South West sitting on a £170 million fortune in leftover foreign currency

A YouGov poll, commissioned by easyJet, today highlights that adults in the South West could have an extraordinary £170million of leftover foreign currency lying around at home.

The research released by easyJet, the South West’s largest airline, and its onboard charity partner UNICEF, the world’s leading children’s organisation, marks the start of the summer Change for Good campaign on 15 July.

The campaign, which raises money for UNICEF’s work vaccinating children against deadly diseases, includes an onboard collection where passengers donate their loose foreign change to UNICEF rather than discarding it in a sock drawer or down the back of the sofa.

The poll reveals that the average Briton hoards £46.98 in leftover foreign currency, with those in the South West averaging £40.31. The cost of providing a life-saving vaccine to a child is a mere 40 pence so the South West’s forgotten currency could provide over 425 million vaccines to children.

Passengers can donate on board flights from Bristol Airport from 15th July to 30th September 2013. The partnership runs across easyJet’s pan-European network of over 630 routes across more than 30 countries during the summer and winter months.

Paul Simmons, UK Director for easyJet, said:  “Our passengers’ generosity enabled easyJet to raise more than £1.2 million over the past year for UNICEF, enough to help protect nearly 1.5 million children against polio, and 2.5 million children and mothers against deadly diseases. We would like to thank them for their support and look forward to seeing what can be achieved by holidaymakers travelling with easyJet this summer.”

UNICEF UK Executive Director, David Bull said:  “Thanks to the kindness of easyJet’s passengers, UNICEF has been able to protect the lives of children by vaccinating them against deadly diseases. But today’s research shows that with the leftover foreign currency lying around people’s homes we would have the capacity to reach many more.

“Rather than letting that loose foreign change go to waste behind the sofa or in a sock drawer, we are urging people heading home from their holidays to make their spare currency go further for children by donating it to UNICEF aboard easyJet’s aircraft.”

The ‘Change for Good’ partnership between easyJet and UNICEF has already raised an astonishing £1.2 million since it launched in July 2012, donated by passengers in spare change and unused foreign currency on board flights. This has enabled UNICEF to protect nearly 1.5 million children against polio, and 2.5 million children and mothers against deadly childhood diseases and maternal and newborn tetanus.
The initiative is part of UNICEF’s global ‘Change for Good’ programme, which has raised over £53 million for the world’s most vulnerable children in partnership with leading airlines across the globe.