Team Blitz India
LONDON: Leaders from industry, politics and civil society gathered at the prestigious headquarters of BAFTA – the home of the film, television and games industries – in London’s Piccadilly on June 22 for a glittering gala dinner to support rural widows in India. Hosted by Lord Loomba in aid of the Bharat Widows Empowerment Fund, the gala took place on the eve of UN International Widows Day, the annual day of action initiated by the Loomba Foundation in 2005 and unanimously adopted by the United Nations General Assembly five years later.
Guests flew in from India, US, Dubai and elsewhere to witness Loomba Foundation President Lady Cherie Blair, and President & CEO of US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) Dr Mukesh Aghi sign a Memorandum of Understanding to extend the partnership between the two organisations to fund the empowerment programme for a further 5,000 disadvantaged widows and dependents in the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. This builds on their current programme for 5,000 widows in Uttar Pradesh, which began last year, and is due to be completed by the end of this year.
In addition, the evening raised some £70,000 from sponsors and donors, including more than £20,000 in a charity auction conducted by global bestselling author Lord Jeffrey Archer. While thanking the sponsors and donors, Lord Loomba said this year’s International Widows Day had extra meaning for his family as it was 70 years on this day since his mother, the inspiration for the Loomba Foundation and for International Widows Day, was widowed.
