Charities launch tsunamis disaster appeal

British charities today launched a massive emergency appeal to help the victims of the tsunamis which have devastated countries around the Indian Ocean.

Under the umbrella of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), charities including ActionAid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Oxfam, Save The Children, Christian Aid and World Vision, are asking for money to provide clean water, food and shelter to thousands of people in Asia.

Chairman of the DEC, Brendan Gormley, said: “People will struggle to recover from this disaster. Not only have many lost members of their families, but poor people have the fewest assets to fall back on and fewer opportunities to earn money.

“The aid agencies will provide humanitarian aid to the poorest people affected by the tsunamis over the months and years to come.

“But such is the scale of this disaster that they need urgent help to scale up their work,” he said.

The charities will also use the money to give longer term support to people whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by the effects of the earthquake under the Indian Ocean.

The committee is providing 3,000 lines (telephone number 087 0606 0900) for people to give donations and will be launching a television appeal later in the week.

Aid agencies in the UK have already seen an “incredible” public response to what the UN has termed “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis”.

Dominic Nutt, emergency specialist with Christian Aid, said that within its first few hours the charity’s online appeal had raised £10,000.

A spokeswoman for Oxfam said that the response to their appeal looked like it was going to be very large.

“This seems to have really touched people at Christmas time,” she said.

Oxfam is asking for £3 million from the general public to help victims of the catastrophe and has called on the international community to support the UN in leading the aid response.