footage of the City of Joy school; plus, a new Gardens of the World?

Thanks to Ankit's sharp eyes, we can now see video footage of the dedication of the first of many new Indian schools, paid for by Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's dress. It shows Dominique Lapierre and his wife arriving at the school, plus some children performing songs and dances to celebrate their new school. Dominique himself has a bit to say about Audrey, and the clip also shows the December 2006 auction of the dress in London, plus footage of the lovely Audrey herself in the iconic first scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can go here to view the video (try here or here if the first link doesn't work, since BBC is a little weird about linking to their videos).

The Telegraph from Calcutta, India has a wonderful article about the new school and the Lapierres' work for the children of India. I love the way the article opens, too:

In Sudan, they call a water pump Unicef. And courtesy Audrey Hepburn and her new huckleberry friend, villages in South 24-Parganas and the Sunderbans might soon start calling their primary schools by some other name — Dominique, perhaps.

I'm sorry if I'm boring anyone with this continued coverage of the school opening, but I personally think it's very big news and something Audrey herself would have pushed hard for if she was still here. It meant so much to her, therefore it's important to me.

Lastly, I came across an article today that really only mentions Audrey in passing, but it's still terribly interesting (especially if you're a flower nut, like me). It seems that Janis Blackschleger, who produced Gardens of the World and became quite chummy with Audrey, met up with an Englishman living in California and mentioned that she wanted to do an updated Gardens of the World series. I don't know if others feel the same way, but after watching the series recently myself, I really wished they would have kept making more episodes, even if it had to be without Audrey. It's really an engrossing series (though Audrey did accent the flowers rather nicely), and there are so many more lovely gardens yet to see, plus new flower hybrids being created every day. If you find this sort of thing interesting, you can read more about the new possible series here. Janis herself will be at the Philadelphia Flower Show on March 10 to talk about Irish gardens (what the article above is mostly about), if anyone is in the neighborhood and would like to pick her brain about working with Audrey. :)

"When you were with Audrey you felt prettier, better about yourself and your own possibilities."
-Janis Blackschleger

"She would have approved"

There's another fantastic article about the new City of Joy Aid school in India today from the Independent Online, which you can read here. I honestly think it's the best article yet on the subject. It has a glowing review of the school and the hope it will provide (along with future schools) for the children in the smaller villages of India, and also has great things to say about Audrey's own work with UNICEF during her last years. If it doesn't bring even a small tear to your eye, you may want to get your heart checked.

There's also news coverage from L.A.'s K-CAL 9 news, which you can see here. There's really nothing new in it, and it unfortunately doesn't have any footage of the dedication ceremony or any footage from India, but it's at least nice to see that the event is getting major media coverage (even if they can't pronounce Givenchy's name right).

And to continue with the Audrey Hepburn humanitarian vein, here is a clip of Audrey for an interview she did talking about her work with UNICEF, especially in Ethiopia: "UNICEF is giving them a spade, let us say, to dig their water wells. Let it not be to dig the graves for their children."

"Thank you Audrey Hepburn, we love you"

Last night I dreamed that I met Audrey Hepburn in a beautiful garden full of exotic flowers, and we talked about the flowers and saving money for the children. Today I wake up to find that the first of 15 planned schools for the City of Joy Aid has opened! If you remember from earlier news posts, the money from the Christie's auction of Audrey's Breakfast at Tiffany's dress raised enough money to build 15 schools for children in India who would otherwise never be schooled at all. The first school opened today in Keoradanga with City of Joy Aid founder Dominique Lapierre present, and will hold about 200 students. It was apparently a very sweet opening, with children singing a welcome song and Dominique offering a red rose to a picture of Audrey sporting the dress (below). You can read more about the school's opening here, and more about the Lapierre's school plans here. Long-term plans for the City of Joy Aid can be found here.










Audrey must be so proud.

Audrey Hepburn's little black dress does big things

On December 5, 2006, Audrey Hepburn's little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's sold for a record-breaking £467,200. The dress, one of three copies made by Givenchy for the film, was donated by Hubert de Givenchy himself to friend Dominique Lapierre, a French author who also runs City of Joy Aid with his wife. The proceeds from the sale -- the dress was bought by the house of Givenchy, now owned by LVMH -- were to go entirely to City of Joy, and already the results are showing themselves. 15 educational centers for children are set to be opened in India from this money, and one center in Lakshikautapur is currently being built. These centers are designed to teach children English when they would normally never see the inside of a school, and would instead be bullied into mob work. You can read more about the amazing Lapierres and their work here, and you can read a smaller article about other works City of Joy does here.