Thank you, generous Guardian and Observer readers. We are delighted to report our refugee charity appeal has raised £100,000 in just three days.
Many donors told us why they have given. Here’s a selection:
Kate Macintosh said:
I contribute because I cannot bear to see daily the reports of the suffering and hardship, killing all hope for a better future, on the faces of these refugees, particularly the children, and do nothing.
Carole Underwood told us her reasons for giving were “simply really”:
My grandparents came to the UK, by boat, as Jewish immigrants from Lithuania wearing just the clothes they stood up in – family who stayed behind can be found in mass graves.
I can find no trace of their arrival and can only assume they were what would now be known as ‘illegals’.
Their children fought as British citizens in the second world war and all have contributed to the life of this country as have their grandchildren – just as the children and grandchildren of this latest group of displaced people will contribute to their future home countries.
The Bible calls on us to take care of the stranger in a strange land as once we were strangers in a strange land.
Michael Bassey wrote:
I’ve just donated my ‘winter fuel £300’ which I get as an octogenarian from our government. My house is warm enough this winter but I grieve for the cold times facing refugees from tyrannical regimes. They need our help.
Sigi Goolden said:
Well done Guardian and thank you for yet again being first to initiate a good idea.
As a grandmother to a little boy just like Aylan Kurdi my heart goes out to all the struggling refugees - life is such a lottery - it could so easily have been my little grandson lying there in the waves, drowned.
Naomi Smith, another person who donated, said:
As a human being, I cannot sit back and watch the pain of other human beings without doing anything.
Sue Clark said it was important that “we recognise the humanity of refugees and asylum seekers and dispel the myths which create fear and bigotry”.
Thanks again for your support. We’ve got a long way to go, and you can do your bit by contributing here.
