Swiss give millions to help children in need

Donations for charity work have hit nearly SFr9 million ($9.3 million) after a weeklong fund-raiser by swissinfo.ch’s parent company ended on Saturday.

The Swiss Broadcasting Corporation’s television and radio divisions said the six-day event, called Jeder Rappen Zählt, or Every Cent Counts, raised the money to help children in crisis zones and conflict regions. Swiss Solidarity helped organise the effort.

The charitable fund-raiser began in 2004 with a Dutch public broadcasting company. Since then numerous other broadcasters across Europe have adopted the idea.

Switzerland began the programme last year, when donations amounted to more than SFr9 million. This year some 100 people jumped into the frigid River Aare coursing through the Swiss capital, Bern, to raise SFr10,000 for the cause.

In other events on Saturday, the charity group Caritas launched a candle-lighting solidarity movement across 200 cities and villages around Switzerland.

The “One Million Stars” event placed burning candles in town squares, bridges and buildings around sunset on Saturday. The flames burn for “a society that measures its strengths by the welfare of the weak,” the charity said in a statement.