BEVERLEY CARNIVAL SET TO BECOME AN ANNUAL EVENT

Gemma Ward - the driving force behind the Beverley Carnival - was delighted to have raised £2,200 for the EYESeeMe Project as well as sums for the other charities which were there on that September day.

To have put such a fun event together in just 6 weeks was impressive, but the reason for it is down to Gemma’s love of children and making sure their childhood is a happy time and for children worldwide to have the same opportunities as her own.

The EYESeeMe Project was set up by Gemma’s friend, humanitarian photographer Rebecca Robyns who came across such poverty on a visit to Thailand that she could not get over the things she saw. The project raised enough money to support 70 children so that they could go to school, for although education is free there, many of the children live in slums and have no money for food, let alone money for transport, uniforms, books or equipment.

Now the project is moving to Bangladesh, Gemma is getting more involved. Gemma’s background is in the garment industry and she hopes she will be able to make a real difference to the lives of poor children by working with the contacts she has made in her career. Gemma and Rebecca have hooked up with a charity in Dhaka (previously Dacca) called the APON Foundation which has set up pop-up schools in parks and neighborhoods - that is, the schools are going to the kids, not the other way around. Gemma is visiting Bangladesh in November with the objective of meeting the companies she has worked with to ask them to sponsor this initiative and then take on a child as an apprentice. With the number of companies she knows reaching towards a hundred, if only half of them agreed to do this, that would mean 600 children in education and 50 teenagers given a foot in the door towards a career and self-sufficiency.

Gemma said: “The slums in Bangladesh are the worst I have ever seen. These kids deserve much, much more! I’m raising funds specifically for work in Dhaka and Cox’s Bazaar - not only for education but for the kids’ nutritional needs, too. But we haven’t abandoned Bangkok where Rebecca is setting up an office. We are supported by InXpress Courier and Parcel Delivery to whom we are most grateful but would love other support. In Asia, a little goes a long way." 

Please call 07714 860098 if you can help.

Gemma has an organizing team in place for next year and plans to make it bigger and better. She wishes to thank Woolley & Parkes, AdPlant and Andrew Day Electricals without whom the Carnival in 2018 wouldn’t have happened, and The Mayor, Cllr Bryan Pearson, for his encouragement.

Beverley is recognised as a ‘town of festivals’ so throwing a carnival into the mix seems like perfect sense!