London Dispossessed Fund

The London Evening Standard newspaper has hit its target of raising £1million for London's dispossessed.
In an unprecedented move the money raised will now be matched by the Government. It will help hundreds of charities across the capital to make a lasting difference to the lives of the capital's dispossessed.
Thousands of readers have backed the campaign, from some of the City's biggest names to the teenager who donated his pocket money.
A total of £1.18million has been raised in just 18 working days. Taking into account gift aid donations, the total being made available to London's poorest people is more than £2million.

The fund was launched on July 20 in response to a shocking series of articles that highlighted the plight of the city's poorest people - London's Dispossessed.
Series of articles and photographs in the newspaper had revealed the continuing scandal of poverty and hopelessness, showing how four in 10 children are living below the breadline, in families who cannot afford to buy them a winter coat.
A total of 650,000 children live in poverty in London and one in four has a parent who earns the minimum wage of £5.80 an hour.

The response to these figures - and reports - was astonishing.
Prince William issued a "call to arms" and London united behind his appeal.
Amongst the generous leading donors were virtually all the members of the London " Rich List"; such as Sir Philip Green , Diane Jenkins, Peter Hendy, Lord Saatchi , Mo and Mark Constantine , Sir Terence Conran and many others.

Prime Minister David Cameron paid tribute to Londoners for raising the incredible sum in under four weeks.
The Prime Minister said: "This is such an impressive milestone.
"Once again I would like to congratulate the Evening Standard on this tremendous achievement. It is great news that this money will be going straight to charities that do so much to tackle poverty."
The Standard today offers its thanks to the hundreds of firms and individuals who donated, and appealed to every Londoner to keep giving.
"London is not only the greatest capital city in the world; it has now proved it is also the most generous," said Geordie Greig, editor of the London Evening Standard.
"This is a record amount of money raised in record time by a newspaper campaigning for charity. Only appeals for war-wounded and natural disaster victims have had a greater result.
"Poverty is a blight on too many lives in our city and it is wonderful that Londoners from every background and degree of wealth have given and continue to give to the Evening Standard's Dispossessed Fund."

** Donate on line to this Fund through the London Evening Standard website .