head of household. A document stating that intention must then be countersigned by the Immigration authorities. Once approved, all members of the household are granted citizenship. – De jure stateless persons do not have to submit a written declaration, although they are encouraged to sign a special declaration that, when countersigned by government officials, will make it easier for them to acquire identity documents. Both procedures are free of charge and there is no deadline to apply. In December 2003, UNHCR and the Ceylon Workers Congress organized a one-day workshop for over 500 volunteers who then worked at 50 mobile centres, scattered through the tea-plantation region, where stateless persons applied for citizenship. The volunteers received training on the basic facts about statelessness, the various relevant laws passed since 1948, and the new law and its eligibility criteria. For 10 days in December 2003, staff at the mobile centres accepted applications for citizenship. UNHCR financed the campaign and monitored the process to ensure that applicants made informed and voluntary decisions. By the end of that month, some 190,000 heads of households had acquired Sri Lankan citizenship. Of those, some 80,000 had previously held Indian passports; the remainder had been de jure stateless persons. In July and August 2004 a second, smaller campaign was organized in the northeast of the country. More than 2,000 stateless persons applied for, and were granted, citizenship. Since then, a small number of Up-Country Tamils have successfully applied for citizenship either through the government agent in their local district or through the citizenship division of the Ministry of Public Security, Law and Order in the capital, Colombo. Who funds UNHCR’s activities? UNHCR is one of the few UN agencies that depends almost entirely on voluntary contributions to finance its operations. Around two per cent of UNHCR’s annual budget comes from assessed contributions to the UN regular budget; the rest is contributed on a voluntary basis by governments, individuals, and the private sector. At the beginning of 2005, there were 19.2 million persons of concern to UNHCR. UNHCR’s budget for that year was US$1.2 billion. In 2004, UNHCR received 86 per cent of its funding from ten government donors. At the same time, it received more than US$26.5 million from the private sector, primarily in Europe, Australia, Japan, and the United States of America. NGOs contribute to UNHCR’s annual budget by making public appeals on behalf of UNHCR for some operations. In recent years, contributions from the private sector and NGOs have increased as a result of a concerted effort to raise public awareness via radio, television, the press, and other media outlets. 47