Cash donation to tsunami victims is preferable

Accra, Jan. 24, GNA - The Ghana Red Cross Society on Monday urged the public to donate cash instead of goods to the Asia tsunami victims. "...Cash is required rather than goods in kind," the Red Cross said in a statement in Accra. "The UN Secretary-General even suggested that all pledges made should be converted into cash," he added.
The statement signed by Ms. Theresa B. Nobiya, Acting Secretary-General of the Ghana Red Cross Society said the transportation cost alone, including all the logistics, might be more than the cost of items received.
"As much as we appreciate all kinds of donations, cash donation is preferable. We are therefore appealing to companies, organisations and public-spirited individuals who want to donate goods to convert them into cash."
It said so far, goods in kind received total about 270 million cedis. They are made up of 100 cartons of Dasani water from Coca-Cola, 291 pieces of blankets and pillow cases from Koala, 330 pieces of blankets from Syntex, used clothing from an unknown donor and one box of trousers and neck ties from a woman identified as Mrs Boakye.
In a separate statement, the Ghana Red Cross Society said there was a unique campaign dubbed: "TXT2AID" supported by UNDP, Ghana, the government and MOBILECONTENT.COM to mobilise funds to assist the tsunami victims.
The objective is to raise 500,000 dollars by the end of the campaign.
Under this, every Spacefonareba user would then automatically receive an acknowledgement message and 7,200 cedis (representing 24 units) would be deducted from their pre-paid card or post-paid account. At the end of the campaign, Spacefonareba would forward the value of all deducted units to the Ghana Red Cross for onward transfer to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. 24 Jan. 05