Supporting people impacted by the changing climate in sub-Saharan Africa

The changing climate means we urgently need to change how we do things – for example, the way people earn an income, grow food, or access weather information. 

This is one of the key reasons why since April 2022  we have been investing player funds into climate related projects across sub-Saharan Africa. 

Across the continent, periods of drought and flash flooding are becoming more likely, intense, and unpredictable with all sorts of impacts but most notably for food security. In response, local Red Cross and Red Crescent teams are supporting people in a range of places with the new tools and skills needed to cope. 

This might be training people up in alternative fields of work, or giving cash grants for them to buy food for today and then invest in new ways to earn money. It might even look like financial training. This includes sharing information about how to organise and grow savings in communities that might not, for example, have access to banks. 

Our partner Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies and the volunteers who lead the work are also sharing new climate-smart farming techniques and drought-resistant seeds, and helping farmers link up with local markets without any middlemen, so they have a reliable place to sell their produce.

These initiatives are all life saving. They not only help people avoid hunger and malnutrition so they can survive today but also help them face the future of climate change with hope and dignity. 

Responding to complex emergencies in the Middle East and North Africa

Player funding is directly helping thousands of men, women and children living in Lebanon and Syria right now.  For example, in Lebanon players are helping to provide vital cash assistance to Syrian refugees and their supporting host communities.

In Syria players are helping women and girls supported by our protection project, where teams deliver trainings and community support on trafficking and sexual and gender-based violence. This includes helping women and girls know where they can go to for support , and how their communities can reduce the dangers they face in the future.

Working with nature to protect people 

In 2023, British Red Cross and Kenya Red Cross joined forces with WWF-UK and WWF-Kenya on a Nature-based Solution project in coastal Kenya. Supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, we are working together to restore ecosystems, which will result in the conservation of 900 hectares of marine and terrestrial habitats.  

Nature-based solutions are vital to protecting the lives of those more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change., and can provide approximately 20-30% of the solutions needed to meet emissions targets under the Paris climate agreement in a cost-effective way. 

The transformative nature of flexible funding 

The flexible nature of the funds awarded to us by the Postcode International Trust means we are able to use the funding flexibly for whoever needs our help the most and that we can invest in locally-led, innovative, and longer-term sustainable change.  

Players can not only be proud of the amount they have raised for us – an incredible £19.2 million since 2014, but also for the way these funds empower us to do more.