The East Africa famine appeal

We love the Good For Nothing crew. So when an email went round asking for people to take part in one of their Creative Riots to find a way to raise £1 million in 50 days for the East Africa famine crisis we were more than happy to pitch in. Ambitious? Yes. A bit mad? Yes. Impossible? No. 

Why?

Because East Africa is facing a desperate crisis. Large parts of Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Republic of South Sudan are suffering from the worst draught in 60 years, with famine being declared in parts of Somalia. This has left 12 million people in desperate need of food and water. If they all held hands to form a human chain it would stretch from London to San Francisco and back again. 

So, after a weekend of creative thinking/hacking/doing collaboration, the idea for the 50/50 Project was born. A platform - built by our lovely friends at Made by Many – where agencies and individuals can set up mini fundraising projects, initiatives and experiments for the East Africa crisis, enabling creative and energetic networks of passionate people to do great things. The response has been incredible - from the big to the small, from a Twitter swear jar (receive a weekly bill for your Twitter potty mouth) to Africashback (where you can donate money as you shop on Amazon). 

So what could we at Wolff Olins muster to do our bit? Well, a couple weeks ago we kicked off a month-long, inter-office, fundraising bonanza at our home at 10 Regents Wharf, London. Using the kitchen as the centre of our efforts, we are asking people to once a week donate the cost of their lunch or just an extra 50p to the cause. And, alongside our neighbours OMD, Bernard Hodes and Doremus, we are going to match every penny raised. To get things started, we had an East African inspired menu raising in total £1,279.14. And we have 3 weeks to go! 

We also wanted to raise awareness around the building for the cause. Not satisfied with the brief to create a humble poster for the Appeal, our whizzy design intern, Jonas Skafte, decided to create an installation for our space on canal side to really bring home and communicate what 12,000,000 people actually means; the incredible scale of the situation. Each uniquely coloured dot represents someone at risk from the crisis - all at risk of disappearing forever. 

In fact, not even our offices are big enough for 12 million dots…

We’re aiming to end on 26th October. So from now until then we’re going to try and do our bit.

Thank you everyone for their support and generosity so far. It is very much appreciated.  

(Yelena Ford)