Excerpted from www.vogue.co.uk.
Through an inspiring partnership devoted to raising awareness about the perils of deforestation – and generating funds to aid work on the ground – Annabel’s and The Caring Family Foundation are the UK’s largest donor to reforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Here, discover the impressive roster of events and initiatives that have marked this year’s Annabel’s For The Amazon Campaign.
It is when we work together that we are able to bring about real change in the world, a truth at the very heart of the Annabel’s For The Amazon Campaign. An initiative created in partnership with The Caring Family Foundation (TCFF), Annabel’s For The Amazon is all about raising awareness of the TCFF and the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest, as well as generating funds to enable TCFF’s crucial work on the ground with local communities. To that end, September has played host to an entire programme of events and initiatives designed to advance the foundation’s important mission.
Founded by Patricia Caring, co-chairwoman of The Birley Clubs, and her husband, businessman Richard Caring, TCFF self-funds projects in the UK and Patricia’s birthplace of Brazil, using strategic partnerships and collaborations to make a meaningful difference in the world. The Caring Family Foundation’s vision is “a world free from hunger, harm and hurt, where women and children can thrive”, built around three areas of impact: environmental reforestation, child hunger and domestic abuse. Its mission is to provide practical support in each of these areas, ensuring every child has access to nutritious food, every woman is free to make her own choices without violence, and to support rainforest communities to ensure they’re able to flourish alongside nature.
In fact, Annabel’s and TCFF are now the UK’s largest donor to reforestation in the Brazilian Amazon, well on track to meeting their pledge of planting one million trees in Brazil’s rainforests by the end of 2022. This year, Annabel’s and TCFF have pledged a further one million trees to be planted by March 2024 via a partnership with environmentally focused non-profit charity SOS Amazonia. The partnership has seen 300 jobs created, helping to protect the livelihoods of local families and indigenous communities, and increasing biodiversity across the forests.
Among September’s initiatives to raise awareness for the TCFF is the Annabel’s For The Amazon Façade, created in partnership with The Lost Explorer Mezcal and designed by The Birley Clubs creative director Tatiana Kharchylava. A spectacular and innovative installation, the stunning display features pouncing jaguars, flowing waterfalls and unfurling greenery, educating passersby about the importance of Amazon conservation efforts, and unveiled on 5 September to celebrate World Amazon Day. The partnership with The Lost Explorer Mezcal has also seen the launch of 1,000 limited-edition gift bottles of the award-winning premium spirit, with the proceeds from each bottle planting 35 trees. There’s also the interactive art installation Unseen – a celebration of undiscovered butterfly species created by digital artist Dominic Harris, and taking centre stage in Annabel’s reception space for the entire month.
Other activities throughout the month so far have included a Bossa Nova night, an audience with Brazilian photographer and activist Sebastião Salgado, and Annabel’s Kids Club events including an educational journey through the history of the Amazon Rainforest and a kids’ jungle party. A talk on how to fashion a greener future for the clothing industry brought together industry insiders from the likes of British Vogue, fashion brand Reformation, and the Fashion Revolution Brazil Institute, highlighting the sustainability issues facing the fashion industry.
And then, of course, 22 September saw the glittering Annabel’s For The Amazon annual charity gala, an event which brings together Annabel’s members, international guests of note and key environmentalists in a concerted philanthropic drive and fundraising event to help save the Amazon rainforest. Because a greener future is a better future, for everyone.
Read the article on vogue.co.uk HERE.