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Massive public response to Tsunami aid appeals
People worldwide opened their hearts and wallets on Thursday to give millions of dollars to the victims of Asia's tsunamis, jamming phone lines and web sites and outpacing their own governments in their generosity.
Britain's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) said it had collected the equivalent of $39 million, less than a day after launching an appeal on behalf of 12 top British charities.
The American Red Cross said that as of noon Wednesday it had collected $18 million.
Finns lined up in the cold in Helsinki to contribute. The country of just 5 million people quickly raised $4 million.
Italians raised $17 million by sending special text messages on their mobile phones.
Even Amazon.com collected $4.8 million in donations from online shoppers at its Web Site.
"I haven't seen anything like it," a spokeswoman for Britain's DEC said. "It's quite a phenomenal response that it has come so quickly. No sign of abating. At the peak we have been getting 900 calls a minute."
DEC was operating 3,000 phone lines, she said. Its Web Site was having trouble coping with the volume of pledges. Other donation Web Sites, from Britain's Charities Aid Foundation to America's Catholic Relief Services, had to suspend operation.
"We would ask people to be patient and try and ring back. Bear with us," the DEC spokeswoman said.
The appeals seemed to strike a chord with donors because of the sheer scale of the disaster, the gruesome pictures on television and the holiday giving season.
"I don't tend to give to the 'children in need' when they are trying to pull at your heartstrings and make you do it," said Gail Miflin, a 37-year-old London doctor who phoned in a contribution to Britain's appeal.
"But this is just such a big tragedy, so many people dead. It's just such a huge thing, and it's happened at Christmas," she said. "There's just a feeling of powerlessness at home."
QUEEN JOINS IN
One of the donors was Britain's Queen Elizabeth, who made a "substantial" pledge from her own funds, Buckingham Palace said.
Swiss Solidarity, run by Swiss media to raise money for local charities, said donors had sent $9 million. Dutch donors sent $12.7 million to an umbrella aid account. The Swedish Red Cross said it had collected $3 million over the last three days.
In many cases the flood of cash from concerned members of the public outstripped that provided by their governments.
Britain, raised its official donation to $96 million after a first pledge of $28 million was overtaken by public donations.
"We have looked at the initial assessments from our teams on the ground," said International Development Secretary Hilary Benn. "We have also received financial appeals from the Red Cross, the U.N. and from a large number of UK aid agencies. And it is now sadly clear that the scale of destruction and loss of life is increasing all the time." In the world of sport, Pakistan's cricket board said a fund-raising match between an Asian selection and a Rest of the World side to help tsunami survivors was being considered. India and Sri Lanka, badly affected by the floods, are both passionate cricketing nations, and Australia's cricketers had already offered their latest match winnings to the victims. In Britain, the 20 top soccer clubs pledged almost $2 million. Private companies joined the act. Many in Europe and the United States have said they will match contributions by employees. Others have donated cash outright. The American drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has pledged $10 million in cash and $25 million in medical supplies; Johnson & Johnson $2 million plus supplies; and finance group J.P. Morgan Chase up to $3 million, including matched employee contributions. The British telecoms firm Vodafone pledged nearly $2 million, the Dutch financial services group ING pledged $1 million and the German utility firm E.ON donated $1.4 million.
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