Dutch Red Cross raise 6 million for Japan

RNW, 14 April 2011

Fundraising concert and football match for the victims
of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan

A fundraising concert and football match for the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan raised six million euros in Amsterdam's Areana last night. The money will be used by the Red Cross to pay for emergency aid, medical and pyschologicy help as well as to build 70,000 temporary homes.

Red Cross chief Cees Breederveld said, "Tonight the Netherlands shows its solidarity with people in Japan

The Red Cross campaign to help Japan began in March. On Wednesday phone lines opened for donations and 38,000 people came to see various Dutch artists and a football match between Ajax and the Japanese Shimizu S-Pulse. Ajax won 4-0.

In Rotterdam a fund-raising dinner by TV chef Herman den Blijker raised 27,000 euros.