Qantas clears $22m in small change for UNICEF 'Change for Good'

In brief: If you're among the travellers who dumps their small change into the UNICEF 'Change for Good' envelope on the flight home, you'll be pleased to know that it's adding up.

Qantas has now raised $22 million for the ‘Change for Good’ programme since it began collecting for the charity in 1991, and international jetsetters are especially helpful in emptying left-over foreign currency from their pockets and purses.

The UNICEF partnership involves Qantas staff from all levels of the organisation, according to a Qantas spokeswoman, including over 7,000 international and domestic cabin crew, airport teams, catering, security, freight and even Qantas head office staff who collect additional change from their colleagues.

A further 20 retired Qantas staff volunteer their time to tally the donations at the Change for Good counting house.

Money collected through Change for Good goes towards UNICEF programmes helping children in over 150 countries around the world.

For example, $4.31 buys fifty 5ml auto-disposable syringes, so that 50 children can be safely immunised against disease.

$1.15 represents the cost of an HIV/AIDs rapid diagnostic test kit suitable for children as well as adults. Even a mere 7 cents buys a sachet of oral rehydration salts, which when mixed with salt water helps children combat dehydration and diarrhea.

If you’re not already doing so, Australian Business Traveller suggests you dump some of that foreign shrapnel on the flight back home from each overseas trip, or even offer up some spare Aussie coin on a domestic flight.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.