Incredible Offers No. 2

My very good friend Aaref - a successful architect here - has offered the use of his ubercool urban pad as a venue for a dinner party in April, where we will play as BlueNote. He will invite 60 contacts and associates, charge them £10 per ticket, pay for all the food himself as a personal donation, and contribute the entire proceeds to our appeal. This is the sort of immense gesture which is coming to characterise this campaign, even in these early days. I wish to record here my personal gratitude to Aaref for this amazing contribution to the appeal.

An incredible offer

Met our Hostel Appeal photographer, the excellent Snigdha Zaman, at the Ikon Photo Agency for a photo session to launch our new musical venture (more on that later). She brought her friend and boss Ron along, to help with the setting up. While in the car driving to our session location I outlined to him how we came to be involved with Madhabi and BNWLA. On the spot he offered to hold an exhibition in the autumn from Ikon. Each of his associates would contribute up to 2 prints - we'd sell them at a gallery in the heart of upmarket Dhaka and keep ALL the takings. As they'd go for approx Tk 5000 (£40) each we could be talking about well over a thousand pounds from one exhibition. Is that amazing or what? It's the kind of gesture that makes me believe in humanity again.

We downloaded all the shots Snigdha took at the hostel. They are out of this world - simply breathtaking, full of compassion and dignity. I'll be uploading at least 50 of them to my own blog this week and urging you all to look at them.