In addition, various official bodies made donations: €50,000 from the city of Ghent and €16,000 raised by city staff; €300,000 from the Flemish region and €1m from the federal government. Flemish singer Helmut Lotti donated his pink Saab convertible, which was auctioned for €22,500. A special edition of the VRT quiz show Blokken raised €19,500, while an artwork by Dutch conceptual artist Jam Smit, with contributions from sports stars Kim Clijsters, Tia Hellebaut and Eddy Merckx, was sold for €15,400.

The Red Cross, which put the money towards the purchase of mosquito nets, benefitted from the charity action, as did the tax authorities, who took €10,000 in VAT on the €150,000 sales of Stories for Life, a collection of short stories written for the occasion by well-known Flemish authors. One of the authors, Dimitri Verhulst, called the tax-grab “sad”. He added: “But it’s never too late. They could still decide to hand back the €10,000. It’s just a suggestion.”