Over the past eight years, the Embassy’s Direct Aid Program has benefited over 70 Projects in Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador

Children, women, community organisations and NGOs have all benefited from the more than A$500,000 granted by the Australian Embassy’s Direct Aid Program (DAP). The 2007-2008 bidding period is now open.

Over the past eight years, the Australian Embassy in Santiago has contributed an average of around A$70,000 a year towards humanitarian projects in our four countries of accreditation – Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador, as part of the Australian Government’s Direct Aid Program (DAP).

DAP is a flexible, small grants program funded by the Australian Government available to individuals, community groups and NGOs engaged in development activities, in designated countries, on a not-for-profit basis. The program is aimed primarily at supporting small-scale humanitarian development projects and activities that will derive a community benefit in the short-term. Over the past year, the Embassy has supported a total of twelve different projects that will benefit a range of people in several different communities in the region. Some of these projects include:

• the extension of child care facilities at a centre located in a disadvantaged suburb of Lima. This project will benefit more than 100 children between 3 months and 12 years old and ensure they receive adequate care, nutrition and development skills training while their mothers have the opportunity to find work;
• supporting a program run by a Bolivian NGO which aims to benefit 1.5 million people in Bolivia, by providing them with information on health and food safety;
• assisting a project in northern Chile which aims to provide training on sewing, bakery and hairdressing to 45 single mothers and victims of family violence to enable them to learn skills to earn their own living; and
• helping out a non profit NGO in Ecuador that provides preventative medical services for people of very low income, with the replacement of old material with more modern equipment for lab tests, benefiting the 1,000 people that regularly attend the facility.

Bids for DAP project funding in the 2007-2008 financial year are now open and can be submitted to the Embassy until the end of June. More information can be found at http://www.chile.embassy.gov.au/sclecastellano/DAPhome.html