Rains have failed for successive seasons, and families across Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya are struggling to find anything to eat or drink. Hundreds of thousands of livestock have already died. Food prices have rocketed.
Oxfam's Humanitarian Director, Jane Cocking, said
"This is the worst food crisis of the 21st Century and we are seriously concerned that large numbers of lives could soon be lost. People have already lost virtually everything and the crisis is only going to get worse over the coming months – we need funds to help us reach people with life-saving food and water."
How you can help
Fundraising tips from some of our most successful unions
Loughborough Students' Union (Lufbra) raised a whopping £1 million through RAG this year. Maddy Buckley, Loughborough RAG President, explains how and gives some tops tips:
At Loughborough, fundraising is as common a part of Uni life as studying and going out. With decades of heritage behind the Rag section and significant support from the rest of the Students’ Union, each year’s successes are built on and developed in new directions.
This year, students have gone above and beyond in a number of ways to raise money for charity. Bucket collections in various UK cities alone have raised £125,000, and hundreds of thousands of pounds have come from students participating in challenge events – from skydiving to hitchhiking across Europe, or even as part of our new trek to Everest Base Camp! Our fireworks night raised £27,000, a world record breaking 60 hour football match organised by 1 student collected almost £28,000, and countless other centrally organised; hall based and individual events (from marathons to quiz nights and even moustache growing competitions!) have all added up to make this overall total.
Thousands of volunteers have been involved this year and we are grateful to every single one who made such an achievement possible, benefitting countless charities over the past 12 months.
Also Nottingham SU's Karnival group have won many awards for their fundraising efforts, including their famous Seven legged race.
5 Top Tips
- Appeal to as broad a variety of different students as possible, so that more can and will get involved – the more diverse the fundraising opportunities the better!
- Recognise the achievements of volunteers and ensure reward systems are in place – whether it’s a trophy or a just saying thank you, it’s always important to make volunteers feel that their work has been noticed and appreciated, and that they know how they can use their experience in future to help with careers
- Build up good relationships with charities, local community, staff, your university, other Rags – the huge extended network which makes much of what your Rag can achieve possible
- Introduce Rag to freshers from the word go – make it part of the fabric of Uni life
- Make fundraising fun – enjoy it!