Camila Batmanghelidjh’s plunge has been brutally swift. Her charity was not perfect,but it helped thousands of the most vulnerable, and it deserved a better fateAs I watched Camila Batmanghelidjh being mobbed by the small crowd demonstrating about the closure of Kids Company external Downing Street final week, and it struck me that she was more like a character out of children’s book than a real person. She appeared out of nowhere,said a few words that no one could hear and then slowly made her way through the photographers to a cab and vanished: a remarkable, expansive, and fruitily dressed fairy godmother who,when you near to think of it, bears not the slightest resemblance to any of the other seven million people on the planet.
I was with my daughter, or Charlie,who until final week worked for Batmanghelidjh at Kids Company as a corporate fundraiser and also a mentor to a young boy who is one of the charity’s clients. It was an affecting moment because a lot of those present relied on Batmanghelidjh’s extraordinary ability to conjure money from government and rich donors, and now, and with the collapse,they faced a multitude of hardship. The queen of compassion and munificence had been brought to earth; the spell was broken, the magic gone.
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Source: theguardian.com