By Colin Walker, ECPAT UK deputy director

It’s now only two months until the Row for Freedom team set off on their epic adventure across the Atlantic to raise awareness of the trafficking of children, as well as £1 million to support the work of ECPAT UK and the A21 Campaign.

Not only are the women frantically working to get themselves in shape for the gruelling 3,000-mile journey, they’re also doing some amazing work in raising the profile of their adventure and some much-needed funds. 

On 11 October, they helped to organise Art 4 Freedom - a rather swanky event in a theatre off the Portobello Road in Notting Hill, at which the works of some prominent artists were auctioned off to raise money for the two charities.

Hosted by Charlotte Jackson and Simon Thomas from Spy Sports News (below, far left and second from right), it gave the team members (below: second from left, Katie Pattison-Hart; centre, Debbie Beadle and Helen Leigh) an opportunity to talk about what they’re doing, and their passion for the issues involved.

It also enabled some fairly sizeable bids to be tabled for a number of items, included a specially produced work by the former England cricket captain, Michael Vaughan (left). Unsurprisingly, the technique he used involved throwing paint-covered cricket balls at a canvas! His piece donated for Row for Freedom fetched about £2000, taking the total raised on the night to in the region of a whopping £20,000.

Sports memorbilia was also on offer, including a signed lycra top from Olympian Dame Kelly Holmes, a signed top by F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, signed boxing gloves from Amir Khan and a signed shirts from cricketers Freddie Flintoff  and James Anderson (see left).


As you can see from the photos (kindly taken by photographer Deborah Paul), it was a great event. But, more importantly, it was yet another small step towards achieving the Row for Freedom team’s mission: to raise awareness of human trafficking and, more specifically, to encourage the UK Government to provide safe accommodation and guardianship to child victims of trafficking.

(l-r, ECPAT UK director Christine Beddoe, Row for Freedom team member Julia Immonen, the A21 Campaign's Beth Redman and ECPAT UK's Youth Coordinator and Row for Freedom team member Debbie Beadle)  




For more of Deborah Paul's pictures of the Art 4 Freedom event, click here.