I AM writing to thank all your readers who supported the UNICEF/Evening Press Children's Southern Africa emergency appeal.

The total raised is £5,177 - a wonderful amount, which will make a great difference to some of the six million children across Southern Africa who continue to face some of the worst food shortages in years. Your support for Kosovo and Southern Africa shows your commitment to making the world a better place.

Thanks to the support of people such as your readers, UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, has been able to put in place a massive emergency response in Southern Africa.

In Zimbabwe we have expanded our feeding programme to reach more than 130,000 malnourished children under the age of five and are also working to control the threat of further outbreaks of life-threatening diseases such as cholera.

More than 180,000 metric tonnes of fortified food has already been sent to Malawi, where an estimated 3.2 million people are affected by the food shortages.

David Bull,

Executive Director,

UNICEF UK

Africa House,

Kingsway,

London.

Updated: 09:19 Saturday, September 14, 2002