3-day telethon in UAE for famine-hit Africa

In an attempt to raise funds for the emergency relief in the drought-hit Horn of Africa, the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) in association with Abu Dhabi TV will launch a 3-day telethon starting on Wednesday.

The RCA aims to collect 400,000 tonnes of food and medicines to be rushed to Mogadishu. RCA have been rendering assitance on the ground at the drought-hit countries of Djibouti, Ethiopia and Somalia supplying 40 tonnes of food that would support at least a 1,000 families for a month.

The telethon will try to provide relief to more than 165m people in Horn of Africa. This is part of a media campaign launched under the orders of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler's representative in the Western Region and chairman of the UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA).

Titled Suqyahum, Arabic for ‘quenching your thirst,' the telethon will be broadcast on Abu Dhabi TV for an hour and a half every day from Wednesday until Friday.

In a similar programme, Sharjah TV had raised around Dh30m during a live four-and-a-half hour telethon on Friday under the slogan ‘Aghithona' (save us).

Nearly 29,000 hungry and malnourished children and the UAE RCA, whose teams are already on ground at the Horn of Africa, aims to reach and save as many children and elders as it can.

The UAE’s relief operations are carried out as per the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces is also supporting the relief work.

RCA’s food relief has so far reached 10 refugee camps in and around Mogadishu, however, in the following weeks the authority plans to dispatch daily aid convoys to other camps where tens of thousands of refugees affected by the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in half a century, keep arriving every day in search of help.

Apart from supplying food, the UAE relief team is working with Somali authorities to set up medical convoys to provide healthcare to those suffering from severe malnutrition.

To donate:
Dubai Islamic Bank: account 001-520-6066666-01
Dar Al Ber Society: At branches and stands in malls
Sharjah Charity Association: SMS 6212 to donate Dh20 and 6215 to donate Dh100.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.