WIREDGOV

Mothers and children are to be saved from waste-picking on hazardous dumpsites in Bangladesh following a grant from the Big Lottery Fund that will help them into education and learn new skills.

Childhope UK receives £474,617 to help break the cycle of poverty of waste-pickers, mainly single women and their children, in the slums of Dhaka. It will help them leave the dumpsite and into schools and technical training. It is one of 16 UK-based organisations sharing £6.6 million from the Big Lottery Fund’sInternational Communitiesprogramme.

Most of the waste-pickers are desperate women and children made homeless as a result of major flooding in their villages and seek work at Dhaka. The dumpsite is strewn with waste from hospitals as well as household waste – medicines, needles, broken glass, rotting food and bones. The waste-pickers are paid to separate the different types of waste without any protective boots or gloves and often suffer injuries and poisoning.

Childhope UK, based in London, will provide primary education for three years and enrol them into secondary schools. It will also provide training for adolescents in leatherwork, industrial sewing, automobile wiring and servicing, food making and mobile phone repairing. This training will include classroom work and on-the-job experience with skilled technicians and will provide links to employers. The women will be trained in bookkeeping, entrepreneurship, leadership, health and nutrition.

Jill Healey, Executive Director, ChildHope UK, said: “No child should have to live and work on the Matuail dumpsite in Dhaka, Bangladesh. They are exposed to danger and disease every day. They may be cut by glass or needles, poisoned by medical waste or decaying food, or suffer serious injury when they get too close to the huge machines that shift the waste around the dump.  With three local partners in Dhaka, ChildHope is aiming to get the children off the dumpsite and to break the cycle of poverty. Children and young people will receive education and vocational training opportunities and parents will be supported on savings mechanism, health and hygiene.  Health education will enable families to live safer, healthier lives and, by securing birth certificates for each child, we will unlock access to the essential access often denied to the children of the Matuail dumpsite.”

Meanwhile vulnerable women and girls in the Gabu region of Guinea-Bissau will be protected and supported by a project run by SOS Children’s Villages, based in Cambridge. The charity will address right violations, focusing particularly on female genital mutilation. Women will be trained to understand and claim their rights and develop income-generating activities including brick-making, pastry shops, the selling of regional speciality snacks, dried and smoked fish and local produce such as palm oil, sweet potatoes and bananas. 

Another Cambridge-based charity receiving funding is Christian Blind Mission which receives£396,323 to treat, support and rehabilitate children with HIV and disabilities in Harare,Zimbabwe.  Evidence generated will be used to strengthen links between the disability and HIV sectors, resulting in improved referral systems.

Cotton farmers in 44 villages across Benin in West Africa will be supported by a project run by Brighton charity Pesticide Action Network which receives £495,010. It will work to increase incomes and eradicate pesticide-related ill health and deaths amongst farmers, their families and wider community. It will ensure the sustainability of farming practices, support the growing of organic cotton, with a special emphasis on involving women.

The International Tree Foundation in Crawley receives £370,202 to train people in the Nkhata bay North district of Malawi in sustainable and profitable use of land and forest to improve livelihoods and protect against drought and flooding. Training will include soil fertility, water harvesting, fish farming and mushroom production.

Near East Foundation UK, based in Bristol, will use £266,081 to improve access to primary education for poor rural children in Quarzazate province, southern central Morocco. The project will strengthen parent-teacher associations, design extra-curricular activities and enrol children who wouldn’t otherwise be enrolled. In areas where parents have rarely set foot into a school, schools will be opened up for community events to be held to attract interest from communities.

Peter Ainsworth, Big Lottery Fund UK Chair, said: “It’s hard to think of a more poignant image than a child searching through a mountain of hazardous rubbish on these dumpsites. It is good to know that National Lottery funding is helping children and their mothers to build a brighter future for themselves.

“The Fund is supporting grass roots work tackling the causes of poverty and deprivation, to help improve the lives of some of the poorest people in the world. By investing in education and training, we can give young people different choices and chances in life.”

Full list of awards:

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Notes to editors

• The Big Lottery Fund supports the aspirations of people who want to make life better for their communities across the UK. We are responsible for giving out 40% of the money raised by the National Lottery and invest over £650 million a year in projects big and small in health, education, environment and charitable purposes.
• Since June 2004 we have awarded over £6.5billion to projects that make a difference to people and communities in need, from early years intervention to commemorative travel funding for World War Two veterans.
• Since the National Lottery began in 1994, £32 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.