The International Secretary, Penny Mordaunt, has announced that over 7,000 veterans of the Commonwealth are to receive two meals a day through UK Aid.
The programme will be delivered through the Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League, a charity, which has been proving support to those veterans who served The British Crown for almost 100 years.
The new Department for International Development (DFID) programme will provide regular cash transfers to Commonwealth veterans and their widows and widowers in more than 30 countries to prevent them from going hungry.
The announcement follows a commitment in June by DFID to design a programme to support pre-independence war veterans.
Without this support, the 4,500 veterans and 2,500 widows would be unable to secure the equivalent of one-meal-a-day. UK aid will mean that those who served in the British Armed Forces across the Commonwealth pre-independence will not live their later years in poverty.
Ms Mordaunt said: “We owe a tremendous amount to these Commonwealth Veterans. The British public would be shocked to know that those who have served alongside our Armed Forces would be living in such poverty.
“It is absolutely right to make this commitment. I think the British public would approve of us pledging this support because of the sacrifices the Commonwealth Veterans have made and because of the debt of gratitude we owe to them.”
image © Royal Commonwealth Ex-Services League
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