Kids Company charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh dies aged 61, reports say
02.01.2024 - 22:47
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
Kids Company charity founder Camila Batmanghelidjh has died aged 61, according to reports. The Iranian-born social justice campaigner founded Kids Company in 1996 to support vulnerable children and young people in London and Bristol.
It attracted a number of celebrity backers including former prime minister David Cameron, Coldplay, artist Damien Hirst and comedian Michael McIntyre. Ms Batmanghelidjh was made a CBE for her charity work.
However, the charity was wound up in 2015 after police launched an investigation, which was dropped seven months later, into unfounded allegations of abuse and exploitation, following the broadcast of a BBC Newsnight report.
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In 2021, a bid to ban Ms Batmanghelidjh and seven ex-trustees from being company directors was rejected by a High Court judge.
In 2022, the Charity Commission later published a report concluding that the charity had been mismanaged, claiming it operated a “high risk business model”. Later that year, Ms Batmanghelidjh won a High Court bid to pursue a judicial review of the report.
According to news reports on Tuesday, Ms Batmanghelidjh died on Monday – her 61st birthday – after a lengthy illness.
A family statement shared with the Guardian newspaper said she died “peacefully in her sleep” on the night of January 1 after celebrating her birthday with her loved ones.
It described her as an “endless source of inspiration” who “dedicated her life to advocating for Britain’s most vulnerable children”.
The statement said: “For all those around her, and especially for her family, she was endless source of inspiration, a fountain of wit, and a kaleidoscope of colour.”