DEC members reach 1.1m people in month after Gaza Appeal launch

Press release 8 September 2014

DEC member agencies and their partners have reached 1.1m people with aid since they launched the Gaza Crisis Appeal one month ago today. 
 
The DEC has also announced today that its Gaza Crisis Appeal has raised £14m in just one month. A table of the totals raised for recent conflict appeals is included below for anyone wishing to make comparisons. Fundraising for DEC appeals continues for six months, so the final total will not be known until the end of February 2015.
 
DEC Chief Executive Saleh Saeed said:
 
“We are hugely grateful to the UK public for their generosity in supporting people affected by the crisis in Gaza.  Raising money to help those affected by conflict is always challenging but for a family which has lost its home, their need is as great whether the cause is an earthquake or a war.  
 
“Despite significant risks and obstacles our member agencies and their partners have done an amazing job delivering aid to hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been torn apart.
 
“As an uneasy peace holds and the dust settles there is now an enormous amount of work to be done supporting people to rebuild their lives.  The DEC will continue funding its members for the next two years as they set about this work in Gaza.”
The DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal launched on 8 August with all major UK broadcasters carrying appeals on radio and television.  The appeal began during the first of a series of ceasefires which started to come into force after a month of conflict.  Hundreds of thousands of people had been driven from their homes and there was an urgent need for clean water, food, household items, emergency shelter and medical supplies.
 
Examples of the aid delivered to date by DEC member agencies include:

  • ActionAid has provided essential supplies like food, water, medicine and clothing for 3,268 people in Gaza City whose homes were damaged or destroyed.
  • Age International is providing basic first aid, physiotherapy and trauma counselling to 4,000 older people and their families.
  • British Red Cross partner the Palestinian Red Crescent Society has a team of 102 specialists who have provided psycho-social support to 25,815 people.
  • CAFOD’s partners have provided more than 34,040 displaced people with hygiene kits and medical services.
  • CARE International’s mobile health teams are providing over 10,000 people with urgent medical care.
  • Christian Aid’s partners have provided urgent healthcare to more than 18,000 people.
  • Islamic Relief has delivered essential medical items, water, food and household items to over 250,000 people.
  • Oxfam has helped over 400,000 people with clean water, food, hygiene kits, fuel, medicine and wound dressings.
  • Save the Children have provided psychosocial support to over 5,000 vulnerable children.
  • World Vision is currently providing 14,395 children with psychological first aid in 40 child-friendly spaces, schools and shelters.

Aid delivered by DEC members and their partners since then has been paid for with DEC funds and money for other sources.  Some survivors will have received different kinds of help from more than one DEC agency.*  
 
DEC conflict appeal totals 2004-14
 
£14m*      Gaza Crisis (2014)
£25m**    Syria Crisis (2013)
£8.3m       Gaza Crisis (2009)
£10.5m     Democratic Republic of Congo (2009)
£13.6m     Darfur and Chad (2007)
£35m        Sudan Emergency (2004)
 
* First month of fundraising only
** Appeal remains open
 
Gaza Crisis facts and figures: 

  • 1.4 million people had no or very limited access to water or sanitation at the peak of the crisis and even now only 10% of people in Gaza have running water every day.
  • Hundreds of thousands of people were displaced by the conflict and although most have now returned home, 100,000 people have seen their homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair.
  • Nearly half a million children could not return to school at the end of August because some school buildings were still being used as emergency shelters and the remainder require repair.
  • The UN has identified $US539m in humanitarian work required in Gaza this year with a substantial increase in this figure since the recent conflict.  Currently this work is 25% funded. 

Source: UNOCHA
 
ENDS
 
Notes to editors:
 
*  The figure of 1.1m people reached has been calculated by totalling the number of beneficiaries reached as reported by each of the DEC’s 13 member agencies.  This includes people reached through their partner organisations and using funding from the DEC and other sources.  While there should be very little or no double counting of the same aid deliveries, in some cases some unavoidable double counting will occur where different agencies have provided different kinds of help to the same people.  For example, Oxfam may have provided water and the Red Cross emergency shelter materials to the same community.  The figure is intended to convey the scale of the aid response by our members and partners.  We have not compared it to the total number of people in need of aid and would discourage others from doing so.  
 

  • The DEC brings 13 leading UK aid charities together in times of crisis: ActionAid UK, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision; all collectively raising money to reach those in need quickly.
  • The DEC was founded in December 1963 and since then it has run 65 appeals which have raised £1.2 billion and helped millions of people around the world.
  • Donations can be made at www.dec.org.uk or 0370 60 60 900
  • To donate £5 by text send the word SUPPORT to 70000.  The full £5 will go to the DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal. Donors must be 16 years or over and have the bill payer’s permission. Texts are free and donations will be added to the bill.