book release
10 months ago
as many of you know, i live in england which is in the uk. more specifically i live in london which is busy and bustling and where my roots have grown deep. it’s an old city, it groans and creaks a lot. when i was 6 years old, i met a homeless man. he sat there with a hat and gloves on, his home being propped up against the postbox. as we walked past, i stopped and pulled out my pocket money. i only had £1 and i put it in his plastic cup. he looked and thanked me. as we walked away my mother’s very words were, “that was very kind of you to do” and i replied, “maybe he can buy a house with it one day.” on our way home, we passed him again and he sat there with a sandwich in his hands. he looked at me, winked and gestured to his sandwich and mouthed, “thank you.” a man was fed by a 6-year-old girl that day and i have never, ever forgotten that. something so small and wasted on me fed a man a meal.
across the uk, 4 million children are living in poverty, over half of them are homeless with no where to sleep at night. they don’t have shoes on their feet. every 10 days, a child is killed in the uk due to physical abuse. many of those children don’t grow up.
in africa, a child dies every 45 seconds due to malaria. mothers die from the consequences of hiv, leaving their children to fend for themselves. there isn’t enough food to go around and children grow into adults without an education to raise money for themselves or their families.
the uk has a charity called “comic relief”. every 2 years a huge television event happens for one night where celebrities of all sorts (from our prime ministers to football teams) do something funny to raise money for comic relief. comic relief offers support to children, vulnerable women, helpless elderly people and young carers across the uk. it also stretches out a hand to help feed families in africa, provide them with hospitals, mosquito nets and medication. it is also known as “red nose day”.
this year i didn’t get to do my fundraising, but i have decided that between now and the televised event in 2013, i will raise money to donate. and i will do so by selling a photo book. every bit of the proceeds will go straight to comic relief. by 2013 it is my goal to have raised at least £1000 by selling the books. the books will be full of entirely new photographs, series and captions. i shall spend 3 months photographing and putting the book together for release just before christmas this year. it shall all be new and for one of the most worthy causes out there which is very close to my heart. if i raise the goal money, i will attend the televised evening to hand over my cheque with that raised money.
i hope that once it is released that some of you will be interested in purchasing a copy. if you do, you will be helping people young and old, giving people a new start and second chance at life. we all deserve to live this one life to our fullest, and what better way than to provide such help for people who need that boost the most? please keep your eyes peeled for news and prepare for a special book release in november.
