From deep in the Kalahari desert, a letter of thanks from the people we reminded: 'You are not forgotten'

Christmas Appeal Update

It is not the easiest of tasks to get a letter out from the parched heart of the Kalahari desert. But from there - in the old game reserve where 140 die-hard Bushmen live in hiding from the rangers of the Botswana government who seek to evict them - a message has come.

It is not the easiest of tasks to get a letter out from the parched heart of the Kalahari desert. But from there - in the old game reserve where 140 die-hard Bushmen live in hiding from the rangers of the Botswana government who seek to evict them - a message has come.

It is addressed to the readers of this newspaper. In it these representatives of Africa's most ancient culture - the "red men" who were there long before the black and the white men came - send thanks.

But it is not only the dispatch of money which has caused them to be grateful. It was the presence of Basildon Peta, our Southern African correspondent, who undertook a gruelling four-day four-wheel-drive trek to visit them as part of The Independent's recent Christmas Appeal, which has raised an impressive £200,276.18 in donations from readers.

The money has been divided between the three charities featured in our appeal for some of the world's "Forgotten Peoples". One of them is Survival International, which lobbies for the rights of tribal peoples, and is the main external advocate for the Bushmen who are being driven by the Botswana government from the land on which they have survived by hunting and gathering for more than 30,000 years. By coincidence, it is land on which reserves of diamonds have recently been detected.

"They were overwhelmingly grateful that The Independent sent someone in person to report on their plight and cover their case at first hand," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival. "The value of this publicity is enormous for these 'forgotten peoples'. It is a terrific encouragement for them to know that now the rest of the world is remembering them."

It was a view echoed by the heads of the other two charities. "Don't get me wrong," said James Beale, director of Ockenden International, a small agency which specialises in helping refugees and internally displaced people to build new lives far from their original homes, "the money is terrific, but having our work exposed in The Independent was as important as the amazing amount raised."

The way the media usually covers international events can lead the public to the impression that only one international emergency can be going on in the world at any one time. "So it is salutary for people to be reminded that, while the world's attention is focused on Iraq, the problems in Afghanistan, and the bordering countries which house its refugees, continue," he said. "Nothing is quite so dispiriting to people as the feeling that they have been forgotten."

People become forgotten for a variety of reasons. The tribal peoples with whom Survival works are often "forgotten" in the sense that they are treated as though they are of no consequence because they do not have contact with the values of what we presume to call the civilised world. The Bushmen - with their rock art, click languages, tracking skills and complex spirit world - are but one example. There are the Jarawa in the Indian Ocean's Andaman Islands, the Guarani and Awa Indians in Brazil and the Innu in Canada who have been plunged into despair, alcoholism and suicide when they have been exposed to our "civilisation".

Others are forgotten because they are the most vulnerable members of the world community - and none are more so than children in a variety of perilous situations. "The additional funds will enable further vital work with forgotten children living in some of the world's most desperate situations," said Mike Aaronson, director of Save the Children UK, the third of our charities. "The fantastic amount of money contributed by Independent readers will make a real difference in projects to provide education programmes for demobilised child soldiers in Sudan, memory books to help Aids orphans understand their heritage in Uganda, training in circus skills to attract children off the streets in Mongolia and workshops for Gypsy children in the UK."

The final total raised for the Christmas Appeal - £200,276.18, including £43,224 from the auction of services by the newspaper's staff and star contributors - will increase further once Gift Aid is reclaimed under government charity laws. "This will a real difference to the lives of many people," Mr Aaronson said.

For Ockenden International the appeal will mean the launch of a new national programme in Sudan, a nation which is on the brink of peace - a final accord is expected in a matter of weeks - after decades of civil war. "Hundreds of thousands of people are beginning to return home in anticipation of the peace," Mr Beale said. "One key part of our work will be an attempt to put in place some HIV/Aids prevention programmes among these transient groups which will now become particularly vulnerable".

Save the Children will be working there too. Setting up schools for thousands of demobilising child soldiers and reuniting thousands of girls and women abducted or taken into slavery in frontline areas.

For Survival the extra funds brought in by the appeal will enable them to bring Bushman representatives out of the Kalahari to meet senior members of the Botswana government next month. "We will be there to make sure their own voices are heard, and have proper legal representation supporting them," Mr Corry said. "We are also now able to make sure that both the Awa and Guarani Indians in Brazil are able to give evidence, in person, to both the government and the courts so that their land is defended."

It will press forward in India too. "The government there has now declared its intention to finish with all 'primitive tribes' by 2009," Mr Corry said. "We intend to ensure this decision is challenged and overturned, using all the legal means at our disposal - means which are greatly boosted by the funds from the 'Independent' campaign."

The appeal has not just brought money. "We have seen a significant increase in inquiries and subsequent support due to 'The Independent's' campaign," Survival's director said, "and so are signing on many more people as active defenders of tribal peoples' lands and rights".

One of the most moving letters which this newspaper received in the course of this year's appeal was from one of the beneficiaries of the previous year's appeal. A woman in a small village just to the south of the Sahara in Burkina Faso, who has planted trees to halt the southward march of the desert sands using money from our appeal in 2002 contacted us to say how important the contact from our far-off country had been. "It made us realise that we are not alone in our struggle for life," she said. "I am very proud and I thank you all that my story went out to the world and inspired people in England to help thousands of other villagers like me."

It was humbling not just in its gratitude but in the sheer faith it demonstrated that communication between different peoples really can make a difference. The message received from the Bushmen in the past few days says that again.

But it adds something more. Those who have power can do terrible things to people they think the world has forgotten. The simple act of naming them, and thus standing by them, can sometimes in itself be enough to make the world a better place.