J.K. Rowling to Host “Cursed Child” Gala Performance to Aid Lumos

J.K. Rowling announced this morning that a special Gala performance of her Harry Potter play, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, will take place September 15, in support of her children’s charity, LUMOS.

J.K. Rowling will be in attendance for this event. All proceeds from ticket sales that night will benefit LUMOS, which helps deinstitutionalizes childcare throughout Europe and places children with families.

If you do not have tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts I and II, take this opportunity to bid on a ticket to this special gala. A bid will also go towards winning rare and exclusive prices, as well as tickets to the show. Additional prizes include, with a set number of tickets to the show, invitations to the after-show party & a signed copy of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play script book, a rare fabric Hogwarts map created by MinaLima, and a play poster signed by the cast & an Ambassador Theatre Group Gold Membership Card.

No tickets to #CursedChild? Here’s your chance! Gala performance in aid of @lumos – details here: https://t.co/BCrZCtvAP8 I’ll be there too!

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) May 12, 2016

. @lumos & @HPPlayLDN announce special gala performance introduced by @jk_rowling – find out how you can attend here https://t.co/mk7qHorWIQ

— Lumos (@lumos) May 12, 2016

LUMOS describes the event:

“Eight million voiceless children are currently suffering globally under a system that, according to all credible research, is indefensible. We owe them far, far better. We owe them families.” J.K. Rowling, Founder and President of Lumos

Lumos is an award-winning international non-profit organisation founded by J.K. Rowling that helps to provide children with a safe and happy family instead of life in an orphanage.

Help is needed because around the world, an estimated eight million children live in institutions, or so called ‘orphanages’. For more than a decade, Lumos has been working in partnership to help governments close orphanages and replace them with community support services that help keep vulnerable families together. This way all children can enjoy their right to grow up in a family, where they can get the love, care and attention that they need to thrive.

THE ORPHANAGE PROBLEM
Although institutions and orphanages are usually established with the best of intentions, evidence demonstrates they can never replicate the care, love and support of a family. Shockingly, an estimated 80% of children in so-called orphanages have at least one living parent. Most have been separated due to poverty, disability or disaster, rather than a lack of care. Most children in orphanages could go home to their parents or extended families with some support.

Children in orphanages are at greater risk of being trafficked and of suffering from all forms of abuse and neglect than children in families. It is safer as well as more cost effective to care for children in families.

ABOUT THIS EVENT
Lumos and the producers of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play are hosting a special gala performance of the new stage play to benefit J.K. Rowling’s children’s charity and will be introduced by the author.

YOUR BID COUNTS
Bidding for tickets to this special charity gala performance Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will allow us to help provide safe and caring family environments for many more children around the world.

Thanks to the generosity of the producers of the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child as well as to J.K. Rowling and others, every penny from each winning bid will go directly to Lumos projects and not to fundraising, admin or overhead costs.

For information on how to purchase and bid for tickets for the September 18th Gala performances of BOTH Harry Potter and the Cursed Child parts I and II, visit this link.