Kenyans Make Sms Donations For Aid

A donation of $200,000 was made by Kenyans via sms texts for aid to victims of the worst drought in the region in 60 years. The money has been raised in the first 12 hours of an appeal launched by leading businesses.

The appeal, whih involves mobile phone company Safaricom, Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper and Kenya Commercial Bank, expects to raise $5.4m. These companies have urged the public to send a text transfer of at least $0.10 cents into a special bank account. Nearly half of Kenia’s population are celphone users (about 20 million) “No amount is too small to give,” Safaricom head Bob Collymore said.

The money obtained from donations will be administered by the Kenyan Red Cross Society to help kenyans affected by drought. The drought is affecting more than 10 million in Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia.

Somalia is the most affected, the UN declared a famine in its Lower Shabelle and Bakool regions.

Source: BBC News