17 November 2009
We are deeply disappointed by the Government’s decision to cancel the Campaigning Research programme.
The organisations had already been informed that they would be receiving funding and that the work would need to start promptly in November.
While we understand the difficulty of balancing competing priorities during the recession, we are deeply concerned about the impact this decision will have on small, marginalised groups who already find it extremely difficult to fund their vital activities.
Many of the awards were to small equalities organisations. We know the work of some of the organisations personally and these grants were going to fund vital work that would have helped to address significant issues of discrimination and inequality.
The Office of the Third Sector says that they will reallocate the money to the Hardship Fund, which was set up to help charities survive the recession. But as Diana Nammi notes, “the recession also affects organisations like us”. Nammi, Director of the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKWRO) describes the news as a “double shock” after the news last month that the money they have been receiving from the Forced Marriage Unit for supporting victims of forced marriage will not be renewed.
“After losing the forced marriage funding, this [Campaigning Research programme] gave us some hope. Now we will have to lose a very valuable member of staff. We’re campaigning for women’s basic human rights and tackling women’s suffering. We’re really disappointed.”
Street Talk, an organisation working with women in street prostitution and trafficked women, estimate that it had taken the equivalent of one person working full time for one month on the application and planning process. They had even turned down a donation from a private donor for campaigning work as they had already been assured of this funding – “We’re only a tiny charity and we can’t take on money for more work than we can do. I can only hope that if we go back to her and explain the situation that she is still willing to donate.”
Street Talk had been planning to use the money to raise the issues for the women they support, with professionals in the judiciary, the police and social services, to help improve the support they receive from them. “It’s such a disappointment. We work with people who just don’t have a voice in our society and won’t fight back against the decision."
Dr Sasha Rakoff, Director of Object, which has also seen its funding offer withdrawn, points out “that the work we do is actually a cost-effective way to reduce the need for frontline services at the end of the chain”, noting their recent campaign victories on legislation around the sex industry. “We have really noticed the recession making it harder than ever for ‘controversial' groups like ours to gain grant-based funding.”
Object has started a fundraising campaign to help recoup the losses caused by the withdrawal of the funding.