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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Regulator begins talks about coordinated responses to domestic disasters

The Charity Commission says it hopes to bring together sector leaders ‘as a matter of urgency’

The Charity Commission has begun talks with sector organisations about providing a more coordinated response to major disasters in the UK.

Hundreds of fundraising appeals have been set up in response to the Manchester and London Bridge terrorist attacks and the Grenfell Tower fire, but concerns have been raised about the legitimacy of some of them, particularly those created on fundraising platforms.

JustGiving said last week that more than 250 fundraising pages had been set up on its website to help victims of the Grenfell Tower fire. It added that it would hold on to the funds to ensure that all of the money reached those in need.

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Residents in Kensington and Chelsea have also criticised the lack of a joined-up response to the Grenfell Tower fire disaster despite the efforts of local people, community groups and national charities including the British Red Cross, Islamic Relief and Muslim Aid.

In an opinion piece written for Third Sector on Friday, Sarah Miller, former head of press and public affairs at the Charity Commission and now a communications consultant, said the charity sector should create a domestic equivalent of the Disasters Emergency Committee, which brings together 13 international aid organisations in times of crisis overseas.

She said that having a permanent Domestic DEC secretariat would allow an appeal to be launched swiftly and money distributed from a central point to a wide range of local charities.

The Charity Commission tweeted in reply to Miller’s article:

The commission said in a further statement issued on Friday: “We have begun early talks with established charities with experience of responding to disasters to consider ways of ensuring a coordinated, swift, expert response if and when there are further tragedies.

“We will be looking to convene sector leaders as a matter of urgency when we have all been able to provide the immediate help and support that is required in west London.”

A spokesman for JustGiving said that it had been approached by the Charity Commission about taking part in the discussions.

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