Category Archives: Voluntary sector

Covid-19 appeal to benefit NHS staff through array of charities

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Fundraisers for NHS Charities Together aim for £100m goal

The fundraising effort of Tom Moore, the 99-year-old who inspired many with his sponsored garden walk, drawing in £15m on behalf of the NHS, has focused attention on the health service charities which stand to benefit.

Captain Moore’s 100 laps of his garden began on 8 April with a target of £1,000 which snowballed rapidly as his efforts received national TV and social media exposure. The £15m he has raised dwarfs the £10m donated to the fund by the Duke of Westminster, and the £5m given by the Rausing family, and puts the Covid-19 Appeal, launched Monday,well on the way to its £100m target.

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Cancer Research UK to cut funding for research by £44m

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UK’s biggest cancer charity expects income to fall by up to 25% as a result of the coronavirus crisis

The UK’s biggest cancer charity is cutting research funding by £44m because of a sharp fall in income and has acknowledged that the move could set back the fight against the disease for many years.

Cancer Research UK (CRUK), which funds nearly half of the cancer research in the country, said it was the most difficult decision it had ever taken but explained that it believed limiting spending now would enable it to continue to support life-saving research in the long-run.

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We need to be physically distant, but we need to share our collective pain | Tim Costello

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The wave of illness and death brought on by coronavirus is only beginning. How do we prepare for the sadness that will be thrust upon us?

• Join Tim Costello as he gives the inaugural Australia at Home lunchtime briefing at 1pm

Like many people, I am re-reading The Plague by Albert Camus. I haven’t picked it up for years.

“The first thing the plague brought to our town was exile ... It was undoubtedly the feeling of exile – that sensation of a void within which never left us ... they drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days and sterile memories, like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress.”

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How shopping and Sinatra are helping in coronavirus isolation

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People from all walks of life are mobilising to support those coping with isolation

Amy Tan is preparing to burst into song with two fellow musicians on a deserted street in Acton, west London.

“We’ll do anything by Frank Sinatra or Ella Fitzgerald – the Rat Pack,” she says. “Or maybe they would like a song by Elton John or the Beatles?”

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Harry Redknapp and Caitlyn Jenner caught in charity support sting

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The celebrities took large fees in return for backing a fake environmental group set up by C4’s Dispatches programme

Caitlyn Jenner and Harry Redknapp have both accepted thousands of pounds in return for backing a fake charity set up by Channel 4 in a sting operation.

In a Dispatches documentary, Celebs For Sale: The Great Charity Scandal, to be broadcast on Monday evening, the two well-known faces are revealed to be part of a widespread practice of paying celebrities for public support.

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Save the Children ‘let down’ staff and public over sexual misconduct claims

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Charity Commission condemns ‘serious failures’ in handling of harassment allegations against senior staff

Save the Children “let down” its staff and the wider public over its handling of alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour by senior managers, according to a fiercely critical report published on Thursday.

The Charity Commission said the organisation’s handling of complaints against its former chief executive, Justin Forsyth, and Brendan Cox, its former policy director, amounted to mismanagement and had a “corrosive effect” on the organisation’s culture. The charity must work hard to rebuild its reputation, said the commission.

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Save the Children chief resists calls to quit after damning watchdog inquiry

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Charity Commission accuses organisation of mishandling sexual harassment allegations levelled at former senior staff

The head of one of Britain’s biggest charities resisted calls to resign on Wednesday after a damning inquiry into the organisation’s handling of allegations of sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour against senior managers.

A Charity Commission investigation into Save the Children’s handling of claims against Justin Forsyth and Brendan Cox, respectively the charity’s former chief executive and policy director, will be published on Thursday.

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Disability charity boss jailed after stealing from pension fund

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Patrick McLarry sentenced to five years for defrauding scheme of more than £250,000

The former head of a charity has been jailed for five years after he admitted defrauding a pension scheme for workers with disabilities and using the money to buy houses in England and France.

Patrick McLarry took more than £250,000 from the pension scheme of Yateley Industries for the Disabled and used it to buy homes for himself and his wife and pay off a debt for a pub lease.

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Food for thought: the school lunch scheme linking London and Liberia

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By providing free school meals to some of the poorest children on Earth, a UK charity is also ensuring they get an education

It’s breakfast time in Domagbamatma (population: 63) in the depths of the Liberian rainforest, but there’s no food in evidence in the home of Massa Kamara. The eight-year-old has been up since dawn, collecting firewood, fetching water.

Now she’s ready for school in a crisp white shirt and navy-blue skirt in her family’s muddy, two-room shack.

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Grassroots heroes from fundraisers to fosterers get new year honours

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Elvis impersonator, boy aged 13 and cancer-specialist midwife among those honoured

The vast majority of new year honours have been awarded to ordinary people for extraordinary contributions to society at a local and national level.

Among those singled out were a midwife who has helped to transform care for new mothers with cancer, a 13-year-old boy who has raised thousands of pounds for charity and a Welsh Elvis impersonator whose fundraising has reached £250,000.

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Uganda bans thousands of charities in ‘chilling’ crackdown

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Government critics fear purge of sector as more than 12,000 organisations lose registered charity status

More than 12,000 charities have been told they can no longer operate in Uganda as critics raised fears that government regulatory measures effectively amounted to a purge.

The government said a review that took place in August and September would root out poorly performing organisations and create “a reliable data bank on all NGOs” in the country.

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Ministers accused of ‘disgraceful U-turn’ over post-Brexit funds for refugees

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Charities say 30,000 people will lose support and vital services in event of no deal

Thousands of vulnerable refugees living in the UK are at risk of losing access to vital services including housing, healthcare and school places for children after it emerged millions of pounds of funding will come to a halt in the event of a no-deal Brexit.

The asylum, migration and integration fund (AMIF), which the EU set up in 2014, is a pot of billions of pounds to be used by EU member states to support integration of non-EU nationals, including newly recognised refugees.

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Environmental activist murders double in 15 years

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Death toll almost half that of US troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001, data shows

Killings of environmental defenders have doubled over the past 15 years to reach levels usually associated with war zones, according to a study that reveals how murders of activists are concentrated in countries with the worst corruption and weakest laws.

At least 1,558 people in 50 states were killed between 2002 and 2017 while trying to protect their land, water or local wildlife, says the analysis, which calculates the death toll is almost half that of US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001.

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Oxfam failed to report child abuse claims in Haiti, inquiry finds

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Damning Charity Commission report warns incidents in country were not isolated events

There were “serious problems with the culture, morale and behaviour” of Oxfam staff in Haiti according to a damning report which has found that the charity failed to disclose allegations of child abuse.

The Charity Commission report surveyed 7,000 pieces of evidence related to allegations that Oxfam had covered up its investigation into staff paying for sex while working on the response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.

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Audrey Simpson obituary

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My friend Audrey Simpson, who has died aged 83, was a powerful voice in Brighton and Hove, which she had made her adopted city after leaving London in 1978.

Without any previous experience, she bought a small, run-down, 12-room guest house, the Granville, overlooking the West Pier on the seafront, and transformed it into one of Brighton’s first boutique hotels. Later, in an adjacent space, she created a restaurant, Trogs, which met with equal success and became a gourmet mecca.

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Aid sector action to tackle abuse ‘completely unsatisfactory’, say MPs

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International development committee evidence session on fighting sexual misconduct finds little has changed

Private aid companies and charities will be asked to reappear before MPs, after evidence given on tackling sexual abuse was condemned as “completely unsatisfactory”.

Stephen Twigg, chair of the international development committee (IDC), said he intended to invite representatives of both groups back.

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Save the Children UK chairman resigns after staff complaints

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Peter Bennett-Jones, who was criticised over tackling of sexual harassment, quits as UN sack aid worker in Uganda

The chairman of Save the Children UK has resigned after complaints by staff that he was not doing enough to address allegations of sexual harassment.

The charity said Peter Bennett-Jones was standing down following objections to remarks he made during recent discussions with staff about the organisation’s future.

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