The Red Cross federation, the world's biggest humanitarian group, said today it had raised a record $1.167 billion (€900 million) in just 30 days for victims of the Asian tsunami, enough to fund a 10-year recovery plan.
Some 85 per cent came from donations by the general public, a testament to the "power of humanity", the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
The Geneva-based body's 181 national societies will now wind down fundraising. "It is a record. We have never raised this much money before for an appeal," Federation spokesman Mr Roy Probert said.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said it would also end its appeal for tsunami donations, having raised $300 million following an appeal for $144 million.
"We have stopped new initiatives for fundraising," Mr Daniel Toole, director of UNICEF's office of emergency programmes, said. "We have enough to respond to immediate needs and believe we have enough to start rehabilitation."
Mr Toole said UNICEF had also raised more money in a short time than ever before. "I think it demonstrates that this kind of crisis is so random and apolitical that everybody realises 'it could have been me'," he added.