As you know I support a number of charities, many of them in South Africa. Off The Street Kids (OTSK) is the most recent addition and one that I co-founded.

OTSK is now up and running in Cape Town providing mentors and life skills workshops to youth preparing to leave residential care, and to those who have recently left care.

OTSK also offers assistance with finding a safe and stable place to live, further skills training, help finding work, and basically everything else most of us got from our parents when we were leaving home. OTSK simply acts as a substitute parent to these young people.

Most of the youth supported by OTSK have lived on the streets at some point, moved into a children’s home, and then have had to leave the home without much support or guidance in what to do next. Many have backgrounds that include abuse, drug addicted parents or parents who abandoned them, and drug and crime issues of their own. The luckiest of them grew up in the townships with one parent, if that can give you some perspective.

OTSK is still running its pilot and needs help with operating costs. My question is, would any of you wonderful people be interested in making monthly automated donations towards the running costs? The knowledge that these costs (approximately $1800) are partially or indeed fully covered every month would relieve a huge amount of pressure and stress and allow the pilot to keep running, the charity to grow, and the goal for supporting the youth in their transition, to be reached.

Whether you can afford $2, $20 or $200 each month, every single donation will make a difference! And OTSK will be able to continue to carry out this essential work to help these young people stay off the streets, stay out of prison, and ultimately get on their feet.

OTSK will be posting regular blogs on the website so you will be able to see first hand how your money is impacting the lives of the youth we work with.

I will personally send a signed photograph to anyone who commits to a monthly donation of $20 and over for a minimum of six months, so please ensure you give your full contact details when you sign up.

You can set up a regular payment plan via OTSK’s website: www.offthestreetkids.org and if you would like any further information about raising funds for OTSK contact: fundraising@offthestreetkids.org

Gillian.

NOTE: Donation Clarification

BBC News
Monday, 11 May 2009

From Bleak House to Doll's House

She shot to fame in the sci-fi drama series The X Files back in 1993. Gillian Anderson won countless awards for her portrayal of Agent Dana Scully but more recently she has starred in the BBC's adaptation of Charles Dickens' Bleak House and now she's staring in another classic on stage in Ibsen's A Doll's House at the Donmar Warehouse (14 May - 18 July 2009).

Watch the video.

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Edinburgh International Film Festival

British Gala / World Premiere
Boogie Woogie
Duncan Ward / UK / 2009 / 90 mins

Gillian Anderson, Alan Cumming, Heather Graham, Danny Huston, Jack Huston, Christopher Lee, Joanna Lumley, Simon McBurney, Meredith Ostrom, Charlotte Rampling, Amanda Seyfried, Stellan Skarsgård, Jaime Winstone

A savage, sexy art world satire, with an all-star cast.

Book Tickets:

26 June, 19:30 at Cameo 1
Tickets available 8 May
£8.50/£7.50

27 June, 15:45 at Cameo 1
Tickets available 8 May
£8.50/£7.50

NEW: May 23, 2009 article in The Times, UK: Damien Hirst turns to film with the art satire Boogie Woogie

From Telegraph, UK:

You would not guess she was a 40 year-old with three children, the youngest six months old. And yet she says other mothers in the park aren’t intimidated by her appearance so much as appalled at how scruffy she is. 'They look at me like, "Doesn’t she have mirrors in her house?"' Yeah, right. I should say something about her work, too, or rather her reinvention from the glamorous star of a hugely popular and long-running TV show about alien abduction to a highly respected stage and film actress. Although she returned to TV for her Bafta-nominated performance in the BBC’s Bleak House (and, if the rumours are true, will do so again as a villain in Doctor Who*), she has also been discriminating in her choice of film roles, favouring the intelligent and stylish, such as A Cock and Bull Story and The Last King of Scotland, over the commercial (even if she did manage to slip in an X-Files movie last year).

*NOTE: False - Gillian has NO plans to appear in Dr. Who.

Read the whole interview.