DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal donations reach £9 million

Howard Lake | 11 July 2011 | News

PRESS HANDOUT/ CARE INTERNATIONAL: Newly arrived refugees from Somalia wait to be registered at Dagehaley camp, one of three camps that make up the Dadaab refugee camp in Dadaab, Noertheastern Kenya on the 7th July, 2011. In recent weeks over 1500 Somali refugees have been arriving daily as a result of ongoing drought. and severe pressure is being put on already limited resources. The NGO Care International has worked in Dadaab since 1992 and is distributing emergency food rations, blankets,water containers,sleeping mats and plastic sheets. Last night the UK Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) launched an appeal in response to the drought throughout East Africa.

The UK public have so far donated £9 million to the DEC appeal, launched three days ago on 8 July, to help people suffering from severe food shortages in East Africa. Text donations have proved a particular popular method of giving.

Chief Executive of the Disasters Emergency Committee Brendan Gormley said: “The UK public have been remarkably generous, despite many having to tighten their belts here in the UK. We are determined, with the public’s support, to prevent this crisis from spiralling out of control. I would urge people to keep giving, to help us save more lives.”

According to ActionAid, almost £100,000 was donated by text in one hour on Friday evening after the appeal was launched, including £9,295 in one minute. The public can donate £5 via their phone bill by texting CRISIS to 70000. These text donations represented 5% of total donations when the total stood at £8 million. ActionAid commented: “This compares to just 0.1 per cent of donations by text to the Pakistan Floods Appeal”.

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Gormley commented on the success of giving by text, saying: “We have significantly increased our promotion of ‘text to give’ and it’s now clear that this has allowed us to reach a whole new generation of supporters.

“The text to give response has been astonishing and does not seem to have diminished giving by other means. However people give, it’s heartening to see such overwhelming generosity.”

The DEC East Africa Appeal has been presented on the TV and radio by actor Jason Isaacs, actor and comedian Lenny Henry, broadcaster and journalist Kate Adie, and actress Fay Ripley.

www.dec.org.uk

Charity Commission warns of possible scams around East Africa crisis appeal (27 July 2011)
DEC creates new website (4 August 2011)
DEC East Africa Crisis Appeal raises £72 million in 100 days (17 October 2011)

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.

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