Haiti appeal fully funded

Oxfam announced yesterday that the Haiti appeal is now fully funded. Oxfam has raised enough money to fund its Haitian work for the next 3-5 years. Worth remembering though that Haiti is only one of 26 disasters worldwide where Oxfam is at work, not to mention all the vital non-disaster development and campaigning work that Oxfam does. So we won't be relaxing our fundraising efforts just yet :-)

Haiti Earthquake appeal - street collection result

Our street collection for the Haiti DEC appeal yesterday has proved to be our most successful street collection ever. We deployed over 50 collectors to the Oxford City Centre and collected an amazing £3,335. Both those statistics are records (we collected nearly as much for the Asian Tsunami, but a lot of that came from generous individual donations as opposed to via the collecting tin). The Christian Aid collection at the Westgate Centre and a Red Cross event the same day also did really well, we hear.

So hats off to our Street Collection team of Martin Spires and Annie Thomas, brilliantly aided by Naveed, Ally and Colin. You see Martin and Annie in the picture with the Ops map of Oxford (magic Marker crosses for each collector currently out on the street). Colin (in blue) and Ally (invisible behind Annie) are counting the cash - among the challenges of such a big collection was that of managing a near-continuous cycle of emptying tins, counting the cash and resealing the tin for the next collector. A hectic pace all day. Naveed (seen just as a brown jumper) is checking the collectors' rota.

Hats off too, of course for the many collectors who braved the cold, damp weather to bring in the cash. And the generous people of Oxford for donating it.

Also out on Broad Street doing their thing for Haiti. (but not included in our total) was this magnificent Salsa Band. My windy collection post was the corner of Broad Street and Cornmarket, so I added a bit of amateur percussion with my tin. Hope I stayed in time...