The five-day Charity Bazaar, which will begin on September 1, is part of the 2009 ‘Road to Awareness’, a fund-raising campaign done by Starwood
Hotels and Resorts for Unicef.
The hotel has invited 20 artists and craftsmen and women to participate in the bazaar, who will sell everything from hand-made jewellery to paintings, photographs, textiles, even home accessories.
Some of these items have been created specifically for Ramadan and Eid.
All the proceeds of the event will be donated to Unicef’s work with homeless children living and working on the streets of Cairo.
“Every year, as part of Starwood Hotels we organise a fund-raising event to help Unicef’s work with the children. Last year, we organised a biking competition in our health club to support a child-to-child radio project in Mozambique,” Jean Pierre Trabut, general manager of Meridien Hotel, told Khaleej Times.
According to Unicef, street children are one of the most vulnerable groups in the society because they are at high risk of violence, sexual abuse, substance abuse and health problems, and this project is addressing the needs of these children to be re-integrated into society. In 2001, NGOs estimated that between 600,000 and one million street children, with an average of 13 years of age, were living in the urban areas of Egypt.
The ‘Road to Awareness’ campaign started in May 2008, when the 12 Starwood representatives went on 450-km bike ride over the Ventoux Mountain in Provence, made famous by the Tour de France. Back then, they managed to raise Euro 250,000 for the child-to-child radio project in Mozambique.