This coming Friday professional boxer Marianne Marston will be taking a day off from the training camp for her upcoming 25th October title fight, in order to take part in a project by Philanthropic artist Clare Newton for the Street Child Charity, that will raise much needed funds for Children in Sierra Leone and Liberia who are suffering due to the Ebola epidemic.
Clare previously photographed Marianne as part of her record breaking ‘Jump4London’ photographic project to celebrate the then impending London 2012 Olympics.
The Jump4London entered the record books as the biggest photo in the world following the installation of the largest, over a kilometer in length, composite photograph exhibition, consisting of 81,663 photographs, that was unveiled at the ExCel Arena on 1st June 2012.
Marianne clearly had an impact on Clare, as it was she that the Hackney based artist visualized as the Goddess Of Spring for her latest project, a giant montage, around fifty feet in height, which will feature Marianne and children from the Sarah Bonnell School in Stratford.
The giant image will then be auctioned at a Charity Gala event in November and the monies raised will provide the Street Child Charity with much need funding that will help children in Sierra Leone and Liberia who are suffering due to the outbreak of Ebola in those countries.
Following a training session, under the watchful eyes of her coach Brian O’Shaughnessy, at the TRAD TKO Gym in Canning Town, Marianne spoke of the upcoming photographic project she is to feature in.
“When I first got the call from Clare I was more than a bit hesitant, I mean I’m in the final weeks of my training camp for my title fight on October 25th, but after she explained that this was for the Street Children charity I jumped at the opportunity.
Hopefully this project will raise a large amount of money for the Street Child Charity, It’s a truly worthwhile charity that does wonderful work around the World helping children in need.
Children are the future, if there is any way we can help prevent suffering and unnecessary early mortality of young children we, all of us, should do something to help, so I am.
Holding a BSc (Hon) in Micro Biology I am aware of the levels of research, as well as the funding levels that are required to undertake the necessary research into the Ebola virus.
Companies like America’s GeoVax Laboratories are already working on two vaccines, but this research will take a couple of years at least and unless there is enough funding even longer.
GeoVax are developing a vaccine against the ZEBOV strain of Ebola, which is responsible for the current outbreak, as well as another is being developed as a future routine immunisation to protect against the three known fatal strains of Ebola.
Hopefully Clare’s latest project will go some way to helping the Street Child Charity as well as raise awareness of the need to make enough funding available to companies like GeoVax.”
For further information on Marianne ‘ Golden Girl’ Marston, or for updates and schedule please go to: Web: www.mariannemarston.com - Twitter: @MarianneMarston and Facebook: www.facebook.com/marianne.
ABOUT STREET CHILD
Street Child is a UK charity, established in 2008, that aims to create educational opportunity for some of the most vulnerable children in West Africa.
Starting in Sierra Leone, then the poorest country in the world, Street Child have supported over 20,000 urban and rural children to access a quality education.
Street Child’s principal focus is upon empowering children by giving them the chance to go to school and giving their families the wherewithal to keep them there.
There have already been thousands of cases of Ebola in Sierra Leone and Liberia, the two principal nations in which we work.
The governments of both nations have declared a State of National Emergency and are working towards containing the spread the disease within what is already a low capacity and culturally complex environment; their efforts are increasingly in desperate need of support.
Street Child’s actions have two key strands:
1. Humanitarian Response
Street Child are supporting the day-to-day, essential human needs of individuals and households whose lives and livelihoods have been terribly affected: either by Ebola itself; or by the effect of dramatic quarantine and other anti-Ebola measures and consequences. Typical support is through provisions as basic as dry rations and water.
The help that government and other international organisations and charities are providing is simply not enough to help all those that need it. The additional help Street Child provides is a vital lifeline for those receiving it.
2. Raising Awareness
Ebola is entering and progressing in vulnerable communities through lack of information and non-acceptance of the basic facts about the virus and how to protect oneself from it. There is an urgent need for these vital messages to be spread.
In Sierra Leone, Street Child has a unique national presence, with active teams in nearly every major town as well as in many of the most remote parts of the country.
This broad network gives Street Child the opportunity to reach, with the vital messages needed, many disparate high risk communities.
In Liberia, Street Child presence in West Point, one of the most affected parts of the capital, and in other parts of Monrovia, also provides a real opportunity to support the national awareness-raising effort.
As well as key information and advice on basic hygiene practices, Street Child is providing buckets, soap and chlorine to actually enable communities to take positive steps to increase hygiene and reduce prospects for the spread of the virus in their area.
Whilst the Street Child ongoing efforts are already helping to raise awareness in vulnerable areas, there is vital need across the board for this activity not to just to continue but to be scaled urgently; Street Child believe this is one of the keys to containing the spread of Ebola.
Street Child Ebola Appeal
To donate to the Street Child Ebola Appeal please go tohttp://www.street-child.co.uk
