My first heartbreak

Story time... In my previous life, before women's health became my mission, I worked at the most extraordinary organisation Kids Company. We served the children and families that were hardest to reach. The most disengaged and abandoned by 'the system'.

Kids Company was extraordinary because it was built first and foremost on love. The theory was simple; give the children everything a loving family would provide. That meant we fed and clothed them, gave them physical safety, decorated their homes, supported their parents who were often suffering with severe mental health challenges and trauma. We fed them hot meals three times a day if needed. Stories of the children drawing pictures of food and eating the paper or picking plaster off the walls for dinner were common. We gave the older kids actual cash (shock! horror!) for their rent and bills, and whatever else in life cost money. But most of all we gave them a safe place for the first time in their lives.

Notoriously the centres were places that rival gangs could be in the same room (they'd stash their weapons in bushes outside - yes we collected them). And it was run by the most incredible group of humans. Everyone who worked (300+) or volunteered (10,000+) there had the same goal; to give children love, safety, security and a full belly.

It was led by a woman who cared deeply about people that no one else cared about. Camila Batmanghelidjh was more than a charity leader, she was a mother to many of the children (and staff) and a figure head for us all. She enchanted everyone she met including celebrities - we worked closely with Coldplay and Damian Hirst for years - and politicians.

She was close with the then conservative government and the PM David Cameron but she challenged them. She knew that the 30,000 or so people we supported wasn't enough. She knew that a charity shouldn't be delivering this vital, life saving support, it should be the government.

Camila had a vision to completely overhaul the social care, judicial and welfare system to actually support the hardest to reach children and families. To do this she set up a taskforce led by Kier Starmer QC (he wasn't a knight then, just a lowly QC). But Cameron had an election coming up and he didn't want this loud - visually and audibly - woman declaring that his policies weren't good enough so he took aim at her.

From that moment we sustained an egregious attack in the media against the work we were doing - apparently that cash was paying for drugs; against the organisational structure - accusations of financial mismanagement and implications of embezzlement by Camila and other senior team members; then finally, a story was leaked to the press suggesting an inappropriate relationship between a staff member and one of the charges.

I remember so clearly, the story ran in the Evening Standard on Friday and by Wednesday the organisation doors closed. Thousands of families completely abandoned from the last line of support.

I'm telling this story now because this week, a High Court judge ruled the watchdog report that ultimately collapsed the charity was “extremely unfair" and countered the allegations made against the organisation. 

Camila and another brilliant, kind and extremely experienced senior trustee both died before hearing the court ruling and spent their final years fighting to clear their names, their reputations and their mission. They will never know this justice. Those children whose support blanket ripped away will never get those years of support that could have changed the trajectory of their lives. 

Alan Yentob, another trustee and close friend and confidant of Camila’s, died just a few days after the ruling but his obituaries don’t speak of his work with Kids Company lest it tarnish the rest of his sparkling career. 

Seeing something so brilliant and beautiful collapse in front of you is heartbreaking but knowing how much good is being taken from those who need it most is devastating. The ruling is a relief but nothing will give the last 14 years of Camila’s life back, give the support to those families, or unite the hundreds of mission driven humans back together. 

Focusing on women’s health today feels like an extension of the work I did with Camila and my colleagues (comrades?) at Kids Company but the work we did there still needs to be done. Those children and families are still hungry, still battling trauma and mental health challenges and still abandoned by the state.

There isn’t any service delivering the same wraparound care that Kids Company did but if you’re frustrated by this, donate to your local food bank or there are some links below of child poverty charities. Support those who need it most 💪🏼