An aid package of £5.5 million for 41 humanitarian projects in 22 of the world's poorest countries has been announced by the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell.
The grants include £250,000 for the survivors of last month's earthquake in Peru and a further £100,000 to the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) for a programme to help cope with future natural disasters in Latin America.
A total of £840,000 has been allocated for de-mining and mine victims in Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia and Vietnam. "Our support for children at risk and mine action brings these evil forms of exploitation and cruelty into sharp focus," the Minister of State said. "These are two evils which we must continually strive to eradicate by concerted action in political, human rights and humanitarian terms."
There is £36,923 for a Trocaire Human Rights Education and Exhumations Project in Guatemala. In December 1996 a peace accord was signed between the Guatemalan government and the URNG (rebel groups) concluding 36 years of conflict in Guatemala. An estimated 150,000 to 200,000 people were killed and 40,000 disappeared during this period. The exhumations will affect 300 to 400 families.
A sum of £75,000 is to be allocated to a Save the Children project for the advancement of children's rights in Ghana. Ghana was the first country in Africa to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and a Children's Act introduced by its government in 1998 provides a framework for the enforcement of children's right to protection.
The project will develop the capacity at district level to support the implementation of the Act and will target children in conflict with the law, child victims of physical, mental and sexual abuse, children with disabilities, children affected by harmful traditional practices and children affected by HIV/AIDS.
There is £250,000 for UNICEF child protection in the Democratic Republic of Congo. War has ravaged the DRC since 1998, drawing in several nations in the Great Lakes and Central African regions. The number of vulnerable people is estimated at 16 million, or 33 per cent of the population.
UNICEF's programme assists displaced and traumatised children, unaccompanied minors and demobilised child soldiers by reinforcing basic social services such as health and education, psycho-social care (trauma recovery) and family tracing.