News

November 2024 – Ceremonial Handover of Donations at the Anglo-German Club

As part of British Flair 2024, Friends of Britain e.V. successfully raised a total of 14,000 euros in donations to support charitable projects in and around Hamburg. The majority of the funds were allocated to Familienhafen, an outpatient children’s hospice service.

At a festive reception held at the Anglo-German Club on 27 November 2024, Iris Nurkovic accepted a cheque for 8,000 euros on behalf of the hospice service in Hamburg-Altona. Additional proceeds were distributed to the following organisations: Klinik-Clowns Hamburg e.V., the John Grube Foundation, Stiftung Kinderjahre, Stiftung Phönikks, and the Anglican Church of St Thomas à Becket.

This year’s donations were made possible not only through our annual tombola but also through other popular charitable activities at British Flair, including Welly Wanging and the Classic Cars display. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all donors, volunteers, and supporters whose enthusiastic efforts made this achievement possible.

From left to right:
Wendy Sprock (1st Chairwoman Friends of Britain e.V.) and Iris Nurkovic (Spokesperson Familienhafen)
Photo: Kai Pawlowski

April 2023 – Familienhafen is the main charity for British Flair 2024

The decision has been made: The proceeds from the British Flair raffle in September 2024 will go to the outpatient children's hospice service "Familienhafen".

Since 2009, Familienhafen has been supporting parents and siblings of seriously ill children in the greater Hamburg area - until death and beyond. The work of the volunteer guides includes psychosocial relief and support for the affected families and is tailored to their individual needs. Tasks include accompanying seriously ill children, playing and organising activities with siblings and talking to the family. Before starting their work, the volunteer guides receive 120 hours of training in which they are thoroughly prepared for their family assignments. This includes dealing with the topics of dying, death, grief, forms of communication and children's hospice work. The association was presented by Iris Nurkovic and Tanja Petrowski, a freelance grief counsellor who is herself an affected mother.

Around 40 members and friends of Friends of Britain e.V. took part in the democratic election at the Hamburg Polo Club on 22 April 2024. The decision was anything but easy, as the following charities stood for election alongside Familienhafen:

The John Grube Foundation supports people affected by the disease granulomatosis with polyangiitis (also known as Wegener's disease). John Grube, who gave the foundation its name, died of the rare disease in 2017 at the age of 18, which is why family members and friends founded the organisation. One of them is Mina Aries, who introduced the organisation during the charity vote. The John Grube Foundation aims to improve the information available to affected patients and relatives and to promote research into this rare disease.

The Kinderjahre Foundation has been campaigning for equal opportunities for children and young people in Hamburg's problem neighbourhoods. Founder Hannelore Lay told the audience with great enthusiasm about the numerous Kinderjahre projects. These include, for example, a project to create school gardens, a project to promote reading skills and a project to organise a "Schnippeldisko" (engl.: “Chopping Disco”), a cooking course in which children learn about regional vegetables and are made aware of food waste.

The Phönikks Foundation, presented by Dr. Niklas Mirbach, is a psychosocial counselling centre for families affected by cancer. The free counselling, provided by a qualified team of professionals, is aimed at the whole family and can take place in different constellations according to need. Topics include coping with the disease together, improving communication within the family and dealing with the children.

We would like to thank the associations for their overwhelming commitment and the trust they placed in us during the charity selection process. The experience of previous elections has shown that there are no losers with us. We hope that the organisations that were not selected can be supported in other ways.

November 2023 - Friends of Britain e.V. hands over 17,000 EUR in donations

At a celebratory cocktail reception at the Anglo-German Club Hamburg, Friends of Britain e.V. presented donations amounting to 17,000 EUR to charitable projects in and around Hamburg. The majority of the proceeds went to the NCL-Stiftung and were accepted by Dr Frank Stehr. With the donations of 10,000 EUR, the foundation aims to support young scientists in their research into the fatal illness childhood dementia NCL. In addition to the main recipient, Yoga für alle e.V., Zeit für Zukunft, the Anglican Church of St Thomas à Becket and Klinik-Clowns Hamburg e.V. will also be supported with the donations.

The proceeds came from the British Flair raffle and other fundraising activities organised by the Caledonian Society Hamburg, Classic Cars, Klinik-Clowns, and the LIONS Clubs Klövensteen and Altona. We would like to sincerely thank all the generous donors, volunteers and supporters who made this possible. Special thanks go to the host of the donation evening, the Anglo-German Club.

From left to right:
Dr. Frank Stehr (Chairman NCL-Stiftung),
Linda Struck (2nd Chairwoman Friends of Britain e.V.),
Wendy Sprock (1st Chairwoman Friends of Britain e.V.)
Photo: Julia Behre

April 2023 - NCL Foundation chosen as Friends of Britain charity for British Flair 2023!

The NCL Foundation will be the main charity for British Flair 2023 at Gut Basthorst. This was the result of this year's charity election by Friends of Britain e.V. on 4.4.23 in the Clubhouse of the Grossflottbeker Tennis-, Hockey- und Golf-Club e.V.

The NCL Foundation is committed to national and international research funding for the rare disease NCL - also known as "Child Dementia" - in order to give affected children a prospect of previously lacking therapy and cures.

At our charity election, the foundation was represented by board member Dr. Frank Stehr, who explained to us the work of the Foundation, under the sub-title of “A Future without Child Dementia” and described the dreadful symptoms a small child with NCL has to endure. The NCL Foundation will use future donations to fund a Young Investor Symposium for international networking of young scientists.

Dr. Frank Stehr, who has been in contact with Friends of Britain for many years, was very pleased indeed about the result and is looking forward very much to working with us at British Flair. The NCL Foundation will be able to have a free information stand at British Flair and, together with their keen team of helpers, will support us in selling tombola tickets at the same time. The foundation will also receive a substantial share of the tombola proceeds.

Besides the NCL Foundation, the following charities presented themselves for the election:

The association "Schachfreunde Wilstermarsch & Itzehoe e.V." trains children from varying backgrounds including immigrants and handicapped children to play chess and thus enhance their chances of social integration. Liana Nasarian presented the work of the society and the fact that they enable children to have access to chess and also take part in national chess tournaments.

The association "Yoga für alle e.V." presented by Cornelia Brammen, Chairperson wants to make yoga accessible to all people who would otherwise not have access to it. With their program "Yogahilft" they particularly want to reach children from difficult social environments. In particular, yoga can help refugee children and traumatized children to relax and enjoy the silence of special yoga rooms. Their work is mainly based on “PrÄViG” - a preventive system i.e. to prevent young people developing social and psychological disorders.

Finally, the association "Zeit für Zukunft - Mentoren für Kinder e.V.” was presented by Matthias Goecke. He explained how "tandems" are formed, i.e. one adult mentor and one child or adolescent who needs to overcome social, cultural or family obstacles are brought together. The mentor spends time with the child, encouraging him or her to experience pleasant things, and also giving individual support where needed. The association would appreciate donations to organize a Summer Festivity with the mentors, children and their families in summer 2023 on the occasion of their 10th Jubilee.

There are no losers with us. We make sure that the three societies that have not been chosen will benefit in another way and through other events.

Photos: Kai Pawlowski

March 2023 - New FoB team member for communication

We would like to welcome Julia Behre to the Friends of Britain team! As from March 2023, she will be responsible for the social media content, website, and press releases, building on the great work of Eleanor Kamtsikis-Jones. At the British Flair 2022, Julia already supported the tombola team together with her husband Philipp Behre. She studied communication science and journalism and is working as a media researcher. In her voluntary work at FoB she wants to use her experience to make even more people aware of the work of Friends of Britain e.V. and the charities associated with it.

Photo: Julia and Philipp Behre

November 2022 - Saying Farewell to FOB member Eleanor Kamtsikis-Jones

Photos by Stellios Kamtsikis and Wendy Sprock
Top photo: Eleanor Kamtsikis-Jones at British Flair 2022
Bottom Photo: Left-Wendy Sprock, Right- Eleanor Kamtsikis-Jones interview for NDR television

Sad news for the Friends of Britain committee as Eleanor - responsible for the social media content, website and press releases - has decided to step down from her duties due to her tight time schedule of her language school business.

Eleanor joined Friends of Britain three years ago with the purpose of building -up and creating digital platform sites, creating content for the website and writing press releases after fundraising events. The reasons behind this decision, was to generate more awareness of the Friends of Britain e.V fundraising activities and to attract larger audiences to their events. Just one example of her work was creating an Instagram account from scratch, which has now a total of 460 followers.

Her work has proven to be very successful in helping to promote concerts and fundraising events over the last few years and also helping to raise considerable amounts of money that have gone towards chosen charities in Hamburg.

Furthermore, Eleanor also organised 2 “Promi” quizzes over the last couple of years at British Flair. She was able to help win contestants who were popular and well known in and around the Hamburg area e.g., Ingo Zamperoni, Julia Westlake and Sandra Quadflieg. The quizzes proved to be a great success as they were relevant to helping towards language and communication in both English and German plus, the audience had a chance to participate too!

We will miss Eleanor dearly, look forward to seeing her at future events as a welcomed guest and wish her the best of luck with her business “TUB-Sprachen, Hamburg”!

November 2022 - Celebratory cheque presentation by Friends of Britain e.V. at the Anglo-German Club, Hamburg

Friends of Britain e.V. hands over donations amounting to 17,000.00 EUR

Gerald Böhme, Chairman of Ankerland e.V., accepted 10.000, - EUR on behalf of Friends of Britain e.V.

The Friends of Britain e.V. team, together with the teams from Ankerland e.V. and Klinik-Clowns Hamburg, assiduously sold tombola tickets by the thousand at the British Flair event in August 2022. The proceeds from the British Flair tombola and other campaigns - including those by the Caledonian Society Hamburg and the LIONS Clubs Klövensteen and Altona - will now be donated to charitable projects in Hamburg. In addition to the main recipient Ankerland e.V., donations went to Klinik-Clowns Hamburg e.V., St. Thomas à Becket Anglican Church, Deutsche Seemannsmission Hamburg-Altona e.V., Bergedorfer für Völkerverständigung e.V. and coach@school e.V.

In the past 32 years of British Day and British Flair, our society has succeeded in donating a total of more than 850,000 euros to charitable projects in Hamburg and the surrounding area. This has only been possible thanks to the tireless and dedicated volunteers who have stepped up to help us over the years.

A heartfelt thank you to all who have supported us!

Left: Wendy Sprock 1. Vorsitzende von Friends of Britain e.V.
Right: Gerald Böhme, Vorsitzender des Ankerland e.V.

May 2022 - Ankerland e.V. voted as Friends of Britain charity for British Flair 2022!

On Tuesday evening members of Friends of Britain e.V. and their honorary members voted for "Ankerland e.V." as the main charity for British Flair 2022. Bettina Saffran, who is responsible for fundraising and communication at Ankerland e.V., was delighted that her organisation was selected as the "British Flair Charity 2022".

This year, British Flair will focus on and mark a very special occasion - namely "Her Majesty The Queen's Platinum Jubilee" marking the 70th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne (6 February 1952) and will take place on the weekend of 26th - 28th August 2022. We hope to see you there!

Friends of Britain News Archive

News

Contact

Further information

Social Media