Oxfam to collect donations at New Year’s Eve party for tsunami victims

As you welcome the New Year on Friday with friends and family at the Anthony Harper Lawyers New Year’s Eve Party, Cathedral Square, spare a thought for tsunami victims as Oxfam collectors work their way through the crowd.

As the tsunami death toll mounts throughout Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka, aid agencies are swinging into gear internationally to meet the need of thousands who lost family among the 70,000 killed or who are now homeless along Asia’s coasts.

Advocacy manager for Oxfam New Zealand, Shuna Lennon, said the donations would go towards relief efforts now underway in Indonesia, India, Thailand and Sri Lanka, the four countries worst hit by tsunami.

Oxfam airlifted 27,000 tonnes of water and sanitation equipment to Sri Lanka and Indonesia from Britain today to provide relief for about 175,000 people in the most remote areas. About $10 million had been raised worldwide by Oxfam in the first four days of the tsunami appeal, $100,000 of which came from New Zealand, but more donations are needed to sustain relief for massive disaster regions spanning four nations’ coastlines, Ms Lennon says.

Oxfam collectors will be clearly identified at the Cathedral Square New Years Eve party with name badges and t-shirts, and will walk through the crowd twice during the evening.

The Council is also accepting cash donations for tsunami victims for the Red Cross at its Civic Offices in Tuam Street and Service Centres. Council director of Strategic Investment Bob Lineham says that like most New Zealanders, Christchurch people will be shocked at the huge loss of life being reported after tsunami. “People will want to help as more news pours in of Kiwis having been among the thousands who died and the Council wants to provide a practical means by which some can express their concern. All donations will be handed to the Red Cross to help in its efforts to deliver aid to those worst hit,” Mr Lineham says.

Red Cross donations are accepted at: the Council Civic Offices from 8.30am to 5pm any week day, except statutory holidays, or at any of seven Council Service Centres at Beckenham, Riccarton, Sockburn, Linwood, Fendalton, Papanui or Shirley, from Wednesday 5 January, 2005, when they re-open for the New Year.

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