The Samaritans isn't inclusive enough

A branch of the Samaritans has had its application for a £300,000 lottery grant rejected because, it was told, it does not do enough for the disadvantaged, asylum seekers and ethnic minorities.

The volunteers in Sheffield take 22,000 calls a year, offering round-the-clock support to desperate people throughout Yorkshire and Humberside every day.

But they could soon find themselves homeless because they cannot afford to refurbish new premises after being rejected by the lottery. At the same time, the Big Lottery Fund is to give £360,000 of public money to a project offering advice to prostitutes.

Why should diversity play a role in deciding lottery money? How do they know that the Samaritans don’t help ethnic minorities? At the end of a phone call trying to persuade someone not to commit suicide it wouldn’t exactly be a good idea to ask them to fill out a customer satisfaction survey would it.

I think that the Samaritans do help ethnic minorities and if they don’t they should still have received the money so they could help them. Maybe talking to the Samaritans would stop so many abused Asian women from committing suicide after-all young Asian women are 3 times more likely to be suicidal than white British women.

More than 21,000 girls under 15 in England and Wales are estimated to be at serious risk of being forced into genital mutilation and a further 11,000 over-eights are highly likely already to have been subjected to the practice, according to research. Aren’t these types of ethnic minorities likely to commit suicide too?

Surely this shows that it is probable that the Samaritans do help ethnic minorities and by the Lottery criteria they should be given the grant.