- guardian.co.uk, Saturday March 13 2004 01.34 GMT
The Guardian and Observer Christmas charity appeal this year has raised £809,808. Final figures showed that 10,315 readers contributed an average of £68, taking the pretax total to £704,048. The extra £105,760 comes from tax refunds in the government Gift Aid scheme.
Readers of the Guardian, the Observer, Guardian Weekly and our website, Guardian Unlimited, generously responded to five weeks of reporting on the Nobel prize-winning medical charity Médecins sans Frontières, and nine local and national organisations addressing conflict in the home.
You decided how you wanted your donations split. MSF receives £537,685, while the domestic violence projects get £272,123.
Our reporters brought you stories of MSF's operations in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Caucasus, Colombia, Congo, Kashmir and Sudan, and it is in these clinics, surgeries and field hospitals that your money will be spent.
In the UK, the projects were: Advance, a 24-hour advocacy service in west London; the Nia project, Hackney; Halt, in Leeds; the Phoenix project, run by Barnardo's in Bolton; the Haven, Wolverhampton; the Domestic Violence Intervention Project, west London; Montgomeryshire family crisis centre; the Women's Aid Federation of England; and Refuge, the UK's largest provider of specialist accommodation and support.
You can read the reports at guardian.co.uk/christmasappeal.
Thank you once again for your continuing kindness and generosity.
