Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has raised over £400m for its Ukraine appeal, which was launched almost 11 months ago.
Its current total makes the DEC Ukraine appeal the biggest donor to the response inside Ukraine for the regional refugee response, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) financial tracking service.
The £400m total raised so far is the second highest of any of DEC’s 75 campaigns, second only to its 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami appeal, which raised £668m in today’s money
The Ukraine appeal set the Guinness World Record for the most money raised by an online campaign in one week by receiving £61m in online donations within seven days of launch.
In the first six months of the appeal, DEC charities provided 1.9 million people with access to clean water, 392,000 people received food assistance and 338,000 received cash payments to help them meet their basic needs.
DEC funds also paid for 75,000 trauma kits so that civilians could treat injuries or control bleeding until professional medical equipment could be sought.
DEC: ‘We are so grateful for the support’
Today DEC released the report Ukraine: How your donations are helping to detail how the funds raised are helping those in areas of conflict.
The first tranche of the appeal funds, £85m, was spent by 13 of its 15 member charities in the initial six months.
Some 59% was spent in Ukraine, 17% in Romania, 16% in Poland and the rest was spent in supporting surrounding countries and regional programmes.
DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: “The crisis has been so huge, so widespread and so devastating that we wanted to take the time to detail how donations have helped different people at every stage of the year. What’s more, the level of funds raised mean that we can keep providing that support, as we know that this crisis is far from over with needs developing and changing all the time as the situation unfolds. I’d like to thank each and every person who has donated, fundraised, got their company or organisation involved. The response has been truly remarkable and we are so grateful for the support.”
Second highest DEC appeal total
The total raised so far for the DEC Ukraine appeal is still second to its 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami appeal.
According to a spokesperson from the charity, this total does not surpass its tsunami appeal which raised £392m for the conflict at the time - as it does not take inflation into account, which would make it £668m in today’s money.
Not only that, the tsunami appeal total does not include income that went directly to its member charities as the DEC was a lot smaller so did not track individual members’ incomes at the time as it does now.
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