Princess Marie attends Gadens Born’s charity gala

On Saturday evening, Princess Marie attended Gadens Born’s charity gala in Copenhagen.

Gadens Born was founded in 2012 by Pia Lindell Qwist after a visit to India when she saw how bad street children’s living conditions were there: “Gadens Boern fights to improve the living conditions of homeless children in Kolkata, India, by supporting initiatives within education and care. The objective of Gadens Børn is to provide homeless and destitute children access to opportunities and tools they can use to change their present conditions and potentially also their future. […] We primarily rely on the hard work of volunteers, and we always try to keep our administrative expenses to an absolute minimum. Even though we are a small organization we work hard to make a big difference. Help us help others.”

The foundation’s main focus is social outreach at Sealdah Station, the second biggest railway station in Kolkata, where a lot of children live with or without their parents:”A large number of street children live at the station – some with their parents and others without but true for most them is that they are not publicly registered with a birth certificate. That means that they are not able to attend the local government schools or receive other government services. Some have been thrown out of home while others have run away due to different reasons, often involving physical violence, addiction or sexual assault. […]We seek them out and offer them food, health checks, clothes, activities and love, and care.”

Gadens Born also created the Aasha School (‘Aasha’ means ‘hope’ in Hindi). It has 150 students enrolled from the local area. The school offers one daily vegetarian meal, adult contact & care, one monthly excursion, and education that builds on caring relations. (You can read more about the school here). They also help mothers with food, birth preparations, and medical check-ups.

Upon her arrival, Princess Marie was greeted by Pia Lindell Qwist’s daughter Mynthe. Princess Marie was sitting at the main table with Pia Lindell Qwist and Lars Stolte, the Chairman of the Board. During the charity gala, an auction of gifts given by Danish companies was held to help raise money for the foundation and it was very successful as they have raised one million Danish Kroner (≈ $155,600). You can donate to Gadens Born here.

After the auction, singers Alex Ambrose and Barbara Miranda performed. About Princess Marie attending the gala, Pia Lindell Qwist said: “I am deeply grateful that HKH Princess Marie will participate in our charity gala. It’s really a show of all the work our volunteers do to make a difference for the street children in India.”

You can see a video of Marie’s arrival here.

For this charity gala, Princess Marie wore a new black sequin top which she paired with black velvet pants. I believe the top could be a sequinned bodysuit by Michael Kors. If it is indeed her top, it’s her first item from the main Michael Kors line after buying from the less expensive Michael Michael Kors line so it’ll be interesting to see how her relationship with the brand develops.