UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Barbara Hendricks received 2,3 million SEK as a gift from the Swedish Postcode Lottery during the Tällberg Forum week in the county of Dalarna. Photo and Copyright: Patrik Österberg/Svenska PostkodLotteriet.

2009-12-03

UNHCR joins the Swedish Postcode Lottery

UNHCR has joined the club of 27 beneficiary organisations of the successful and expanding Swedish Postcode Lottery (Svenska PostkodLotteriet).

-  We are very pleased and grateful that the Postcode Lottery has chosen UNHCR as its new beneficiary. The support from the Lottery will help many of the world’s refugees, and we are looking forward to a long and prosperous partnership, says Mr. Hans ten Feld, UNHCR’s Regional Representative for the Baltic and Nordic Countries.

Supports world’s largest refugee camp

UNHCR has received a donation of SEK 4 million (approximately USD 570,000) from the Swedish Postcode Lottery towards its protection and assistance to almost 300,000 Somali refugees living in the world’s largest refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya. The overcrowded settlements were originally built to hold 90,000 refugees. The donation from the Swedish PostcodeLottery is an important contribution to UNHCR’s work in Dadaab to provide refugees with healthcare, shelter, food, water and sanitary facilities.

The Somali refugee influx is expected to continue in the coming months as a result of ongoing violence in Somalia, compounded by severe drought conditions and food insecurity. To accommodate a steady stream of new arrivals from Somalia, UNHCR hopes to expand the refugee camps in Dadaab, as well as build a new camp that will hold up to 120,000 refugees.

UNHCR has been working hard to improve the living conditions of the refugees in Dadaab, but the needs are enormous. UNHCR assesses that complementary and supplementary feeding, replacement of non-food items, constructing health care centers and improving access to safe drinking water, as well as basic primary education and sanitation facilities are urgently needed. Food security and lack of livelihoods in the entire region are a matter of concern to the international community.

The Swedish Postcode Lottery – a market-driven charity

The Swedish Postcode Lottery is a charity lottery, raising funds through lottery tickets based on households’ postal code. Its ambition is to contribute to a better world for humans, animals and the environment. The Lottery defines itself as a “market-driven charity”, using commercial tools to generate funds for non-profit organizations. Since 2006, the Swedish Postcode Lottery has donated slightly more than SEK 620 million to various projects around the world. Its goal is, within four years, to donate SEK 1 billion per year to its beneficiary organizations.

-  It is amazing how the Lottery is expanding and that we, in spite of the recession, are increasing our proceeds to charities.  It is important to us that we can help as many non-profit organizations as possible, says Mr. Niclas Kjellström-Matseke, CEO of the Swedish Postcode Lottery.

The Lottery’s surplus is donated to humanitarian organizations operating in different fields such as children’s rights, emergencies, health, education, environment and research. The Swedish Postcode Lottery currently has 27 beneficiaries.

The Swedish Postcode Lottery helps UNHCR in Darfur

UNHCR’s partnership with the Swedish Postcode Lottery is not entirely new. Already back in 2008, UNHCR received SEK 2.3 million from the Swedish Postcode Lottery’s Foundation to protect both the displaced women and the environment in the camps in Darfur in Sudan.

Click here to read more about this donation to protect women and the environment in Darfur.

UNHCR Fundraising Foundation

Early summer 2009, UNHCR in Sweden established a foundation for fundraising purposes, called “UNHCR Fundraising Foundation” (UNHCR Insamlingsstiftelse), which has been accredited with a so called “90-account”. A Swedish 90-account implies that an organization or a foundation lives up to ethical and professional standards related to fundraising. These standards have been created by Svensk Insamlingskontrol (SFI), a national agency responsible for reviewing all Swedish fundraising organizations
(www.insamlingskontroll.se)

Plusgiro: 90 01 64-5
Bankgiro: 900-1645

UNHCR Fundraising Foundation’s chairperson is renowned opera singer and UNHCR Honorary Goodwill Ambassador for Life, Ms. Barbara Hendricks.