We hope this finds you well and ready to accept the challenge of the festive season ahead!
As this reaches you, we are all reeling from the events in the Middle East, and so have added to our list of beneficiaries those suffering in Palestine, Belarus & Ukraine to our longstanding list in Africa and Cuba. We need your help more than ever and any donation, however small, is welcome.
JustGiving will give us the Gift Aid (25% more) & PayPal is an option too. If you’d like to fundraise in aid of SafetyCurtain, please contact our secretary, Maria, secretary@safetycurtain.org.uk who will be delighted to help.
So, how is your money being spent?
We have long standing relationships with theatre practitioners in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Palestine, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria and more recently we have welcomed requests from Belarus, Ukraine, Cuba and Jordan. We are hearing from them that our small grants are life changing and life saving.
An all-female theatre company in Nairobi sent us this recently:
“…we are happy to share that we did receive the grant and are so excited and happy that it has always come at our deepest points of need….. everything is being double taxed...no one is spared including artists and poor people...the cost of living has taken another level”
5Cs Theatre for Change and Development, Kenya
and the touring theatre company we support in Abuja, Nigeria sent us this note:
“...what else can we say, except for expressing our utmost gratitude to SafetyCurtain for always being our shield. THANK YOU. We are extremely grateful. This means everything to us...”
Thatch House Theatre Initiative, Nigeria
Fundraising News
We belatedly want to thank those of you who attended our Fundraising lunch in July hosted by our Patron Mohammed & Franca Antabli in their beautiful home in West London.
Guests, all friends & supporters were treated to a feast of Lebanese & Syrian dishes, served with generous grace by Knightsbridge restaurant Ishbilia, washed down with delicious wines from the region.
Your generosity raised just over £4000 and introduced new supporters, whom we look forward to involving in future events.
Our most recent fundraiser took place in November in Musselburgh at the Queen Margaret University in their welcoming campus café.
This event was the brainchild of Katie Devereux, a student in Film & Media at QMU who wished to showcase the work of SafetyCurtain as part of her final degree.
She put together a formidable team to create a film about the work of SafetyCurtain and gave us a platform to talk about how we find our beneficiaries and why we think it is worth donating to our charity.
There was also the joy of a Q&A about the challenge of being an actor in changing times and looking over the career of our illustrious chair - Jo Cameron Brown - who delighted the audience with tales of her travels and working with internationally acclaimed actors and directors. Mystifying magic tricks were provided by closeup magician and actor, Tim Licata.
This evening raised £465 - enough to support one of our beneficiaries for 3 months. It also gave us so much back in terms of new friends and goodwill from the audience, some of whom have already come forward with their desire to help and be a part of SafetyCurtain’s mission.
In other news, we say goodbye and huge thanks to our Presidents Bill Paterson & Celia Imrie.
They both gave so much of their time and consideration – Bill gave us a new name, moving us from IPAT to SafetyCurtain, and appeared at all our events, at one point reciting "The Night I Appeared as Macbeth" in Blacks Club, London which brought the house down. Celia and her co-writer Fidelis Morgan entertained us in January this year with their fabulous show about their book “Orphans of the Storm” – a dramatic telling of two survivors of the Titanic, related to Celia in real life.
We shall miss them – but are very happy to announce our new President - Lucian Msamati. This prestigious actor has come on board with energy & commitment to our cause, and we welcome him and look forward to a fruitful partnership.
It remains to say happy holidays, stay well, and we look forward to welcoming you to our fundraisers in 2024.
Jo Cameron Brown, Chair
Mary Roscoe, Vice Chair
Maria Vasiliou, Secretary