August 14, 2011
Three-day telethon to help famine-hit people
A three-day telethon aimed at raising funds to provide essential items like food and medicines to drought-ridden populations in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia will begin on Wednesday, the Red Crescent Authority (RCA) announced Saturday.
The fundraising telethon, which is part of a media campaign launched under the orders of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler's representative in the Western Region and chairman of the UAE Red Cresent Authority (RCA), will be broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV for an hour and a half every day from Wednesday until Friday.
Entitled Suqyahum, Arabic for quenching your thirst,' the telethon will aim to provide relief for the more than 165 million people who have been affected by the severe drought in the Horn of Africa countries.
To date, nearly 29,000 children have died of hunger in the crisis.
The RCA, which is organising the initiative in association with Abu Dhabi TV, therefore urged residents to donate foods and medicines to the campaign.
The authority hopes the initiative will collect 400,000 tonnes of foods and medicines that can be delivered to Mogadishu soon after.
Sharjah TV had raised around Dh30 million during a live four-and-a-half hour telethon on Friday under the slogan Aghithona' (meaning save us in Arabic).
Meanwhile, The UAE continued its relief operations to save the victims of drought and famine in Somalia as per the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
On the ground
The emergency relief team of the UAE RCA, who is currently on the ground in the Horn of Africa, dispatched yesterday to a number of camps near Mogadishu, a convoy carrying 40 tonnes of essential food supplies sufficient for a thousand families for a period of one month.
The relief operations are supported by Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and followed up by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler's Representative in the Western Region, Chairman of the RCA.
In the coming weeks, the RCA will continue to dispatch daily aid convoys to other camps where tens of thousands of refugees keep arriving in search of help as the famine looms large over the Horn of Africa in its worst drought in half a century.
So far the UAE's emergency relief operations have reached ten refugee camps in and around Mogadishu where tens of thousands of displaced people need food, shelter and health care.
The UAE relief team has intensified efforts to improve access for refugees suffering from severe malnutrition to health care by sending medical convoys to the camps in coordination with the Ministry of Health and the Somali Red Crescent clinic in Mogadishu, which provided medical vital volunteers.
To donate
Dubai Islamic Bank: account 001-520-6066666-01
Dar Al Bir Society: At branches and stands in malls
Sharjah Charity Association: SMS 6212 to donate Dh20 and 6215 to donate Dh100.
Visit Red Crescent Authority website:
http://www.rcuae.ae/Donation/Pages/online.aspx or call 800 337