Disaster Relief Appeal

Last year we ran a special offer that encouraged users to make a matching charitable donation to one of the organisations we are supporting, in exchange for a discount off our products. That particular offer has now expired, but we'd urge you still to consider making a donation if you can.

The world has seen more than its share of natural disasters in the past year or two, from the Asian tsunami, to hurricanes and earthquakes - Katarina in New Orleans, Wilma in Mexico, flooding in Guatemala, the terrible earthquake in Kashmir (Central Asia), or mudslides in Java. Add drought and famine to the mix, plus the inevitable human conflict such as in Sudan which keeps occurring the world over, and the work of the aid agencies who bring relief in difficult circumstances becomes all the more amazing and worthy of our support.

We would therefore ask you to consider making a donation to one of the organisations below who are actively involved in providing disaster relief around the world:

Oxfam UK
http://www.oxfam.org.uk

International Committee of the Red Cross
http://www.icrc.org

American Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org

UK Disasters Emergency Committee
http://www.dec.org.uk

Medecins Sans Frontiers
http://www.msf.org

British Red Cross Society
http://www.redcross.org.uk

United Nations High Commission for Refugees
http://www.unhcr.ch

Better yet, please consider setting up a regular donation. Disasters and human suffering can arise at any time, anywhere in the world, whether or not they happen to be "newsworthy" events at the time or are silently bumped off the schedule by the latest tidbit of political gossip. A regular income helps the aid agencies make proper contingency plans and be prepared for when the next disaster occurs, as well as to respond to more localised "minor" disasters (which are just as catastrophic for the people concerned but don't necessarily result in a flood of international donations).

The CatDV special offer we ran was not conditional on you making a donation, or tied to any particular charity. Rather than make a vague and unverifiable promise to contribute a percentage of our proceeds we would rather leave it to your discretion to choose which organisation you would like to support and by how much.

Although not directly related to disaster relief, Square Box are also proud to support the work of WITNESS, who use video to document and raise awareness of human rights abuses around the world.

Even if you aren't able to contribute financially at this time then please spend a few moments at least to read about the work of the organisations above, as there may be other ways you can help indirectly.

Please act now - your actions today can and will save lives.

Thank you.