John Bercow, MP for Buckingham and Speaker of the House, took time out from his busy schedule over the weekend to visit the Art Exhibition being held by Jenny and Ed Bullimore at 4 Whitecross Road, Haddenham.
As well as viewing the skilled artwork on display, our local MP also got to enjoy a free cup of tea – which he didn't have to order, order!
Jenny and Ed's FREE exhibition is part of the ongoing Bucks Open Studios initiative, and their studio is open 11am until 6pm every day 8th to 23rd June (closed on the 12th June). Ed specialises in stretched canvas photographs featuring subjects shown from unusual angles and in abstract forms, as well as more conventional land and seascapes. Jenny works in stoneware clay producing planters and sculpture for the garden, lamps and figurative pieces for inside the home. Monies raised by donations and sales of Jenny's work go to support a street children's charity in India
Everyone is welcome to visit. For more details, please see here
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More on Jenny's Fundraising:
SNEHA home for street children and the elderly, Bangalore, Southern India
Jenny writes:
The name of the charity is 'United Community Home for Orphans and Senior Citizens' but we call it 'Sneha' for short, meaning 'Friend' in Tamil. (Apparently, there are quite a lot of charities with the name Sneha which are unrelated).
The home was set up in 2000 for initially 10 boys and has now grown to include up to 40 children at any time. We currently have 30 children and 5 senior citizens and employ 3 staff members, who live in, to care for them. One, whose child is also a resident, was destitute – having been abandoned by her husband and therefore rejected by her family.
The children in the home are not all orphans but come from incredibly poor families who are unable to care for their children – similarly, the elderly, for whom there is no old age pension or welfare scheme and who are otherwise completely destitute with no family members to support them in their old age.
So far we have had 4 students attending college or university. The children may not necessarily stay until they leave school but may go back to their families if their situations improve – so we have a constant turnover of children. But all are given the chance of education, good food and a healthy start in life.
Background:
I became involved during a visit to their home in Bangalore in 1999. We are Hosts for the organization run through the universities to welcome overseas visitors to our home and give them a 'taste of England'. These students are mostly on a year's MA course, or sometimes on a PhD course, at universities in UK. We host students from all over the world and Mrs. Vasanthi Saduri and her husband Rev. J Saduri, who set up Sneha home, were some of our first guests. They have become lifelong friends, whom we visit often.
