Manx government donates £1.4m to aid Syrian refugee children

The Isle of Man has donated more than £1.4m in international aid to help Syrian refugee children.

Unicef UK is the second of two charities to receive large donations from the government's International Development Partnership fund.

The aid will pay for care for 12,500 Syrian children seeking refuge in Iraq, along with parent and carer education.

In addition, five local charities have also received a total of £473,000 for international development work.

The government previously donated £1.3m to help fund projects to combat the effects of climate change in Burundi.

A government spokesman said the annual support to international charities aimed to "create longer-term partnerships" between the island and "a small number of respected international charities".

The initiative sought to "facilitate lasting and sustainable change", he added.

Local branches of five other charities have also been awarded donations through the Small Grants Scheme, which supports overseas development work.

Each will receive sums of between £82,000 and £100,000 for a two-year period.

Funds have been given to CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) to improve water, sanitation and hygiene in Sudan, while Christian Aid's work to improve access to sustainable cooking methods has also been included.

The Pahar Trust Nepal's drive to build "earthquake resilient" education facilities in the country, and the RNLI's to efforts "reduce drowning mortality" in Bangladesh will receive funds too.

And support has also been secured by Excellent Development for a project in Ethiopia to build sand dams, which enables rainwater harvesting for long term water security.

Cabinet Office Minister Kate Lord-Brennan said the money had been given to locally-based charities to "support their ongoing work to tackle poverty and to improve living standards and education in some of the world's less developed countries".

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