Category: CBBC
Date: 08.11.2004
Printable version
Blue Peter
is to work with The British Red Cross in its new Welcome Home Appeal,
launched today on the programme.
The appeal will support the vital work the Red Cross
carries out in Angola putting families and children back in touch following
years of conflict.
In the coming months, the programme will be asking its
viewers to participate in the appeal by donating special Blue Peter
bags of clothing via Red Cross shops, which will be tagged and sold
to raise money.
Presenter Konnie Huq said: "While we were filming
in Angola, one of the most moving stories we told was that of 15-year-old
Idalina.
"She had been separated from her family for five
years, but through the tracing service they had been found.
"To see Idalina reunited with her parents and witness
at first hand the grief, pain, joy and incredible emotion made me determined
to get Blue Peter viewers to help.
"By donating unwanted clothing - just five bags
can help one adult trace a relative - we can really make a difference."
In Angola, the tracing and message service reunites
children with their parents as well as putting adults back in touch.
This contact is sometimes the first time they have heard
from their families for decades.
There are currently thousands of children and adults
registered with the Red Cross in Angola as either looking for or being
sought by their family members.
Sir Nicholas Young, Chief Executive, Red Cross, said:
"The money the Welcome Home Appeal will raise is vital to the Red
Cross work in Angola.
"The country is twice the size of France, and it
is difficult for separated families to get in touch.
"There are few telephones, mobiles or computers
for email, and no proper postal service.
"It is estimated that 90 per cent of Angolan families
have lost contact with at least one member of their family separated
during the war – so the need for our work is now greater than ever."
Donated clothing will go towards the following:
500 bags (£5,000) reunites five children with their
families;
100 bags (£1,000) pays for 100 copies of The Gazeta,
a newspaper that lists missing relatives;
50 bags (£500) trains two tracing volunteers to
help bring families back together;
10 bags (£100) buys four kits containing clothes,
toothbrushes and schoolbooks to help children when the return home;
5 bags (£50) helps one adult find a relative through
the Red Cross tracing network;
1 bag (£10) delivers two Red Cross messages.
Notes to Editors
Raising money for good causes at home and overseas has
always been at the heart of Blue Peter.
Since the start of the Annual Appeal in 1963 viewers
action and generosity have helped millions of pounds to help people
all over the world.
Over the years Blue Peter has helped raise money for
famine victims in Ethiopia, provided rescue lifeboats, built farming
schools in Uganda, provided guide dogs for the blind, accommodation
for homeless children in Lebanon, mobility for deaf children, and bought
oxygen kits for children with cystic fibrosis.
Blue Peter goes out fives times a week on both BBC ONE
and the CBBC channel.
About British Red Cross
In the UK, the British Red Cross has 35,000 committed
volunteers working in almost every community.
It responds to emergencies such as fires and floods,
trains more than 150,000 people in first aid every year and provides
first aid teams at major events and helps vulnerable people at home
or in hospital.
It also gives practical and emotional assistance to
vulnerable refugees and asylum seekers and restores family links of
those separated by war or disaster.
Across the world, the British Red Cross also helps people
to cope following conflict and disasters such as earthquakes and floods.
All items of clothing are welcomed in the bags except
children's shoes.
