Eat, drink… and make money!

On October 27th 2013, the Trust organised a fundraising event at Westminster Hall. It was a brilliant success. Nearly 300 people came to a hall adjoining Westminster Cathedral, paying £25 for each ticket to eat Malaysian food, listen to some great live acts, and take part in a highly enjoyable auction which included a chalet in France and a Banksy print.

The event — easily the most ambitious event the charity has ever staged — was a success beyond our wildest dreams, and we raised over £20,000 to help us support Assunta’s children.

As well the money from the sale of tickets, we also staged a very popular auction, attracting bids that went from £25 to many thousands of pounds for gifts donated by the charity’s supporters.

These ranged from a holiday in a beautiful French chalet, to a cartoon by an award-winning illustrator, to tickets to a West End musical starring one of our trustees and a day on a 40 foot yacht.

The event was staged on a shoestring budget, and was put together using the skills, dedication and energy of the trustees. Among the highlights was a beautiful violin performance by Ravi, Hari and Martin’s son, who has been playing the violin since he was five and is a student at the Royal College of Music Junior Department; the South Bank Gamelan Orchestra; and a splendid performance of Indian classical dance by the award-winning Khavita Kaur.

Unable to attend the event was dancer Suneetra Karam Singh, Harinder Veriah’s sister, who sent a video to be played in her absence.

Here is a link to a lovely article about the event which appeared in the Star, Malaysia’s largest circulation English-language daily newspaper. It was written by Ai Leen Lim who attended the event.

Following the evening 28 people have now signed up for the sponsor-a-child programme, which we regard as the long-term financial bedrock for our programme.

For more photos of the event, please see our Flickr page