UK public donate £3.4M for Syria Crisis Appeal

If you would like to support the Turkey-Syria Earthquake appeal please donate now.

In just 48 hours the British public have given generously.

The DEC has just announced (23.03.13) that it has raised £3.4m for the Syria Crisis Appeal in just 48 hours of the first broadcasts being transmitted.

This is a very solid start to this appeal and we are very grateful to the British public for their generous support but the first question everyone will ask is:  how does this compare to past appeals?
 
In short the DEC doesn’t like to compare either disasters or the appeal we run for them. Each disaster is different and for those affected the suffering is incomparable.  We prefer not to compare giving levels between appeals and take the view that all giving is generous and should be welcomed unreservedly.
 
We understand though that others will want to make comparisons between appeal totals and for those wishing to do so we would make these suggestions.  Firstly, our appeals run for six months so comparing totals from past appeals to early figures for the latest appeals can be misleading.  Secondly, there has historically been a huge difference between ‘natural disasters’ and those resulting from conflict.  
 
The last three appeals the DEC has run would seem to be the obvious point of comparison for the Syria Crisis Appeal but it is worth nothing that these are all primarily ‘natural disasters’ and they are also three of the four most successful appeals in our 50 year history (see table below).  The most recent appeals we have run for conflicts were: 

2009 Gaza £8.3m

2008 Democratic Republic of Congo £10.5m

2007 Darfur and Chad £13.6m

2004 Sudan Emergency £35m

2003 Liberia £2.5m