Following the devastating 1984/85 famines in Darfur and Ethiopia, the Acropole became the base for many international non-governmental organisations, since it was the only hotel with reliable telephone, telex and fax lines. A framed letter from the Band Aid founder Bob Geldof on the wall of the hotel office gives evidence of his appreciation for the support by the Pagoulatos family and their staff, and Sudanese network.[7] They also scrounged up goods for Oxfam and Save the Children to get to the camps.[2] The author Edward Girardet described the hotel in 1985 as follows: