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Charity amazed by response to Mozambique appeal

Charity officials have been overwhelmed by the response of Western Morning News readers to an appeal for cash to ease suffering in flood-ravaged Mozambique.

In 10 days, readers used coupons printed in the WMN to pledge £16,523 to the United Nations Children’s Fund – prompting the paper to devote an entire front page to a letter of thanks from Unicef regional officer Chrissie Wynn (click here for the full text).

By Tuesday, the total had risen to £21,099 and Ms Wynn said she was amazed. In a fax to the paper, she added: “We had thought that the income would now begin to slow down but here is no sign of this at the moment. This is obviously down to your excellent reporting – and creating the opportunity for readers to give.”

Deputy news editor Ian Mean said the paper had splashed on the tragedy soon after harrowing pictures began to arrive on the wire.

“We did a pretty dramatic front page lead with the pictures that were then used in the dailies for several days afterwards, so we like to think we’ve been at the forefront of things,” he said.

Two more front page leads followed, along with extensive coverage inside, combining agency material with reports and pictures from staffers on aid missions involving local paramedics and RAF helicopter crews.

Coupons inviting readers to donate to Unicef have been published since March 1 and Mr Mean thinks the response shows the power of strong images and “humanising” the story by explaining how donastions could be spent.

“We have a large number of retired professional people in the South West and they are very aware of the humanitarian issues involved,” he said.

For our previous story on daily newspapers helping the Mozambique appeal click here

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