E-Paper
A British lottery transforming Asian lives
The British lottery, held twice a week, has transformed the lives of innumerable Asian people in the country.
The British lottery, held twice a week, has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. And it has been a time of celebration for thousands of Asians throughout Britain as well.
Because the national lottery has transformed the lives, in many different ways, of innumerable Asian people in the country. For example, one of the main beneficiaries of lottery funding has been the South Asian Diaspora Literature and Arts Archive, SALIDAA.
This organisation aims to bring learning materials currently in galleries, libraries, museums and universities directly into peoples homes through the wonders of the digital age.
To help bring this about, over the past few years, SALIDAA has put together an archive of some 3000 entries, all illustrating the artistic and cultural contribution made by South Asian people to the arts scene in Britain.
The project director of this ambitious scheme is Paola Marchaonni, and he says, "In the last fifty years, precious artistic work by South Asian artists, which includes writers and classical musicians, has not been documented. We want to change this, not only for the benefit of researchers and academics, but for the general public as well".
But it's not just the arts world that is benefiting from lottery funds: schemes at grass roots level are also being helped throughout the country, organisations like the Bangladeshi Youth League in Luton, just north of London, for instance.
This group used their grant of nearly 200,000 pound to support a social club for young Asian people with disabilities. The group hopes, is that they can improve the self-confidence and independence of these people and improve access to state benefits.
It is not just in England that lottery funding is helping Asians either. For example, the Nari Kallyan Shangho Project in Edinburgh, Scotland, is promoting the health and welfare of South Asian women. How? By setting up self-help and support groups that will enable them to access state benefits, child welfare, and medical help where necessary.
The list of examples is, almost, endless, and whatever you may think of the morality of what is basically a state run gambling facility, there is no doubt that the lottery is bringing a great deal of help to a great many South Asian people.
What somebody called a tax on stupidity (odds of 14 million to 1 on winning are not really a great call) is, nevertheless, enabling a whole lot of projects to be realised that, otherwise, would have remained no more than a gleam in someone's eye. And that can't be bad.
