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MORE CASH LESS FUNDRAISING

Dear Ed

I would like to pose the following question to your readers.

If someone is dying or sick or starving and they need food, shelter or medical aid, would you hand over your cash to help them now or wait until the next fundraising event?

Maybe I'm out of touch, but if I could afford to give now I would, and if I could afford to give more cash later then I would donate again. What I wouldn't do is wait so my donation coincided with one of these events.

I can give at the bank, at the supermarket, in local shops and on-line. The ways of giving are simple and easy so what is the point of these events?

The people suffering the aftermath of the tsunami are in urgent need of help, so why wait, just give your cash now!

Private and corporate donations from Britain have now passed the £100million mark and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is pressing donors to convert aid pledges into $1bn (£534m) cash for urgent use.

This is an emergency like no other the world has seen, and people are dying while fundraisers are planning events to raise cash. Many people will have suffered and died before the event even takes place.

What's needed now is cash, not blankets or tents or food, just cash.

It costs nothing to send and there are places much nearer than the UK where the cash can be used to buy the relief supplies that are really needed.

I don't mean to knock the good intentions of the many would be fundraisers, but really you don't need to have an event for people to give their cash...they will and have been giving their money anyway. So far, over £100million has been donated by the country.

It makes me feel proud of the nation when you see such generous spontaneous support.

J Cullen