The Cause
Techhead Interactive has teamed up with Custom Connections to donate 100 Telstra Prepaid starter kits and mobile phones to the Salvation Army for distribution to those who lost their communication devices during the Victorian Bush Fire’s.
The February 2009 Victorian bushfires, also known as the Black Saturday bushfires, were a series of bushfires that ignited or were burning across the Australian state of Victoria on and around Saturday 7 February 2009 during extreme bushfire-weather conditions, resulting in Australia's highest ever loss of life from a bushfire. A total of 173 people were confirmed to have died in the fires with around 500 injured.
The fires destroyed at least 2,029 homes, 3,500 structures in total and damaged thousands more. Many towns north-east of the state capital Melbourne were badly damaged or almost completely destroyed, including Kinglake, Marysville, Narbethong, Strathewen and Flowerdale. Many houses in the towns of Steels Creek, Humevale, Wandong, St Andrews, Callignee, and Koornalla were also destroyed or damaged, with several fatalities recorded at each location. The fires affected 78 individual townships in total and left an estimated 7,500 people homeless, many of whom sought temporary accommodation, much of it donated in the form of spare rooms, caravans, tents and beds in community relief centres.
The Challenge
The Salvation Army has been engaged since the initial response, with emergency services teams offering support on the ground to the emergency services crews and the many victims of the fires.
They are serving and journeying with so many in this crisis of indescribable dimensions. They share the raw pain and shock of this incredible loss of lives and livelihoods. They understand that the depth of pain and grief of loss is impossible to measure or describe. Those who have lost loved ones will never be the same.
The Salvation Army are in this for the long term. The Salvation Army will not walk away or give up after the initial emergency is over.
How You Can Support
Your donation to The Salvation Army will be used within Australia (unless you specify otherwise) to help provide food, warmth, shelter, counseling and comfort.
All financial donations are fully tax deductible.
To make a donation simply click here
Simon Perry from Custom Connection & Tim Fussell from Techhead Interactive with the cartons of phones sent to the Salvation Army Victorian Bush Fire Appeal.