Disasters Emergency Committee launches Myanmar appeal

More than 500,000 Rohingya, consisting mostly of women and children, have fled the country to neighbouring Bangladesh

The Disasters Emergency Committee has launched a new emergency appeal to help thousands of Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar.

More than 500,000 Rohingya, the majority of which are women and children, have left Rakhine state in Myanmar following alleged state persecution to seek sanctuary in neighbouring Bangladesh.

The DEC campaign is raising money to provide shelter, medical care, water and food for those leaving Myanmar, and for the Rohingya already living in makeshift shelters in Bangladesh.

The DEC, which is a collaboration of 13 major humanitarian aid charities including ActionAid, the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Tearfund, is launching the appeal today and will broadcast television advertisements on all of the UK’s major broadcasters.

The UK government will match the first £3m donated to the DEC appeal by the public, and a dedicated phone line has been set up.

Saleh Saeed, chief executive of the DEC, said: “People are arriving exhausted and traumatised into already overcrowded camps in Bangladesh. This is one of the fastest movements of people we have seen in recent decades. 

“Families are living in makeshift shelters or by the side of the road with no clean drinking water, toilets or washing facilities. This humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in a country that is already reeling from the worst floods in decades.

“Without urgent support, the risk of disease and further misery is alarmingly high.”

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Allotment appeal dismissed by charity tribunal

The Charity Commission was correct in making a scheme to transfer the ownership of land in Buckinghamshire to a charity, the tribunal has ruled

An appeal against two Charity Commission rulings to transfer allotments from a parish council to a charitable trust has been rejected by the charity tribunal.

The claimant in the case said the decision, published last week following a hearing in June, said the decision could affect approximately 800 parishes across the country.

A tribunal’s ruling says that the Charity Commission was correct in ordering allotments owned by Hughenden Parish Council in Buckinghamshire to be transferred to a charity called the Hughenden Community Support Trust.

Pauline Densham, who shares an allotment in Hughenden and who brought the appeal against the Charity Commission’s decision, claimed Hughenden Parish Council was the rightful owner of the 10-acre allotment land and should not have to transfer it to the charity.

Because the council has a statutory duty to provide allotments, according to Densham, it would then be forced to rent the land back from the charity.

The allotments were created following the Enclosure and Improvement of Commons Act 1845, which fenced off and divided up common land, and as part of the act, two parcels of land were awarded to the council in 1855 and 1862 to provide allotments for the labouring poor.

A council clerk registered the allotments as a charity under the name Allotments for Labouring Poor in 1966, a move Densham argued was an error.

Densham said changes to the law introduced by the Local Government Act 1894 backed up the council’s claim to the land.

The charity lay dormant on the register until the council was considering selling part of the plot off in 1994, and a clerk wrote to the Charity Commission to find out what the legal position was.

The commission created a scheme in early November 2015 to transfer the allotments to the charity, following a public consultation in 2014.

The charity’s first trustees were eventually appointed in 2006, but Densham’s appeal argued that these appointments were invalid, as there was no statutory power which could be used to appoint trustees for the charity.

But the tribunal has rejected that the charity and the appointment of trustees are invalid, and has found in favour of the Charity Commission.

Speaking to Third Sector, Densham said: “Following registration, councils will be forced to give up their ownership of the allotments. Individual trustees will be appointed from members of the public, and the ownership of the land will be vested in the Official Custodian for Charities. 

“There will not be a legal requirement for the land to be kept as allotments, and the new trustees will have the freedom to use the land in whatever way they think is best.

“It is thought that, as a result of this decision, more than 1,000 acres of allotment land will be lost and approximately 800 parishes affected.”

Densham also said she would ask for permission to appeal to the upper tribunal against the latest ruling.

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Digital round-up: Manchester bees tattoo appeal exceeds its fundraising target

Plus: Date for #GivingTuesday 2017 announced, OLIO adds donation feature to food-sharing app and the UNHCR launches #TheExtraMile

The Manchester Tattoo Appeal, set up in response to the Manchester Arena bombing last month, has exceeded its £500,000 target, making its JustGiving page the fifth-largest crowdfunding page on the site. Tattoo parlours across the UK pledged their time and resources to tattoo as many Manchester bees as possible as symbols of support, with those being tattooed (an estimated 10,000) donating money to the appeal to help victims of the terror attack. More than £4.7m has now been raised from various JustGiving fundraising campaigns set up in the wake of the bombing, including the Red Cross’s We Love Manchester Emergency Fund page, which has raised £1.6m alone.

#GivingTuesday is to return for a fourth year in 2017, with the date confirmed as 28 November. Speaking at the launch of the event this week, Sir John Low, the chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, which oversees and coordinates the day, said #GivingTuesday had become “one of the biggest days of charitable giving in the UK” and was a day for “doing good stuff”. He said that research commissioned by CAF after last year’s day found that 6.4 million people said they had heard of #GivingTuesday and 4.5 million had taken part. More than one in three people who were aware of #GivingTuesday said they would do something for charity in future as a result of the event.

The local food-sharing app OLIO has launched a new donations feature to incentivise its users to share more of their surplus food as well as raise money for causes. OLIO is a free app that connects people with local shops and cafés so that surplus food can be shared and not just thrown away. Users share photographs of their items on OLIO for others to collect. The new donation feature mean users can add food and other household items to the app and request donations to charities of their choice, with OLIO charity partners Feedback and FareShare the initial beneficiaries. OLIO co-founder Saasha Celestial-One said: “By teaming up with Feedback and FareShare, we are now making it even more meaningful for our users to share their spare food and work to tackle the problem of food waste at scale.”

The UNHCR, the United Nations refugee agency, launched a new fundraising event to coincide with World Refugee Day this week. #TheExtraMile is a virtual marathon challenge, with participants invited to cover 27 miles over a month, logging their distances through the UNHCR’s fundraising platform partner, GivePenny. It hopes to raise £50,000, which it says will be “enough to give more than 300 refugee families a home away from home”.

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