DONATIONS from Gazette readers are already on their way to help victims of the Boxing Day tsunami - but the appeal for money remains urgent.

Since Gazette Newspapers teamed up with UNICEF last week to launch a joint tsunami appeal, readers have donated a fantastic £8,300.

The charity is working in countries hit by the terrifying tidal waves, helping to provide people with water, shelter and a vague sense of normality.

David Speirs, UNICEF's regional fundraiser for the South East, said: "We have been overwhelmed by the support from readers of The Gazette and The Basingstoke Extra.

"Like all of us, we have been watching and reading news reports and have been shocked at what has happened and moved by the generosity of people wanting to help their fellow humans.

"It is imperative that the support continues - it is crucial to ensure that the children UNICEF is helping are cared for and helped in order to get through this catastrophic experience and face the future with hope and positivity."

Mr Speirs said the main priorities for UNICEF at the moment - and where Gazette and Extra readers' donations are going - is on water and sanitation provisions.

He said: "Children must not be drinking anything from the water that is around them.

"We are digging wells and providing water purification tablets and bottles of water."

UNICEF has also set up displacement camps in many school buildings and government halls, where countless orphans are being cared for.

Mr Speirs said: "There are so many children who have been separated from their parents and families, or have parents who have died. Their details need to be recorded.

"UNICEF is taking care of these children first of all, and finding out if they have family, such as aunts, uncles, brothers or sisters, in the affected areas that can look after them.

"In Sri Lanka alone there are thousands and thousands of children who are now orphans."

The charity has sent out hundreds of schools-in-a-box - suitcases packed with teaching tools - to help bring some normality back into the lives of the children living in the affected areas.

The school sets are being used in areas where children would now have returned to school but their school has either been destroyed or left with no equipment.

The boxes, costing £97 each, contain chalk, blackboards, textbooks, posters of the alphabet and numbers, plastic blocks for counting and a wooden clock. This is enough to teach up to 40 children.

Tomorrow, UNICEF volunteers will be working from 7.30am through to midnight packing 2,000 schools-in-a-box to be sent out to south east Asia.

And a shipment of 5,000 cooking sets is being prepared to send to Indonesia, as well as medicines for Sri Lanka and syringes for Indonesia.

You can help in the urgent and ongoing effort by completing the coupon on this page and sending it, with a cheque made payable to UNICEF, or credit card details, to Gazette Newspapers/ UNICEF Children of Asia Appeal, Freepost, Billericay, CM12 0BR.

Donations can also be made by downloading the appeal form from the campaigns section of this website.

Alternatively, bring your donation to Gazette Newspapers' offices, in Church Street or Pelton Road, Basingstoke.