Camila Batmanghelidjh
Camila Batmanghelidjh CBE (/kəˈmɪlə bætmænˈɡɛlɪdʒ/; Persian: کامیلا باتمانقلیچ; 1963[a][1][2] – 1 January 2024) was an Iranian-Belgian author, psychotherapist, and charity executive based in the United Kingdom.[3][4][5] She was the founder of the charity Kids Company (closed in 2015) and Place2Be, charities that worked with marginalised children and young people at risk, in inner London, Bristol and Liverpool.[6][7]
Camila Batmanghelidjh
1 January 2024 (aged 61)
Fereydoon Batmanghelidj (father)
Between 1996 and 2015, Batmanghelidjh became a high-profile personality, fêted by celebrities and politicians for her work with Kids Company.[8] In 2007, The Guardian described her as "one of the most powerful advocates for vulnerable children in the country".[9] She was dubbed the "Angel of Peckham".[10]
In 2015, amid allegations of mismanagement and the squandering of funds, Batmanghelidjh stepped down as the charity's chief executive, and Kids Company was closed.[11][12] The official receiver's allegations that Batmanghelidjh and seven Kids Company trustees were unfit to hold directorships were dismissed in February 2021 in a high court judgement delivered by Mrs Justice Falk.
On 20 August 2015, the Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into Keeping Kids Company. However, this was placed on hold pending the outcome of the High Court judgement. The High Court rejected claims of mismanagement and exonerated the charity's directors and trustees.[13] The Charity Commissioners' report was finally published in February 2022.[14] The Commission made a finding of "mismanagement in the administration of the charity" over its repeated failure to pay creditors, including its workers and HMRC, on time.[15]
Early life[edit]
Camila Batmanghelidjh was born in Tehran, Iran in 1963,[a] the third of four children, to Fereydoon Batmanghelidj (c. 1931–2004), a doctor, and his wife Lucile, a Belgian national.[10][16] Her parents met and married in London, where her father was studying at St Mary's Hospital, before returning to Tehran.[17] Batmanghelidjh was born two-and-a-half months premature and was not expected to survive.[18] Her birth was not registered and the date was not noted.[19] Batmanghelidjh said that the preterm birth resulted in her developing learning difficulties (including dyslexia), and a self-proclaimed endocrine disorder affecting her weight.[20][21][22][23]
Education[edit]
Batmanghelidjh attended Sherborne School for Girls, a private school in Dorset,[24] and the University of Warwick, where she received a first-class degree in Theatre and the Dramatic Arts.[25] She trained as a psychotherapist at the London campus of Antioch University and the Tavistock Clinic.[26] At the age of 25, she was employed as a part-time psychotherapist in a project in Camberwell, South London, funded by Children in Need.[25] She also assisted NSPCC child protection and family service teams. Batmanghelidjh wrote three books: Shattered Lives: Children Who Live with Courage & Dignity;[27] Mind the Child [28] and Kids: Child Protection in Britain: The Truth. [29]
Charity work[edit]
The Place to Be[edit]
In 1991, Batmanghelidjh was involved in the formation of The Place to Be, a Family Service Unit project working with troubled children in primary schools.[30][31] She worked at the unit for three years followed by two years when it had been established as Place2Be. During that time, she wrote the manual for the groundbreaking therapeutic idea. Subsequently, several charitable trusts funded the project. Batmanghelidjh resigned from the project in 1996 to set up a new venture called Kids Company.
Southwark's Urban Academy[edit]
The Urban Academy was a post-16 educational and life skills academy in Southwark, South London. It was founded by Batmanghelidjh and was run by her Kids Company organisation.[32][33][34] The organisation offered a second chance at education for young people who had experienced significant trauma and failed to engage with other settings.[35]
Television, film and media[edit]
Batmanghelidjh was the subject of Ruby Wax Gets Streetwise, a documentary film about her charity work with Kids Company, presented by Ruby Wax. Directed by Michael Waldman, the film was broadcast on 15 March 2000 by BBC Two.[83][84]
In 2002, she was interviewed by Fergal Keane for Taking A Stand, a radio documentary exploring her work as an advocate for "society's most anti-social, violent and disruptive children". The 30-minute documentary was first broadcast on 15 January 2002 by BBC Radio 4.[85]
A 2003 Channel Four series, Second Chance, featured Batmanghelidjh's work at Kids Company with children who had been labelled "unteachable".[86][87]
Batmanghelidjh's work with Kids Company was the subject of Tough Kids, Tough Love, a film by Lynn Alleway, first broadcast on 19 October 2005 by BBC Two.[88][89][90]
Alleway made a second film, at Batmanghelidjh's invitation, during the summer of 2015, which unwittingly captured the collapse of Kids Company. Sam Wollaston, writing in The Guardian, described it as: "like an invitation, on the evening of 14 April 1912, to the bridge of the Titanic".[91] The film was broadcast as Camila's Kids Company: The Inside Story on 3 February 2016 by BBC One.[92]
Video installation artist Larisa Blazic created a multi-screen video installation, Angel (of Peckham), which was displayed in Currys Digital shop window in August 2007 and was inspired by her and William Blake's vision of angels in Peckham Rye.[93]