A few days ago my sister asked me if I would be willing to join her walking around at St. Hanshaugen and collect money for TV-aksjonen, she didn’t have to ask twice. Of course I was to join her, and we met up at Markus Menigheten to get the neccessary ID and where to go and collect moeny.

This year the money that get collected through TV-aksjonen is going to Leger Uten Grenser (Medecins sans frontieres – MSF), one of the world’s biggest humantarian organizations with around 400 projects in 70 countries. Each year MSF is giving out a report/overview over the world’s 10 biggest underreported humanitarian crises – crises that have not gotten media’s attention and that world is forgetting. The money is going to MSF involvment in the democratic republic of Congo, Somalia and North Uganda.

Of the money that Leger Uten Grenser is collecting each year as much as 76,3% is going to mediacal care, 3,4% to point out injustice and violence, 11,6% to collecting money, 6,6% to administration and 2% to other humanitarian activities.

TV-aksjonen is an unique annual, nation-wide event. I have not heard of any other country doing the same. Our govermental TV station, NRK, is holding an evening long show with artists performing, but more importantly showing small programs of the projects that the money is gonna go to. Each year an organization is chosen and a tremendous work is put down to prepare the event.

Just as I was about to publish this article, NRK announced that TV-aksjonen was passing a 100 million NOK! When I woke up the next morning I heard that in total 187 million NOK were collected, and that is a new record. Last record was from back in 1997, when we were collecting in money for research on cancer. Then a 177 million NOK got collected.