UN’s Global Goals – No Poverty , Quality Education  and Reduced Inequalities – specifically being supported here.

In more detail:

Disability Inclusion project (in Ghana)

Cerebral Palsy Africa’s 24-month project Enabling education for children with cerebral palsy in Ghana will work with the University of Education in Winneba to train special education teachers to create accessible classrooms for children with cerebral palsy. Teachers will be supported to provide educational activities and supportive devices to meet the children’s needs.

The parents and wider community will also be supported to reduce the stigma and increase the understanding around the needs – and benefits of – educating children with cerebral palsy.

Agriculture project (in Ghana)

Lorna Young Foundation’s 18-month long project is also being delivered in Ghana and is expected to provide training and resources to 50,000 smallholder farmers through radio.

The new Farmers Voice Radio project will work with female farmers working in shea butter production.These often isolated farmers, will be supported to sell their produce for a good price, to mitigate the impact of climate change, and to improve business and livelihood sustainability.

Education project (in Lebanon)

Mosaik Education’s 18-month project Dardachat Lebanon Expansion will support over 200 young Syrian refugees in Lebanon to access tertiary education and enable them to reach their potential. It will provide digital and face-to-face psychosocial support to the refugees and establish peer-to-peer mentorship between existing and prospective Syrian students.

More information about Small Charities Challenge Fund grants can be found on our dedicated SCCF page.

SCCF is currently closed to applications whilst we plan for the next phase of the fund. Further information will be published in due course, but you can keep up to date with the latest news by following UK Aid Direct on Twitter and Facebook.

Grant holder learning event held in Nairobi

More than 24 not-for-profit organisations and charities came together last week for a UK aid East Africa learning event in Nairobi, Kenya.

The two-day event, organised by the Department for International Development (DFID) and MannionDaniels, brought together a wide-range of grant holders – from both the UK Aid Direct and UK Aid Match funds  – to discuss and share their experiences on a variety of subjects. These included sustainability, disability inclusion and project management.

One of the attendees said: “I think with a very mixed group of participants – very senior staff from large NGOs, and small downstream partners – the agenda catered for the diverse needs and levels of experience.”

The DFID and MannionDaniels’ teams took the opportunity to also visit 14 UK aid-funded projects in Kenya and Uganda, including Small Charities Challenge Fund (SCCF) grant holders WasteAid, Community Partnership (and SCCF) grant holders, Friends of Kipkelion and Impact grant holders, Farm Africa and ActionAid Rwanda.

How the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance is improving palliative care in Bangladesh

It’s a key part of what the World Health Organisation (WHO) sees as universal health coverage, but palliative care is a neglected and unequal issue. Globally, 86% of people who need it, are not receiving it. The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA) is one organisation looking to change that.

In 2018, the WHPCA, in partnership with the Department of Palliative Medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), launched a UK Aid Direct-funded project to bring a palliative care service to Narayanganj, Bangladesh. The lack of palliative care service in the region meant that those with serious and life-limiting conditions had high levels of physical pain as well as psychological distress and mounting health costs.

One year on, the project has established a palliative care hub, is providing support to more than 100 patients and has trained 27 nurses and 17 doctors from the Narayanganj public hospital in the basics of palliative care, a subject that does not exist on the medical or nursing curriculum.

To help build awareness and advocate for the service in Narayanganj, WHPCA has enlisted the support of the local community. Local people have been trained as Palliative Care Assistants (PCAs), a new role that has been introduced to the city. PCAs visit patients where they live to minimise travel costs and to encourage the building of a compassionate community around the patient’s home. 93 community volunteers have also been trained to act as ambassadors for palliative care services and support the project by referring potential patients, visiting patients and training other volunteers.

“The community of Narayanganj takes the new concept of palliative care positively. They help me a lot and also respect me,” says Nadia Sultana Nupur, one of the nine new PCAs in the area. “With my work, I can contribute to human life, provide food and nutrition-related advice to the patients and serve the patient’s suffering from life-limiting illness.”

However, one of Nadia’s concerns is whether this service will continue to exist after the project ends.

“I hope that in the future the Narayanganj society will be able to take responsibility,” says Nadia. “The Government can also play an important role to establish palliative care in every district, through funding, raising public awareness and through training healthcare staff.”

WHPCA has already started engaging local authorities to ensure that the momentum gained in Narayanganj is maintained. The organisation has obtained support from Narayanganj City Corporation Mayor, Selina Hayat Ivy, for the project and she has provided a statement of her intention to continue key elements of the project once the international funding comes to an end.

Furthermore, one of WCHPA’s partners – the Department of Palliative Medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University – was involved in the creation of policy and clinical guidelines for palliative care in Bangladesh. A step forward to ensuring that palliative care is available throughout the country.