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Club Asia raise over ��_28k for Asia quake

All day on Thursday 3rd November on Club Asia 963+972AM, listeners donated in their thousands for the victims of the South Asian Earthquake. Raising a phenomenal ?28,184.00 listeners, advertisers and Club Asia staff donated generously in the 12 hour pledge day.

The original target set for the day was ?25,000. Listeners jammed the lines from 7am to 7pm with the highest individual donation being ?1200. All the money raised goes to Oxfam’s appeal for the South Asia Quake. The money generated will help buy blankets, winterised tents, water and sanitation equipment for the three million people left homeless by the devastating tragedy.

Sumerah Ahmad, Co-founder and Creative Director of Club Asia Radio and the brains behind this operation is ecstatic “We are so proud of our community for giving so generously regardless of their religious or cultural background. I’m also extremely proud of the Club Asia team who have worked tirelessly for hours on end with no breaks but kept smiling and working. We just want to say a big thank you to all who donated – every penny counts”.

The pledge day started on Thursday morning at 7am in the flag ship breakfast show with Missy D who asked listeners to “dig deep” for those survivors of the earthquake that claimed over 70,000 lives. By 8.30am the response on the donation line in the studio was overwhelming. The Club Asia team abandoned their work and opened up the office lines to man the phones.

After Missy D’s show the total stood at ?5,756. San-j-Sanj, the central show presenter took over for the following five hours and through persuasion and burning up a sweat (by doing press ups for donations), raised an additional staggering ?9,816. This brought the morning’s total up to ?15,572. From 3pm in the home stretch, Jas “the Man” on Drive set the listeners a challenge of raising ?2,500 per hour in order to meet the target amount of ?25,000 by 7pm. To entice the listeners to donate Jas gave away an exclusive signed T-shirt by a Bollywood heartthrob Vivek Oberoi as well as ‘selling’ his fellow presenter San-j-Sanj for a date to the highest bidder.

In the final hour at 6.57pm the grand total stood at a nail biting ?24,866 until a caller came on air and donated an amazing ?1000. Despite closing the lines listeners persisted and continued calling after 7pm which brought the total donation amount to ?28,184.

A speechless Jas “the Man” on Drive, was overwhelmed with people’s generosity as was the rest of the Club Asia Team. He added, “What really touched me was the fact that all faith groups whether Sikh, Muslim or Hindu ploughed together to raise this massive sum – Thank you, Thank you, Thank you”

Shaista Aziz, Oxfam spokesperson said, “This is a fantastic initiative by Club Asia radio; they have done an amazing thing in helping to raise the outstanding figure of ?28,184. We are overwhelmed by the generosity of Club Asia listeners, the money they raised will be spent in the field to assist some of the most desperate and vulnerable people affected by the disaster. This money will go towards providing vital aid to keep people alive and help them survive the harsh winter that is upon us now. Club Asia listeners should be proud of their achievement and Oxfam would encourage them to keep up to date with our work across South Asia be visiting our website www.oxfam.org.uk“.