theHRDIRECTOR has announced that the Randal Foundation is their next chosen charity to support, following on from previous fund raising for NHS Charities Together, Mental Health UK, Youth Adventure Trust, Send a Cow and St John Ambulance.

The Covid-19 pandemic has shone a spotlight on the huge inequalities across the world.

Each day thousands of people needlessly perish because they had the misfortune to be born into poverty, or because basic health or mental health support is not available when they desperately need it.

Inequalities in education, or a family’s inability to access schooling for their children, often continues the cycle of deprivation, which blights so many lower-middle income countries.

In the United Kingdom, poverty, poor healthcare and obstacles to education may not have the same mortal consequences as the developing world; but still, many individuals and communities suffer enormous social disadvantages. This often blights families with the devastating consequences of poor mental health and the ravages of addiction.

One charity looking to tackle many of these social issues is the Randal Charitable Foundation, which was founded in 2017 by Dr Nik Kotecha OBE and his wife Moni to directly save lives and significantly improve people’s quality of life in the UK and around the world.

The Foundation provides grant funding to a wide-range of charities, good causes and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which are focused on the prevention and relief of poverty, preservation of good physical and mental health; as well as the advancement of education.

Dr Nik Kotecha OBE, Founder and Chair of Trustees for the Foundation, said: “As a young child my family arrived in the UK as refugees, so I know first-hand the hardship and struggles that many people face through no fault of their own.

“When we established the Foundation, we wanted to make sure that every penny provided, directly saved a life with the aspiration to save 1 million lives in the UK and globally.

“Through the more than 80 significant grants we have made so far, we’re delighted to have already directly saved 145,000 people and significantly improved 240,000 lives in 15 different countries, spanning 5 continents.

“This is just the start of our work, and we look forward to continuing to support charities offering life-saving services for people who desperately need help globally, as well as working to ensure Government support in the UK is provided to help those who need it most.”

The Foundation is theHRDIRECTORS’s charity of the season with donations going to Village Water, which works with vulnerable communities in rural and poor areas of Zambia and Mozambique. Through the Randal Charitable Foundation’s funding the charity has enabled the provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene education in one large rural school and its neighbouring village, as well as funded the restoration of water pumps for 20 villages.

Another significant grant to the British Asian Trust during the first lockdown provided free emergency kits over a 4 month period to help over 137,000 of the most vulnerable people, and their families in India, leaving the cities penniless – most travelling on foot – to their rural homes, with little or no chance of finding work or accessing government support. In 2021 during the height of India’s second wave, the Trust funded an oxygen generator for a 550 bed hospital, so sustainable oxygen could be provided during the pandemic and beyond.

Closer to home, the Foundation supports a wide range of causes in the UK. One notable charity to receive a significant grant is Hope Against Cancer, which is using the funding to double the size of Leicester Royal Infirmary’s Clinical Trials Facility, which is targeted to save 1,200 lives over 120 months.

The Foundation is also working to invoke change through Government and has provided grants to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), which have helped enable the think-tank to secure an extra £80 million in funding from the Government for drug treatment services in England, this year.

To find out more visit www.randalfoundation.org.uk