For many theatrical seasons, Broadway shows originating overseas or with foreign-born actors in their casts have participated generously in BC/EFA’s six weeks of audience appeals prior to the Gypsy of the Year and Easter Bonnet competitions.
In appreciation of their enthusiastic efforts, BC/EFA grants a portion of the funds raised by these companies to AIDS service organizations in their native countries. These foreign charities are chosen and introduced to BC/EFA by the company members involved. Once their charitable status has been officially established by BC/EFA, a grant in the name of the company is wired overseas.
In Fiscal Year 2007, BC/EFA made international grants totaling $455,000 to AIDS Service Organizations in Canada, England, Australia, and South Africa. (For details, see box below).
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South Africa / THE LION KING
Crusaid / Theatrecares - London, England
Health Inititiatives – London, England
Oz Showbiz Cares - Sydney, Australia |
$341,000
$10,000
$40,000
$10,000 |
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The first of our international grants was a $5,000 donation made by BC/EFA to West End Cares (renamed TheatreMAD in 2008), our sister theatre-based AIDS fundraising organization in London, in honor of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that participated in the 1996 Easter Bonnet Competition.
Many English actors in numerous Broadway productions – including Dame Judi Dench, Petula Clark, Alan Cumming and Natasha Richardson, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Elaine Paige and Anthony Sher, as well as entire companies from the West End playing in New York City, including Closer, An Ideal Husband, Art and Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake and Play Without Words have been a part of BC/EFA’s fundraising efforts since then. BC/EFA is especially grateful for the on-going support of producer of Cameron Mackintosh.
Most recent grants have honored Sir Ian McKellen and the casts of The Royal Shakespeare Company’s productions of King Lear and The Seagull; Vanessa Redgrave (The Year of Magical Thinking); Hugh Dancy (Journey’s End) and Gavin Lee, Jane Carr and Anthony Lyn (Mary Poppins). Grants to other foreign organizations have been made in the honor of Louise Pitre and the cast of Mamma Mia!; Hugh Jackman and The Boy from Oz cast, as well as the casts of La Boheme, Bombay Dreams and other shows.
However, the vast majority of grant money distributed through BCEFA’s International Grants Program has been to South African AIDS service organizations in appreciation for the efforts of the South African members of the Broadway and touring productions of The Lion King.
Since 1998, BC/EFA has sent over $2.2 million to 34 South African AIDS service providers in honor of and identified by the South African actors in the Broadway and two national touring companies of The Lion King. As the AIDS pandemic continues to devastate this region, funding for South African ASOs will remain funding priority for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
| AGAPE CHILD CARE CENTER |
LINKHILL SA |
$5,000.00 |
| ARTISTS FOR A NEW SOUTH AFRICA |
LOS ANGELES, CA |
$10,000.00 |
| BUCA PROJECT |
MMABATHO SA |
$20,000.00 |
| BUMBANANI CRECHE |
GREYTOWN SA |
$25,000.00 |
| CHRIST THE KING CHURCH |
PROMENADE SA |
$1,000.00 |
| ETHEMBENI COMMUNITY CENTER |
SPRINGS S A |
$20,000.00 |
| KWA THEMA ADVENTIST CHURCH |
SPRINGS SA |
$10,000.00 |
| LESEDI LA DAVEYTON |
DAVEYTON SA |
$30,000.00 |
| MOLEMONG CLUB |
DURBAN SA |
$5,000.00 |
| NKOSI'S HAVEN |
JOHANNESBURG SA |
$25,000.00 |
| NOKUPHILA DAY CARE |
SPRINGS SA |
$15,000.00 |
| SIBIYISIWE ORGANIZATION |
SPRINGS SA |
$25,000.00 |
| SIYAPHAMBILI ORPHAN VILLAGE |
LANGA SA |
$5,000.00 |
| ST. MARTIN DE PORRES |
BRAKPAN SA |
$20,000.00 |
| THE DARLING TRUST |
CAPETOWN SA |
$20,000.00 |
| THE MAJEKE COMMUNITY CENTER |
SPRINGS SA |
$25,000.00 |
| THUSANANG SERVICES |
BRAKPAN SA |
$20,000.00 |
| TREATMENT ACTION CAMPAIGN |
JOHANNESBURG SA |
$40,000.00 |
| UBUNTU EDUCATION FUND |
NEW YORK NY |
$20,000.00 |
| WOLA NANI |
CAPETOWN SA |
$10,000.00 |
| THEMBELETHU BEADERS |
JOHANNESBURG SA |
$94,000.00 |
"Warm Greetings to our friends at Broadway Cares:
Thank you for the funds that we received at Ethembeni Community Services on February 27th. We wish that we could thank you in a special way. These funds have played a very important role in the lives of so many South African people infected and affected by AIDS. One way or another that is nearly all of us.
We thought you would want to know that with your donation we managed to pay for following: Office rent - R12,000; Telephone - R3,000; Furniture - R5,000 and Office supplies - R, 2,500. We owed these expenditures for a long time and it was very good to afford paying them. We nearly lost our office from which we do all our work.
Your funds also helped us buy and distribute nappies to more than 2,000 babies, most HIV infected and from very poor families or orphans. We have also been able to give food parcels to many too sick to work.
Please keep up the good work at Broadway Cares. It goes so far here and helps us to produce a healthy nation."
Thanking you,
Joshua Twala Tshepile Ramaota
Director Administrator
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| BC/EFA note: Ethembeni Community Center was founded in an abandoned farm house before moving to its current home in the Amangwe Village in South Africa's northern province of KwaZulu Natal on the Indian Ocean. In February 2007, BC/EFA wired $10,000 to Ethembeni which equaled R71,395 (South African "Rand"). |
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