Camila Batmanghelidjh (Kids Company) has passed away

[TERFisTHEnewTREND]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/02/kids-company-charity-founder-camila-batmanghelidjh-dies-aged-61

Oh bless! She seemed a good woman.

I always thought she was treated far worse than she should have been. Her heart was in the right place.

A BBC quote? it was the BBC who made the unfounded allegations.

Very sad to see this. An extraordinary woman. We need more like her right now children's services are a mess.
Another media witch-hunt.

Incidentally oh and I were only talking about people dieing on their birthday or the day before the other day. What an extra sadness for the family to be left with.

Also from The Guardian report

Batmanghelidjh was outraged by a subsequent Charity Commission report into the collapse of Kids Company, which claimed the charity had been administratively mismanaged. A year ago she won permission to go to the high court to try to overturn the report but ill-health meant she could not progress it.

kids company was badly managed but that was the fault of the trustees who seemed to not understand their role or how to manage KC. KC was a brilliant figure head and fundraiser but wasnt an operational manager - not her strong point. Trustees should have recognised this and put in proper structures and systems but they didn’t. They bear an awful lot of responsibility for what happened.

IIRC Kids Company pissed the vast amounts of money fundraised for them up the wall by giving cash handouts to their service users, which often got spent on drugs.

Wow the gutter press have a lot to answer for looking at some of these responses. No evidence of any safeguarding failures and acquitted of any financial wrongdoings but people still repeating the same old lies years later.

You can’t libel a dead woman.

Aside from that, the latest charity commission report did find some serious financial mismanagement including an unpaid £850k tax bill, which is public money after all. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60338691

I think she probably had very grand ideas, and ideals, but didn’t have the expertise to run such a large business. The gov was also complicit for throwing so much money at them as a PR exercise without checks and balances

I'm sorry to hear this - I always felt that her intentions were good.

Yes @JaniceBattersby It can both be true that there were no criminal offences committed but that the charity itself was badly managed.

I was a Kids Company volunteer - no idea about financial management but we were very much checked, coached and trained to deal with vulnerable children.
Was so upset when the scandal closed them down as I believe it tarnished an organisation which really helped the young service users I met locally and across London.
Camila was not a business manager, she was a truly inspirational human being who created a lot of good. In hindsight, the trustees really should have been better (BUT, she was a woman on a mission and they are not always easy to deal with rationally)

I think some of the criticisms on here, just a day or so after the poor woman has passed away, are in bad taste TBH.

Wow. She’s just died for chrissake.
She was exonerated in court for any safeguarding concerns and fought against the financial mismanagement claims.

What a shitty thing to say about the ill-health of someone who's just died. Seriously.

It's a shame she died at such a relatively such young age. But from what I heard the funds were very unwisely spent. Private school fees for a child of a colleague. Amounting to £30k.

I think you spelt her name wrong 😑

Kids company did some incredible work. Very sad.

Oh wow and the posts just keep on coming, don't they?

"There had been no dishonesty, bad faith or personal gain on the part of Batmanghelidjh or the trustees, (judge) Mrs Justice Falk said. Nor had there been any inappropriate expenditure on children assisted by the charity."

Apologies. I will ask MN to change it.

Yes, so convenient she died. Jesus Christ.

If only the MSM had persued what was going on with the Post Office and Horizon with as much vigour back in the day They left that to Computer Weekly and Private Eye and then piggy backed on the end

There's a local guy to me who would donate thousands every Christmas to children charitys and everyone thought he was great. He went to prison for raping a minor. 🤷 You can't tell. Most people use charity stuff to seem like great people but they arnt

She was dodgy as hell. Agree that she was never held to account.

Ffs there are some seriously nasty nasty posters out tonight!

SHE WAS CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES for goodness sake!!!

I hope @MNHQ takes this thread down

@carerneedshelp exactly @mnhq I think you need to look at some of these responses. The poor woman has just passed away.