The eight-hour-long humanitarian concert to help Haiti filled the Old Town Square on Thursday 21st January. A part of the concert, attended amongst others by the Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bém and the Prime Minister Jan Fišer, was a financial collection for the organization Člověk v Tísni (People in Need).
“It has been the most powerful earthquake of the last two hundred years,” Pavel Bém pointed out, “So far, financial aid from the Czech Republic has amounted to almost 33 million CZK; Prague has contributed twelve million to this the sum.” Visitors to the humanitarian concerts were regularly encouraged to send Donor text messages or to put money into the collection boxes in the Old Town Square.
The appeal was met with an immediate reaction: at the time of the concert, people sent almost 100 thousand Donor text messages. As a result, the amount has reached 2 667 039 CZK.
The concert was presented by Zdeněk Vrba, Petr Šiška and Martin Hrdinka. Performers included some Czechoslovak SuperStar finalists, All X band and Second Band, singers Lucie Bílá, Monika Absolonová, Yvetta Blanarovičová with her band, Roman Vojtek, Michael Foret and many others.
The charity concert to help earthquake victims in Haiti was a joint programme of the City of Prague, Czech TV, Czech radio Regina and the humanitarian organization Člověk v Tísni.