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Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

Camila Batmanghelidjh

Desert Island Discs: Archive 2005-2010

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4804 Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2006

⏱️ 38 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the children's campaigner Camila Batmanghelidjh. Camila Batmanghelidjh has devoted her life to the kind of children most people would cross the street to avoid - youngsters who are often violent, don't go to school and who are unfamiliar with a stable family life. More than a decade ago she took over a run of disused railway arches in South London to set up a centre offering food, advice, education and counselling. Now her outreach projects serve more than 11,000 children each year and, such is her success, she's feted by celebrities and courted by politicians.

The product of a wealthy Iranian family herself, she decided early on that her vocation lay in working with children and that this was a task she could not combine with motherhood. Last week she was named Woman of the Year in recognition of her ground-breaking work.

[Taken from the original programme material for this archive edition of Desert Island Discs]

Favourite track: Redemption Song by Bob Marley Book: Being and Nothingness by Jean Paul Sartre Luxury: A yoyo

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.

0:05.4

My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.

0:10.7

The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.

0:17.4

With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to helping

0:22.7

you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put together

0:28.7

by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,

0:34.9

check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young, and this is a podcast from the Desert Island Discs Archive.

0:41.8

For rights reasons, we've had to shorten the music.

0:45.0

The program was originally broadcast in 2006.

1:10.6

Music My castaway this week has dedicated her life to the children that most of us would cross the street to avoid. She is

1:11.6

Camilla Batman Gellage. The children she works with are the stuff of newspaper headlines, feral

1:17.5

teenagers who don't go to school, run drugs, and don't know a stable family life. The product of

1:24.4

a privileged background herself, she decided early on to set aside her own thoughts of motherhood

1:29.3

and devote her life to those she calls urban child warriors.

1:34.1

Today, the project she set up in disused railway arches in South London has spread to help around 11,000 young people every year.

1:43.4

Such is her notoriety that she's fettered by celebrities,

1:46.8

courted by politicians, and visited by Prince Charles, who was reputedly moved to tears by what he

1:52.5

saw. Camilla, let's be clear, the people who are actively welcomed through your doors are the ones

1:58.9

that most of us would be terrified of even encountering?

2:01.8

Yes, possibly, because I think they can be quite frightening, they can be quite dangerous, they can harm people.

2:10.0

You know, I can understand why people would be frightened of them.

2:13.7

I love those children very much, but I'm fully aware of the fact that when they first arrive, they can be very dangerous.

...

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