£1.1 million boost for Scotland’s charities has international impact
98 charities across Scotland will each receive a share of over £1.1 million in the latest round of awards made by Lloyds TSB Foundation for Scotland. This includes 23 awards totalling almost £400,000 to support the work of Scottish charities working in fragile overseas communities.
Mary Craig, the Foundation’s Deputy Chief Executive, said: “The massive range of work we support, from providing medical equipment in Romania to delivering a peace and empowerment programme in Guatemala, is all tailored to the real day to day needs of local people in the different areas of the world where it is delivered.
“Seeing the difference our overseas awards make to people around the world has had a huge impact on me. It also means I really appreciate the dedication of the Scottish charities that work in some very difficult conditions, and use often fairly small amounts of money to have a profound effect on people’s lives.
“For example, our smallest award is for just under £2,500, and this will help 100 women in Gambia grow vegetables and become self sustaining in their food production. What can change someone’s life more than knowing they’ll be able to feed themselves and their family? The largest award we’ve made is for just over £33,000, and this will develop a micro-loans facility which will make loans of roughly £45 to help groups of women in rural areas of southern Malawi establish their own businesses. Again, this helps meet people’s basic needs of being able to earn enough money to support their families and make sure they don’t go hungry. We’re also supporting work in Russia, India, the Philippines, South America and other areas of Africa.
“Closer to home we’ve also made 64 awards totalling over £692,000 to support the delivery of work by charities here in Scotland, and 11 awards totalling over £71,000 to help Scottish charities develop themselves.”
Charities who would like more information about applying to the Foundation for an award can look on our website (www.ltsbfoundationforscotland.org.uk) or contact us on 0870 902 1201. The next deadline for applications to our standard grant scheme is 15th September 2008.