Petition to Media, Celebrities to host a telethon to raise funds for E. Africa Famine Relief efforts
Petition to Media, Celebrities to host a telethon to raise funds for E. Africa Famine Relief efforts
*12 Million residents spread across Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Eastern Uganda, and Southern Sudan face death by starvation
*Per UNICEF, 10% of children under the age of 5 are dying every 90 days. So far, 30,000 have died in the last 90 days
*Major Agency heads have acknowledged that the East Africa crisis is not receiving the media attention needed to generate awareness that could lead to donations enough to help fight the crisis
*The UN's $2.4 billion famine appeal remains less than half funded
*The Center on Philanthropy at The University Of Indiana reported that from the US, $228 Million was raised for Haiti within 5 days of the earthquake, and about $100 Million for the Japan earthquake......compared to the East Africa Famine which raised aproximately $25 million within the same period. Much more aid is needed
*There was a very brilliant campaign put together by Actor George Clooney for the Haiti Earthquake relief efforts named 'Hope For Haiti Now' . It was a Telethon hosted by tons of celebrities and TV stations. Per Reuters, this 2 hour telethon rised about 61 Million US Dollars in the US.. Not sure how much in Canada. ( http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/01/26/us-haiti-idUSTRE60O5YY20100126 ) .
Per MTV website, Hope for Haiti Now" aired across ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic. The event was live streamed online globally across sites including YouTube, Hulu, MySpace, Fancast, AOL, MSN.com, Yahoo, Bing.com, BET.com, CNN.com, MTV.com, VH1.com and Rhapsody, and on mobile via Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and FloTV. "Hope for Haiti Now" will also air internationally on BET International, CNN International, National Geographic and MTV Networks International, which is available in 640 million homes worldwide. "Hope for Haiti Now" will be available non-exclusively to all terrestrial radio stations around the globe and SIRIUS XM Radio as a one-time-only radio broadcast via the MTV Radio Network and Westwood One.
Some of the celebrities who participated in the telethon included : Brad Pitt, Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Jon Stewart, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Meryl Streep, Morgan Freeman, Nicole Kidman, Robert Pattinson, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks and Will Smith are among the many participants joining George Clooney (in Los Angeles), Wyclef Jean (in New York) and CNN's Anderson Cooper (reporting from Haiti) for the event.
"You got about 130 to 140 actors, athletes, singers and television hosts, and they're all coming up not to be on TV, but simply to answer the phones," Clooney told MTV News. He added that the telethon's main goal is to "raise money, period. That's it. ... Just first and foremost that we can raise a lot of money. If I thought that we could all pick up shovels and go in there and not be in the way, I think a lot of people would do that."
We are very grateful for the effort put in towards our brothers and sisters in Haiti. God bless you for the kind act. Can you PLEASE PLEASE show the same compassion to the millions starving to death in Africa? PLEASE PLEASE!!! we beg!!! Please Host a Telethon to raise money for the horn of Africa relief efforts. Thank you!