The cornerstone of unity

26 OPERATION HUNGER DAY CAMPAIGN
The Hunger Day fundraising campaign of the Finnish Red Cross (FRC) has been a huge success for decades. 
Even now, it is still the most important annual collection for the organisation’s Disaster Relief Fund. The purpose 
of the Hunger Day campaign has always been to collect as much so-called un-earmarked money as possible for 
the organisation’s international and domestic relief activities. But the fundraising campaign is also an important 
part of the volunteer activities of the FRC and of its domestic emergency preparedness activities.
During this nationwide fundraising campaign, money has been collected in many different ways and 
emergency preparedness activities have been practised, for example how to contact people in cities and villages 
when drinking water has been contaminated.
The FRC’s Hunger Day campaign began as the idea of a single person in 1980 when the famine in the Horn 
of Africa was already in the news. In the small town of Pälkäne in southwestern Finland, the pharmacist Maili 
Korhonen had already for some time felt that the Red Cross should organize a large nationwide collection. The 
FRC executive director of the region, Erkki Korkama, liked her idea. So though the first collection in November 
1980 was only local, it became a nationwide campaign already in the following year.
At first, the Hunger Day campaign was often connected with food. People were encouraged to eat more 
modestly at work, in school, and at home and to donate the saved money to the campaign. 
But the campaign spread to streets and squares already in the early 1990s. In many parts of Finland, the 
campaign received proceeds from selling donated bread and selling home made pea soup and crepes.
Thousands of volunteers wanted to collect money for the good cause and participated for a few hours on 
streets and squares, in schools, at work, and from door to door. Nowadays there are 10,000 to 15,000 collectors, 
sometimes even more during ongoing major disasters.
The Hunger Day campaign has also become a lively and positive event. People run, drive bikes, sing, and 
compete in many different ways to raise money. People do things together with friends, many compete with staff 
from other companies, and collectors even get permission to go into some restaurants.
The Hunger Day campaign and 
the FRC’s Disaster Relief Fund are worldwide unique innovations. The fund 
enables immediately starting relief work because there are always a few million un-earmarked euros in the fund 
at all times.
Over the years, the fundraising activities for the Disaster Relief Fund have been expanded, and nowadays 
regular monthly donors play a significant role, but the Hunger Day collection is still of crucial importance. 
Simultaneously the fund’s share of total fundraising has increased.
During the last ten years, the Hunger Day campaign has annually contributed an average of about 2.4 million 
euros to the Disaster Relief Fund, even topping four million euros in the best years. Over the years a total of 
already 84 million euros have been collected for aid work through the Hunger Day, and the Finnish Red Cross 
has used it to help people in many different kinds of distress. Aid has been given to people suffering from 
recurrent famines in Africa, for example, but also to others suffering especially from natural catastrophes.
Other aid recipients have included victims of civil wars and conflicts, refugees returning to their home towns, 
and families rebuilding their homes after earthquakes.

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In Finland, the FRC has used its Disaster Relief Fund to help victims of calamities but also in connection with 
the refugee crisis. In addition, psychosocial help has been provided for victims of disasters such as tsunamis 
and school shooting and victims of large traffic accidents.
The most typical Finnish aid recipients are however families whose home and possessions have been 
destroyed in a fire. The local Red Cross chapters can immediately help the families get the most essential things 
and clothes. The local chapters even have agreements with the local stores so that victims can get the most 
essential things even in the middle of the night and on weekends.
The Finnish Red Cross also gets funds for its aid work from the Finnish government, the EU, and businesses, 
but the importance of its Disaster Relief Fund is especially pronounced in urgent relief cases, when the aid 
decision is mainly in the organisation’s own hands. The fund is also used for buying emergency aid equipment 
and supplies, which are often sent to disaster areas with transport planes rented by the FRC. Large quantities of 
such emergency equipment and supplies 
– including field hospitals, health clinics, tents, clothes, blankets, 
medicine, and emergency food 
– are stored at the FRC’s logistics centre in the city of Tampere. From there they 
can be quickly transported to disaster areas.
In addition to its Disaster Relief Fund, the Finnish Red Cross has something else that is internationally 
exceptional 
– a substantial pool of aid workers. Since the end of the 1960s, the FRC has trained more than 
2,000 specialists in different fields 
– doctors, nurses, logisticians, water and sanitation engineers, 
telecommunications experts, and public relations officers 
– of which more than 1,000 are still ready to leave 
within a few hours or days to participate in aid work anywhere in the world. This pool of specialists of the Finnish 
Red Cross is one of the world’s largest groups of aid workers ready to go abroad. The FRC annually sends more 
than 200 aid workers on shorter or longer assignments, but this specialist pool has also been used in Finland, for 
example in connection with the large influx of refugees from 2015 to 2016.
More than 90% of donations to the FRC’s Disaster Relief Fund come from private individuals, and the rest 
from organisations and businesses. According to the rules 
approved by the FRC’s board of directors, the 
collection expenses for the Disaster Relief Fund may not exceed 15%. This means that at least 85% of Hunger 
Day donations are used for helping people in need.
The Finnish Red Cross is one of the 190 independent national members of the International Federation of 
Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. These national associations form an international network of 
professionals and trained volunteers that is always the basis of their aid work.
Hannu-Pekka Laiho 
– director of communications
and fundraising at the Finnish Red Cross 2001
–2015