Asian earthquake relief donations climb past EUR 11 million

Swedish and Norwegian governments considerably more generous than in Finland

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Finnish NGOs have already collected more than EUR 11 million in aid for the victims of the Asian earthquake and tsunami disaster. The Finnish Red Cross alone had received nearly EUR 9 million in cash donations by Monday evening. Meanwhile, the Finnish government has pledged EUR 10 million in aid, EUR 4.5 million of which has already been made available.
      FinnChurchAid reports donations of over EUR 1.1 million and UNICEF of more than EUR 750,000. The relief campaign is already becoming the largest in Finnish history, surpassing the EUR 9 million collected by the FRC for Kosovo in 1999.
      Companies and corporations have been open-handed, with several donations of up to EUR 50,000 being received. Tens of thousands of direct payments by individuals on internet accounts and at banks have been arriving daily.
     
In addition to giving, Finns have been eager to go out on the streets to collect funds. Nearly 20,000 people have volunteered to shake collection boxes on behalf of the Finnish Red Cross.
      As yet, the bulk of the money gathered has not made its way to the affected areas. For example, the Finnish Red Cross has only delivered EUR 1.5 million to the countries of the earthquake zone. This is not tardiness; the Red Cross says that many of the aid projects are designed to run for several years. In fact, some EUR 60,000 of the earlier Kosovo funding is still unspent, having been earmarked for long-term youth programmes that are still in effect.
     
At the same time, the Finnish government has pledged to provide aid organisations with EUR 10 million, according to a statement on Monday from Foreign Trade and Development Minister Paula Lehtomäki (Centre Party). EUR 4.5 million of this has already been passed on and the remainder will go out as soon as requests are received from the various organisations.
      Lehtomäki admitted that the sum was small, especially when set alongside the EUR 55 million promised by the Swedish government, but she also acknowledged that Swedish development aid funding as a whole has been running at a much higher rate than in Finland. Prior to Monday, Norway had pledged some EUR 12 million, but yesterday's announcement of a further grant of NOK 1,000 million lifts the sum close to EUR 130 million.
     
In addition to offering a commitment that the Finnish government was in it for the long haul, and that the country would bind itself to long-term projects for the redevelopment of the devastated areas, Lehtomäki noted that there were strong feelings within the government on how some aid should be channelled to those local entities, for example hospitals, where Finns received the greatest help in Southern Thailand. There is also talk of providing direct assistance for individual cases.
     
By Monday evening, the governments of the international community and organisations such as the World Bank had together pledged nearly USD 2 billion in aid, or EUR 1,500 million.
      There have been inevitable problems of logistics in getting the aid through quickly to those who need it, and some organisations have lamented that the wrong items have been arriving. The most urgent requirements at present are for water purification systems, plastic sheeting, cooking equipment and utensils, medicines, and electricity generators. The lack of clean drinking water in many parts is seen as the greatest threat to health, with the risk that water-borne diseases could cause the already horrific death-toll to spiral upwards still further before the situation can be brought under control.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finns open hearts and wallets to tidal wave victims (30.12.2004)

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