Appeal: Inspired by tales of ordinary people in tough predicaments

Just over a month ago I sat with a team from Oxfam to plan this year's Christmas Appeal for The Independent, which ends today, as it began, with a moving story from Mauritania, the location of Africa's most hidden famine.

I had fed in ideas from the earlier conversations I had with the staff of the two other agencies at the centre of the appeal – the forestry group Tree Aid and Amref, Africa's largest indigenous medical agency. Towards the end of the meeting, one of Oxfam's fundraising specialists said: "Based on what you're planning, and what you've told us about the generous high individual donations of Independent readers in the past," she said, "I reckon we might reach a total of £250,000. Why not set that as a target?"

We didn't. Somehow a target seemed presumptuous when we were soliciting the generosity of readers.

But perhaps we were wrong. Last night the total of the appeal – to be divided equally between the three charities – was £211,428, including the £26,213 raised from our auction of the personalised services of The Independent journalists. Last night there was still a two-day backlog of donations over New Year to be opened.

Today is the final day of the 20-plus "Hope for Africa" articles we have published over the past three and a half weeks, but the letter-openers at Oxfam will be on standby for another week. With the final donations, which you can make today, it may well be that we can reach that £250,000 figure.

Readers of The Independent have proved to be remarkably generous. The average donation was more than £70 and we received several in excess of £1,000 – including one for £5,000 and another for £14,000.

That has been all the more remarkable in an age of what the cynics call compassion fatigue. But I think I know why the response has been so munificent. It is not just that a series of vivid frontline reports have told a story of great suffering from the continent the world likes to forget. For we have seen much evidence of suffering.

There were the severely malnourished children of Mauritania, where the effects of famine began to bite six months earlier. There were the Aids orphans condemned to virtual slavery in Malawi. There were the malaria-devastated Masai children in Kenya. There were the people of Burkina Faso facing rapid deforestation.

But what I assume touched Independent readers as much as they did me were the stories of energy, resourcefulness and dynamism by ordinary Africans as they attempt to find ways out of their various predicaments.

A few stick in my mind. Taklitin walet Farati bringing – on the back of a donkey – bringing education to girls near Timbuktu in Mali. There was Arthur Chindandala beating oil canisters into bowls in Angola – on an anvil made out of a shell case. There were the flying doctors taking medical help, free of charge, to the benighted regions of the African bush.

Ordinary Africans doing their best to help themselves. Ordinary aid workers doing their best to assist. And ordinary Independent readers doing their bit to contribute.

It's enough to make the warmth of that Christmas glow extend into the cold reaches of January. And, perhaps, to persuade you today to make that one last push.