?We?ve done it!?

Bermuda Red Cross director Ann Spencer Arscott was thrilled this week to announce that the organisation had raised $1 million in donations towards the Tsunami Relief Fund ? and the figure continues to climb.

?There doesn?t appear to be an end to Bermudians generosity,? Ms Spencer Arscott said.

She said the Red Cross had $1,034,331 in the bank and still had numerous cheques waiting to be collect from various organisations and schools around the Island. Bermuda Red Cross director Ann Spencer-Arscott said the British Red Cross had already made the necessary donation towards initial relief efforts.

And the remainder of funds would be used for rehabilitation over the longer period of time.

The Red Cross is joined by scores of organisations which are accepting donations to assist in the relief pipeline.

The international aid agency Doctors Without Borders has sent more than 40 workers and 110 tons of relief materials to the region while UNICEF has established 200 relief sites and is delivering water-purification systems to arrest the spread of diarrhoea.

The earthquake and tsunamis that hit South Asia on December 26 has left 210,000 dead, more than 20,700 missing and more than 2-million people displaced.

Ms Spencer-Arscott said that during the first three weeks of the operations, a total of 250,000 people affected by the disaster had received assistance through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

About 33 national societies are actively involved in the tsunami operations and in Indonesia 25 relief flights have supplied some 300,000 hygiene parcels, 903,100 water purification tablets, 132,265 blankets, 23,215 tents, 52,160 kitchen sets and 44,563 tarpaulins.

Forty-one mercy flights have been made to Sri Lanka supplying 160,000 hygiene parcels, 321,512 bed sheets, 87,248 tarpaulins, 155,100 blankets, 4,196,900 water purification tablets, 145,980 jerry cans and 46,945 kitchen sets.

In India, the national society in the country has supplied 7,000 family packs, 21,000 blankets, 39,000 pieces of clothing, 22,000 kitchen sets, 16,500 bed sheets, 15,000 towels and 11,000 buckets.

While seven relief flights have been made to the Maldives to supply 1,967 hygiene parcels, 5,540 blankets, 181 kitchen sets, three Rubb Halls (warehouse tents), two water bladders, 600 torches, 1,393 batteries, 3,000 garbage bags, 200 sleeping mats, 100 kitchen sets, 5,000 clothes, 20,000 tins of beans, 10,000 tins of fish, 400 dressing kits, 1,000 cooking stoves, 24 generators, one set of medical items and 20 boxes of school kits.

Malaysia received 3,000 tons of relief items and Myanmar received 21,240 blankets, 8,500 buckets, 19,432 jerry cans and 4,700 tarpaulins.

Tarpaulins are used both for emergency shelter as well as body bags.

Ms Spencer-Arscott said Asia was the most disaster prone region in the world and in the decade 1994 to 2003, out of a total of 5,677 natural disasters, 2,328 were in Asia.

?During the decade, 2.3 billion people in Asia were affected by natural disasters and out of a total of 2.6 billion people affected by natural disasters globally,? she said.

There are currently 1,957,279 volunteers with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies working in affected areas of South Asia.

Meanwhile in local fund drives, St. Andrew?s Presbyterian Church donated $1,940 following a successful ?Tsunami Jam? that was held at the church over the weekend.

Various musicians including Steve Crawford, Louise Southwood and Matthew Joseph performed during for fund-raiser.