Big Lottery Fund announces £5.5 million partnership with Comic Relief
10 Mar 2015 02:59 PM
Big Lottery Fund recently (9th March) announced a £5.5m partnership with Comic Relief, with £5m from Big Lottery Fund and £500,000 from Comic Relief thanks to public donations to Red Nose Day.
The money will be spent through the partnership on grants to improve the health of mothers, babies and children; and the lives of people living in urban slums.
In Africa, on average one in nine children dies before their fifth birthday, mainly from easily preventable diseases. More than 280,000 women die each year of preventable or easily treatable pregnancy related complications. While throughout Africa about 330 million people live in atrocious conditions in slums and informal settlements, with slum populations roughly doubling every 15 years.
As well as bringing change to the lives of vulnerable and disadvantaged people across some of the poorest communities in Africa, this new funding partnership between Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief aims to better understand what wider benefits collaboration can have on the sector.
Dawn Austwick, Chief Executive of the Big Lottery Fund, said: “It’s great that we are working with Comic Relief. We are really pleased to be jointly supporting work that will make a massive difference to the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in the world. We are excited about working closely together over the next five years and will be building our joint learning throughout.”
Kevin Cahill, Chief Executive of Comic Relief, said: “We’re delighted that Big Lottery Fund is contributing £5m towards this partnership that will make a real difference to people with unimaginably tough lives in some of the poorest communities in Africa. By working together we hope to increase learning about good grant making, and share these findings with the sector. Of course, the ultimate aim is to ensure that funding gets to where it is most needed and is as effective as possible in making a true and lasting impact in people’s lives.”
For information about this release please contact:
Harri Murphy at Comic Relief on 0207 820 2508 / h.murphy@comicrelief.com
Big Lottery Fund:
Press Office: 020 7211 1888
Out of hours media contact: 07867 500572
About The Big Lottery Fund
- 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, £33 billion has been raised and more than 450,000 grants awarded.
- Website: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk
- Twitter: @biglotteryfund #BigLottery
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/BigLotteryFund
About Red Nose Day
- Red Nose Day 2015 is heading your way on Friday 13th March when the great British public will be asked to Make Your Face Funny for Money.
- By raising cash this Red Nose Day, you’re helping to change lives forever. That’s because Comic Relief spends the money raised to help change the lives of poor, vulnerable and disadvantaged people across the UK and Africa.
- Red Nose Day comes along every two years and combines two very British things: having a laugh and helping others. Be it at school, work or home, people across the land put on Red Noses and pull out all the stops to raise as much money as possible. Then, once everyone’s run out of fundraising juice, they tune into BBC One for some top entertainment from their favourite comedians and to donate even more cash! And why do they do it? To help poor and vulnerable people living incredibly tough lives both here in the UK and in Africa Comic Relief, registered charity 326568 (England/Wales); SC039730 (Scotland