2022 Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day raised £4.6mn
Melanie May | 24 April 2023 | News
Last year’s Save the Children Christmas Jumper Day campaign raised £4,621,240, including £2 million of match funding from the UK government.
In total, since launching over a decade ago, Save the Children’s annual Christmas Jumper Day campaign has raised over £30 million for children in the UK and around the world, by calling on people to wear their favourite Christmas Jumper and donate £2. Last year, the campaign was supported by celebrities including Holly Willoughby, Olly Murs, Andi Oliver, Martin Kemp and Alexandra Burke (pictured), with a focus on sustainability, upcycling and shopping second-hand. In total, more than 3 million people took part in the 2022 fundraiser.
The £2mn contribution from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office will go directly to help mothers and babies in rural communities in Kenya. The UK Aid Match Funding was announced by the government last year, in response to a worsening food crisis across drought-hit East Africa where an estimated more than seven million children face extreme hunger.
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The UK government’s match-funding will fund Save the Children’s ACCEPT programme in Kenya, together with a local partner, Turkana Christian Development Mission. The programme works to increase the quality and availability of essential maternal, newborn and child health and nutrition services in Mandera and Turkana counties.
The rest of this year’s money will help the most disadvantaged children both across the world and in the UK, get access to food, healthcare and education.
Claire Sanford, Deputy Humanitarian Director at Save the Children UK, said:
“There is illness everywhere in East Africa, linked to hunger and thirst. Children are drinking from drying riverbeds and wells normally reserved for livestock. We are also finding it harder and harder to treat unwell children, because families are continually on the move.
“A choice between a drink of water or antibiotics is not a choice. No human should be in this position. It’s not dignified, it’s not safe, it’s wrong.
“Thanks to the UK Aid Match Funding, we will be able to directly address the needs of mothers and children in Kenya suffering from malnutrition through the roll out of our ACCEPT programme.”
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.