The Disasters Emergency Committee has today announced that it has raised £38m since the launch of its Nepal Appeal last week.

The DEC, a coalition of 13 member charities, said that in the week since its appeal was launched, agencies have been able to reach over 87,000 people in need. As the money continues to come in, DEC members will be able to scale up their efforts in reaching more of the estimated 8 million people affected by the earthquake.

Saleh Saeed, chief executive of the DEC, said: “One week on and the response by the UK public continues to amaze me, we are extremely grateful for their generosity and quick action.

“The funds mean we are able to increase the humanitarian response and despite immense challenges, aid is getting through to more and more people who desperately need it.

“Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the British public, our teams have been able to reach a large number of people in just a few days but there is so much more to do.”

The vast majority of donations came from individual donations from the British public, while the government also contributed £5m through UK Aid Match.

The appeal follows the earthquake that struck the west of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu on Saturday 25 April. So far more than 7,500 people have been confirmed dead.

The DEC had said that highlights of the response from its member agencies has included food for 439,000 people, 199,000 water purification tablets, hundreds of thousands of litres of clean drinking water and 22,536 oral rehydration sachets.

DEC’s aid agencies have also warned that a lack of shelter, contaminated water and poor sanitation following the earthquake could lead to potential outbreaks of disease.

To donate to DEC's Earthquake Appeal click here.