OXFAM shops in Worcestershire may have to temporarily close so staff can deal with the overwhelming number of donations being made to the tsunami disaster appeal.

Volunteers at shops in Worcester, Evesham and Malvern are at bursting point coping with the amount of cash and clothes being given to boost the relief effort.

Unless more help can be found soon, some managers are considering shutting up shop for a day or two to sort everything out.

Susan Brooks, manager of the Port Street-based shop in Evesham, has urged local people to give up their spare time to stop this happening.

"We can't move in the shop for clothes and as soon as we start bagging it up, the pile just gets bigger," she said.

"And while this is a good thing, we just don't have the staff to cope with it. At the moment there are just 12 volunteers, and they don't cover the whole week. I need at least double that number.

"Unfortunately, unless this extra help can be found, we may have to look at closing for a while."

Barbara Beard, the manager of the two Worcester Oxfam shops, described how her faith in humanity had been restored by the donations.

"In just four days last week we took £13,725, whereas normally we would just expect £200," she said.

"One man came in with £500, while a little girl donated her pocket money.

"I have not seen anything like this since the original Band Aid appeal. My faith in humanity has been restored."

As well as cash and clothes, Oxfam is also using some of the funds raised from the sale of other goods in its shops to help countries affected by the disaster.

But at the moment, it is people power that is needed.

"We are always on the lookout for volunteers, but even more so now," said Maggie Whitton, deputy manager at the Oxfam shop in Church Street, Malvern.

For more information on volunteering, contact your nearest Oxfam shop.

County cricketers set for fund-raiser

WORCESTERSHIRE fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar will join some of the world's finest cricketers in two benefit matches for the tsunami victims.

The games will be played between a World XI and Asian XI to raise funds for victims of the Boxing Day disaster, which has left more than 150,000 dead.

Akhtar, the fastest bowler in the world, has signed for Worcestershire and will begin playing for the club in the summer.

Nicknamed the Rawalpindi Express, he will line up for the Asian side against a previous county favourite, Australia's Glenn McGrath, who enjoyed two seasons at New Road.

The first of the games will be played at Melbourne, Australia, on Monday.

The second will be in February, in India or Sri Lanka - the two Test-playing nations to have suffered the worst of the tsunami.

Other star names lining up include West Indies ace Brian Lara, India's Sachin Tendulkar, Shane Warne, from Australia, and Sri Lankan Muttiah Muralitharan.

The only English player in the World XI squad is Essex's Darren Gough.

England's Test squad, currently touring South Africa, donated £15,000 to the appeal last week.

n FIREFIGHTERS have raised more than £4,000 for the Asian tsunami appeal during a car wash marathon.

Worcester fire station's Blue Watch, with help from members of other watches, and Droitwich Young Firefighters, spent Sunday and Monday washing cars - in return for a donation - at the station in Deansway.

"The generosity of the public was fantastic," said firefighter Steve Laugher.

n A COFFEE morning in aid of the Asian tsunami appeal is being held in Droitwich on Friday.

The Droitwich Spa Area Forum for Older People is hosting the event from 10am till noon at the Salt Rock Caf, in Gurney's Lane. Tickets are £2.

The forum is also hosting a coffee morning at Wychavon District Council's One Stop Shop in the High Street on Monday from 10am to noon.

Children form third of victims

UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund has confirmed that one third of the victims of the Asian floods are children.

According to Unicef, children account for a large proportion of casualties because they represent 39 per cent of the overall population in the eight hardest-hit countries. In some of the countries up to 50 per cent of the population are children.

Eyewitness accounts indicate that many children died because they weren't strong enough to hold on to fixtures or trees when huge tidal waves swept them off their feet.

"Kids can run but they were least able to withstand the flooding or hold on. So that is one of the reasons children have been particularly affected," Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said.

Across the region, children have lost their parents to the sea, their homes have been washed away, they are living in areas with no water or electricity, no communications or phone contact.

Food is in short supply and life is as bad as can be imagined.

Arun, aged 12, lives in India. With fear in his eyes he described how the sea engulfed his home. As he noticed the huge tide chasing him and rising steadily above him, he ran with all the energy he could muster. His parents too have survived but he confesses he is afraid. "I want life to be normal," he says.

Arun is not alone. He is one of tens of thousands of children affected by the catastrophe whose lives have been turned upside down.

"The implications for children are enormous," said Carol Bellamy.

"First and foremost, children need to stay alive. They need shelter, they need blankets, they need food and clean water - and we can help with some of these.

"But they also need their families and to feel that they are connected to something. So we are also trying to make sure that the children who've been separated from their families are returned to their families or at least are receiving some assistance while we identify their families."

"In the long term children need to have some normality returned. Unicef is trying to make sure that as soon as possible kids get back into school. If there is any good news, it is that Unicef is on the ground at work and responding with the rest of the UN immediately.

Initial rounds of Unicef relief flights headed for the tsunami-affected region include:

Water purification tablets and oral re-hydration salts to combat diarrhoea.

A 45-ton shipment carrying primarily water-related supplies, emergency health kits, school supplies and recreation kits for children; this flight will land early Thursday.

A shipment of 20 tons of tarpaulins and tents from Belgium is due to arrive in Sri Lanka later on today.

UNICEF asks readers to please send whatever they can afford.

35p will pay for 5 oral rehydration sachets, enough to save a child's life.

Only £25 will provide enough blankets to keep 36 children warm at night.

£60 will provide emergency health kit supplies for 260 people for 3 months.

£100 buys enough water purification tablets to give more than 1,000 children a litre of clean water to drink

Found alive at sea after floating for nine days

A 20-year-old Acehnese arrived at Northport in Klang, Malasia today on board a South African vessel after being rescued on January 3, nine days after the tsunami struck.

Construction worker Rizal Shahputra had clung on to a floating tree trunk and survived on coconuts and floating food packets.

The slightly injured Rizal said he used a door knob to break open the coconuts.

He was spotted by the crew of a container vessel in the Indian Ocean 100 miles from the shores of Aceh province.

He also said he was with another Acehnese who went missing after a "few days."

He was the second person to be found alive at sea by Malaysian ships, days after the disaster.