Lottery funds aid projects abroad

The funding will provide schoolchildren with uniforms

Disadvantaged women and children in India and Ghana will be helped by National Lottery grants to two Cambridgeshire-based charities.

In Ghana, 40,000 children are to get better education and a safer school environment after a £459,623 award to Camfed International in Cambridge.

The Village Service Trust in St Neots is to get just over £308,000 to help oppressed women in southern India.

The grants come from the international side of the Big Lottery Fund.

'Significant impact'

Camfed International was established in the UK in 1993, and is dedicated to the education of girls and young women in rural areas of Africa in order to improve their circumstances.

Working in Ghana's deprived northern region, the lottery grant will provide funding for uniforms and stationery to disadvantaged children in danger of dropping out of school.

The Village Service Trust was founded 30 years ago to tackle poverty, injustice and poor health in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu where the status of women is extremely low.

Sir Clive Booth, Big Lottery Fund chair, said: "These UK-based charities charities are making a significant impact in some of the world's most disadvantaged areas.

"We're pleased that today's funding will help them tackle poverty and deprivation across the developing world, helping those who are desperately in need of help."