Kids Company founder Camila Batmanghelidjh dies

Kids Company charity founder and social justice campaigner Camila Batmanghelidjh has died aged 61.

The Iranian-Belgian started the charity in 1996 in south London, to provide support to up to 36,000 deprived and vulnerable inner-city children and young people.

She died on Monday - her birthday - having been ill for some time.

Ms Batmanghelidjh is said to have spent her last Christmas at home wrapping presents for vulnerable children.

A family statement shared with the Guardian newspaper said she died "peacefully in her sleep" on the night of 1 January, after celebrating her birthday with loved ones.

It described her as an "endless source of inspiration" who "dedicated her life to advocating for Britain's most vulnerable children".

The statement said: "For all those around her, and especially for her family, she was an endless source of inspiration, a fountain of wit, and a kaleidoscope of colour."

Born into a wealthy family in Iran, Ms Batmanghelidjh arrived in England aged 12, speaking little English, and went on to gain a first-class degree from the University of Warwick.

She was educated at the the private Sherborne Girls school in Dorset and was there when the Iranian revolution broke out and her father was captured. She says he was presumed dead for three years, before they were eventually reunited - something which had a profound effect on her family. He died in 2006.

In a 2014 interview, she said she had been born prematurely and it was thought that she would die. As a result of this, her birth had not been registered.

"I don't know my birthday. My mother can't remember," she said.

After training as a psychotherapist, she founded Kids Company in 1996 and was its chief executive for 19 years.

She traced its origins back to a desire she had at the age of nine to open an orphanage.

The charity sought to provide support to deprived children from low-income families, and grew from a drop-in centre in south London to 11 centres across the capital, and also in Bristol and Liverpool.

Ms Batmanghelidjh was appointed CBE and listed among the UK's most powerful women by BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour in 2013.

Known for her colourful dress sense, at the height of her fame she rubbed shoulders with politicians, being sought out by Labour and Conservative governments, and had celebrity supporters.

Former prime minister David Cameron, Coldplay, artist Damien Hirst and comedian Michael McIntyre were among the charity's well-known backers.

In 2015, Ms Batmanghelidjh stepped down after Kids Company ran into financial difficulties. The charity shut down in August that year, after the Metropolitan Police launched an investigation into sexual assault allegations, following the broadcast of a BBC Newsnight report.

And in 2021, Ms Batmanghelidjh and six others won their High Court battle against disqualification from being directors of other organisations.

At the time, the judge said that had it not been for the allegations of criminality the charity may have survived.

A year ago she won the right to take a legal appeal against the judgement, but ill health meant she was unable to do so.

Former BBC creative director Alan Yentob, who served as chairman of Kids Company, described Ms Batmanghelidjh as an "extraordinary woman" and said everyone who had worked with her was "devastated by her death.

Mr Yentob, who stepped down from his senior management role at the BBC in 2015 over coverage of the Kids Company scandal, said the work done by the charity had been "totally innovative".

"The work on transforming the lives of young people - it wasn't a box ticking exercise," he said.

Veteran Labour MP Harriet Harman was amongst those to pay tribute to Ms Batmanghelidjh, writing: "Such a sad loss. So many children and young people benefitted from her big heart."

The Baptist minister, television presenter and founder of Oasis Charitable Trust, Steve Chalke, said he would "forever be grateful" to Ms Batmanghelidjh "for her wisdom and depth of love for children".

He added that he was equally grateful for "all she contributed to my understanding as well as to Oasis since 2015 and the untimely, unjust closure of Kids Company."

The charity Brixton Soup Kitchen said she had "donated over 100 Christmas gifts last week to less fortunate kids".