I’m victimised for being a woman, says Kids Company founder Camila

Camila Batmanghelidjh at Kids Co head office in Southwark
Alex Lentati

The founder of Kids Company today claimed she was the victim of “prejudice” and had been wrongly accused of financial mismanagement because she wore a dress and didn’t carry a briefcase.

Camila Batmanghelidjh said the charity had collapsed because it was unable to cope with the number of desperate children seeking help — not because it couldn’t run its affairs.

She added: “Because I don’t wear a suit and because I don’t carry a briefcase and I have not bought into the corporate package, and essentially because I’m a woman and I work with children, people assume I don’t understand finances and can’t organise systems.” In a robust defence of the charity’s record, she told LBC that she and colleagues had raised £163.4 million in its 19 years. About £37 million of this came from the Government.

She spoke out as Kids Company was today facing new allegations of teenage girls being coerced into sex with older male clients. In addition, a former client of Kids Company said she was “touched inappropriately” by a 24-year-old man who was also receiving help from Kids Company. Other allegations emerged of violent attacks with a snooker ball and the smoking of “skunk” cannabis.

"Because I’m a woman and I work with children, people assume I don’t understand finances"

&#13; <p>Camila Batmanghelidjh</p>&#13;

Ms Batmanghelidjh insisted the alleged sexual assaults didn’t take place on Kids Company premises, and the claims had been brought to the charity’s notice for the first time by police only recently.

The charity was forced to close on Wednesday after a £3 million bail-out from the Government was withdrawn.Today an emotional Ms Batmanghelidjh said for years it had desperately tried to secure sponsorship to support children walking in off the street for help. She said it had become a victim of its own success as demand increased but it had virtually run out of corporate donors.

“We couldn’t get the cases we had into social services or children’s mental health because locally these agencies were not coping,” she said. “We were holding too many serious cases. We kept going back to central government, saying we shouldn’t be having kids who are jumping off bridges, who are cutting themselves.” Asked if she should take the blame, Ms Batmanghelidjh said: “I think I absolutely fell short in being able to raise the right amount of money.”

She said her biggest concern now was children who “haven’t enough to eat next week”, as Kids Company staff praised her for her “strength and dignity”.

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