Home Time

Last Update: 06 March 2008

 

HOME TIME - putting children in the frame

Leading children’s charity Barnardo’s and a host of well known faces have joined

forces with acclaimed photographer Cambridge Jones in a pioneering bid to

find permanent homes for the thousands of children awaiting adoption

across the UK.

 

Home Time – photography finding a home is an innovative and exciting

exhibition which highlights just some of the thousands of children in the

care system who have nowhere to call home.

 

Their stories are the focus of a new exhibition which opens at the Getty

Images Gallery in London on April 24. High profile names such as Cherie

Blair, Mario Testino, Gail Porter, Sam Taylor-Wood, Laura Bailey, Andrew

Lincoln, Claudia Winkleman and Sean Bean have so far offered to become

guest photographers for the day to get a snapshot of their lives.

 

Barnardo’s Honorary Vice-President Cherie Blair said: “ A loving home is

the most important factor in giving children the best possible start in life.

This is a very imaginative way of bringing individual children to the attention

of those who might be able to offer these kids the future they want. But it

will also importantly help raise the whole question of adoption and lead,

we hope, to thousands more people thinking whether it is an option for them”.

 

The children are seen as 'hard to place' because some are brothers and sisters

and need to stay together; others are older children, from black and minority

ethnic communities, over the age of eight or have disabilities.

 

The concept is based on the successful celebrity Heart Galleries discovered

by Cambridge while working in the US. Such is the success of the initiative,

that since its inception in one US state in 2001, images of children awaiting

adoption are now displayed in public spaces across 40 states every year.

 

Cambridge Jones, who was himself adopted at the age of two, said: “There

are thousands of children awaiting adoption in the UK and this is just a

small sample of the children who desperately need to find permanent families.

I wanted to capture this issue in a different way from the norm and to appeal

to people who may not have considered adoption to seriously do so.”

 

Martin Narey, Barnardo’s Chief Executive said: “This is a fabulous concept

with some beautiful shots which show the children in an innovative way. We

do hope that this project will get people talking about adoption, visiting the

gallery and making enquiries about adoption.”

 

The guest photographers who have agreed to participate are: Mario Testino,

Laura Bailey, Lulu Guinness, Sophie Raworth, Sam Taylor Wood, Dom Joly,

Sean Bean, Andrew Lincoln, Brian Belo, Bruce Oldfield, Cherie Blair, Claudia

Winkleman, Colin Salmon, Fraser James, Gail Porter, Jack Davenport, Josie

D'Arby, Stephen Mangan and Rageh Omar.

 

The exhibition will be shown at the Getty Images Gallery, 46 Eastcastle Street,

London W1W 8DX. Telephone 020 8291 5380, from April 24 until May 3.

 

The children featured in the exhibition are from the London Boroughs of

Newham and Camden.

 

Barnardo’s has 60 years experience as an adoption agency and works with

local authorities to place prospective parents with children awaiting adoption.

As of March 2007 there were 60,000 looked after children in the UK. More than

42,000 were in foster placements; 3,300 were adopted and more than 1,000

were still seeking homes. In most cases the local authority became involved

because of neglect or abuse.

 

For more information about adoption visit www.barnardos.org.uk

 

Barnardo’s works with approximately 115,000 children, young people and their

families in over 394 specialised projects in local communities across the UK.

This includes work with work with children affected by today’s most urgent

issues: poverty, homelessness, disability, bereavement and abuse.

 

Barnardo's believes in the potential in every child and young person, no matter who

they are, what they have done or what they have been through. They will

support them, stand up for them and bring out the best in each and every child.

 

 

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