Britons donate £2m to Haiti appeal
Britons donated more than £2 million to help earthquake-stricken Haiti within 36 hours as the full scale of the humanitarian crisis emerged.
The Disasters Emergency Committee said that the money was given online even before the first radio and television appeals were broadcast.
Among the donations was a private gift from the Queen, said a DEC spokesman, while Clarence House also confirmed that the Prince of Wales had made a private donation to the Red Cross fund.
The appeal by the committee - which brings together a number of prominent British-based aid charities - was publicised by a Twitter message spread virally through internet social networks.
It was helped by high-profile endorsements, including from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
DEC chief executive Brendan Gormley said: "We are delighted at the generosity of the British people even before our major television and radio appeals hit the airwaves. Efforts on the ground have been hampered by a lack of power and communications problems after the devastating quake but aid is starting to get through and DEC members are working hard in the field."
The £2 million figure for online giving was hit at around 8am on Friday. Donations by other means are not included.
The committee's appeal was first made public at 7.41pm on Wednesday, the day after the earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale levelled large parts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas.
Money donated is going towards supporting search and rescue, providing medical care, food, clean water, temporary shelter and clothes, but the DEC said its members would need "much more money" to deal with the scale of suffering.
Tory leader David Cameron said responses to the crisis would test the world. "Parents who have lost so many children they cannot bury them, children who have lost parents and have no hope - these are scenes that we must never forget," he said.
Press Association
