Private US donations to aid tsunami victims in Asia and Africa have passed 337 million dollars and could soon dwarf the 350 million dollars pledged by the US government, The Washington Post said Saturday, citing figures reported by US charitites. Individuals, corporations and foundations together have donated 150 million dollars to the American Red Cross alone, the group said in a statement Friday. Many US charities that specialize in international aid are reporting record contributions, the Post said. Many are raising money faster than they can spend it and are holding some back for long-term reconstruction.
The donations ranges from actress Sandra Bullock ponying up one million dollars, to President George W. Bush giving 10,000 dollars, to a nine-year-old California boy who asked his mother to send the money she would have spent on his birthday to children who lost parents in the tsunami. Most of the donations have been small, averaging 80 to 100 dollars, the Post said. Fundraising experts said the only foreign disasters that inspired comparable responses were Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998, and the Ethiopian famine of 1984-1985. Americans raised two billion dollars on donations for the families of nearly 3,000 people killed in the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, the Post noted. |