J.K. Rowling
commented on her
Harry Potter success at the
Lumos fundraising event in London on Saturday, which
raised over £1 million towards the organisation fighting against institutionalized orphanages in Europe.
Among the items up for auction at the event, which took place at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London - The Making of Harry Potter, included a personalised ink and pencil drawing by Rowling of the Sorting Hat, an original sculpture by artist Anish Kapoor, and a trip to the opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Japan in 2014. Guests of the function, which included Harry Potter film alumni Emma Watson, Evanna Lynch, Warwick Davis and Alan Rickman, dined the Great Hall area near the entrance of the tour at Leavesden.
Quote:
J.K Rowling: As far back as 2000 I knew I would never top Harry Potter. I knew that before the series ended.
If you've had the kind of success that you never expected you can think 'oh no, how dreadful I'll never ever top that', or you can say 'how incredibly marvellous and liberating that I made money beyond my wildest dreams and that I can affect issues I really care about'.
There are eight million children globally being raised in institutions and everything we know about institutionalisation tells us it is harmful to children's physical and mental health," Rowling said.
Drug taking and suicide are more likely and a lot of these children may be trafficked or end up in the sex trade. To take a child from their family we know must be damaging, it's the worst thing you can do to a child."
These themes are in the Harry Potter books. Voldemort was himself raised in an institution so, spookily, it was something I was very much thinking about.
"But we've started where the situation is particularly acute in Eastern Europe where there has been a cultural acceptance of institutionalisation that thankfully in the UK we've really overcome.
Of
Lumos and its work over the past eight years, Rowling had this to say during the event:
Quote:
Rowling: Since setting up the charity eight years ago to help change the lives of so many children living unnecessarily in appalling institutions across the world, Lumos has already helped governments to take nearly 12,000 children out of these institutions.
We have prevented the deaths of more than 400 extremely vulnerable children with disabilities, who were not receiving the care they needed in institutions.
We have helped the EU change its rules on how it uses money to reform health, education and social services - and we are just beginning.
There is so much more we need to do to bring an end to the institutionalisation of children.
The incredible support we have received tonight will directly go towards helping achieve all this.