A telethon in Guyana has received pledges of more than US$60,000 (Guy34.6 million) in the latest Caribbean fundraiser for the Asian tsunami victims. Despite its billing as one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, Guyana has been actively joining the aid effort. President Bharrat Jagdeo Tuesday announced a grant of $50,000 to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support humanitarian work among the region's children. A local newspaper, The Kaiteur News, said it had also raised $60 000. Almost 150,000 were killed and 500,000 were rendered homeless from the Dec. 26 tsunami which swept across six Asian nations. In many other Caribbean countries, governments, the private sector and communities have been involved in similar fund-raising. This week the Jamaica government set up a special national tsunami aid fund, to which it made an initial contribution of $244 412 (J$15 million). Vulnerability "I appeal to Jamaicans both at home and in the Diaspora to give as generously, as this is truly a global effort," Jamaican prime minister P.J. Patterson said in a statement."Our common humanity deserves no less." Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados government have also pledged contributions. The Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning said that the Asian disaster had brought the vulnerability of his own country to the fore and his government would strengthen its national disaster management plan which he said had certain deficiencies. The issue of a coordinated regional response to the disaster is being discussed this week at a meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Council of Ministers in Georgetown. In the wake of the devastation, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) said it was having talks with a number of partners including the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre, the University of Puerto Rico Seismic Network, the University of the Virgin Islands and the Seismic Research Unit at the University of the West Indies on the establishment of a tsunami early warning system for the Caribbean. At Risk The United Nations also said Wednesday that it was accelerating efforts to introduce a global system for tsunamis to prevent future earthquakes from causing so much damage and loss of life, but was unable to say when it might be ready. "The Asian tsunami disaster has demonstrated in tragic proportions the need for a global warning system," the chief of the World Meteorological Organization, a U.N. agency, Michel Jarraud told reporters. Other areas said to be at risk from tsunamis include the coastlines bordering the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas. The major pledges for tsunami relief: Australia - US$764 million Germany - US$674 million Japan - US$500 million United States - US$350 million Norway - US$183 million France - US$103 million Britain - US$95 million Sweden - US$75.5 million Spain - US$68 million Canada - US$67 million. Denmark - US$66 million China - US$60 million South Korea - US$50 million Taiwan - US$50 million Netherlands - US$32 million European Commission - US$31 million Switzerland - US$23.5 million India - US$23 million United Arab Emirates - US$20 million North Korea - US$150,000 Reprinted from bbccaribbean.com