UNICEF on air over spare cash

OVER the last six years, in-flight donations by Aer Lingus transatlantic passengers have yielded €4 million for the world’s poorest children.

“Small change can and does make a huge difference,” said movie star Liam Neeson, Ireland’s UNICEF special patron, in Dublin yesterday.

Six years ago, Mr Neeson launched the Change for Good programme which funds the UN body’s work for children in 157 countries.

Aer Lingus collects the foreign coins and notes from passengers on all its transatlantic flights.

UNICEF Ireland executive director Maura Quinn said: “It is very safe to say that passengers donating on board Aer Lingus flights are saving the lives of children every day.”

This year’s funds will support UNICEF Ireland’s “Growing Up Alone” campaign, said Mr Neeson. “With over 11 million children already orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, Change for Good money will fund UNICEF programmes that have been put in place to protect children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable by the disease.”

Last year, the money raised helped support UNICEF’S immunisation campaign against measles involving 80,000 children in over 25 countries.

It was also used in the back-to-school effort in Afghanistan by providing seven million textbooks. Aer Lingus passengers also helped fund a mine awareness programme for 600,000 children in Bosnia Herzegovina.

Aer Lingus chief operations manager Seamus Kearney said that one in every two transatlantic passengers makes a donation on board