Worthwhile Funding...

The Department for International Development is spending £3 million over three years on a scheme called Global Community Links (GCL) which funds projects intended to educate the British public about impoverished nations, chiefly in Africa and Asia.

Trade unions, charities, schools and churches can apply for the money - but any organisation that receives it must agree to spend it all in Britain, and is specifically barred from sending any abroad.

The initiative is being funded even though the Conservatives attacked such UK-based "awareness" spending when they were in opposition and said it would end as soon as they came to power.  The revelation will raise further questions over why DfID was one of only two Whitehall departments, along with the Department of Health, to be spared cuts in its budget by the Coalition.  Among the projects already offered funds under the current scheme are:

* A conference in Cambridge, planned for later this month, featuring an "Afro-Cuban dance gala".

The conference has been organised by the charity Cambridge to Africa as one series of events to highlight its link with a children's charity in Uganda, for which it has received a GCL grant of £8,015.

The events are expected to be attended by 600 people – a cost to the taxpayer of £13 a head.

As well as a performance by Leandro Charanga, a Cambridge-based salsa dancer who is originally from Cuba, the event, "Celebrating Diversity: Voices from Africa", also includes presentations from a Swiss freelance journalist and a Norwegian aid worker. 

* Fairtrade coffee mornings to be held in Huddersfield by a group called the Young Ethical Pioneers, which has been awarded £9,460 to promote its link with tea and coffee producers in Kenya.

The organisers hope to attract "local celebrities" to promote the events – possibly from town's football or rugby league clubs. 

* A video about a twinning project between a Yorkshire Dales village and a community in Mali.

The link was established part of a wider scheme to connect people living on the Greenwich Meridian in different parts of the world – although Burley in Wharfedale is more than 70 miles from the line, while Tereli, in Mali, is more than 200 miles from it.

The Yorkshire group has received £9,550 to make the video and to organise four conferences about their work. 

* A DVD and a poster exhibition about epilepsy in Sierra Leone. A Reading-based community group, Education for Development, has been awarded £8,985 to create the publicity material, which will be seen by more than 4,500 people at conferences, in hospitals and online. 

* A twinning project between people from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Kenya to promote the British public's knowledge of climate change.

A grant of £10,000 to Team Kenya is being spent on workshops, a conference and other events in north-east England. The group's message will also be spread through a DVD and blogs.

* A week of activities later this year in Plymouth to celebrate a link with Ghana, including performances by musicians from the African country. Plymouth Ghana Link has also been handed £10,000 with the aim of "widening for the people of Plymouth their understanding and awareness of Ghana".

Funded activities include presentations and seminars, links between schools, a visit to Devon by a representative from a cocoa co-operative, and workshops in Plymouth about malaria.

More at TTel.