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Bringing back the smiles
Granddaughter of the famous wartime premier, Arabella Churchill was in Sri Lanka to heal tsunami-affected children through laughter
By Frances Bulathsinghala
Arabella Churchill, the granddaughter of former British premier Winston Churchill was in the south of France when she witnessed the December 26 horror that struck the South Asian region. Watching on TV the waves of disaster washing over Sri Lanka, a country she had visited 15 years ago, the emotion that first gripped her, like millions of others around the world, was a sense of helplessness.

However, Arabella, inheriting the courage of her grandfather soon decided on her course of action. It was, she realized, a war of a different kind. She chose laughter, the talisman she had given to children from war ravaged countries such as Kosovo and Northern Ireland, through her international charity organisation for children, to be bestowed upon yet another group of children whose smiles had been plundered by the unexpected wrath of the ocean.

And two months later, Arabella sits at the Mount Lavinia Hotel having just come back to Colombo after a week of visiting the tsunami-displaced people in the south.

"Watching them smile again is like a miracle," says Arabella speaking of how the children responded to juggler Peat Simms who works for her charity organisation as an entertainer of children.

Arabella is the daughter of Winston Churchill's only son Randolph and has worked at London Weekend Television. Her interest in people and in helping where help is needed had made her join the British Leprosy Relief Association (LEPRA), in the late ’60s, travelling to Tanzania and Zambia as their public relations officer.

Having absorbed Buddhism four years ago and being a firm believer that miracles are those which are performed by the self, she explains the mission of her charity organization, Children's World International set up in 1999.

Using parachute games and displays for kids who gaze open mouthed, never having seen this type of games before, wrapped in vivid kaleidoscopic hues, Peat, Arabella and others in her organisation take the coaxing back of laughter as a serious exercise in the trauma healing process.

Children's World, she explains, was the local organisation founded in 1981 in Britain for the creative benefit of children, especially keeping in mind disabled children. It was expanded to an international one in 1999 to concentrate on a forgotten cause.

"Whereever we have travelled with the aim of entertaining distraught children, Peat and I have had our reward by just seeing them transform," she says and shares an experience in Kosovo where a grandfather, with tears in his eyes, had thanked them for making his six-year-old grandson laugh again.

"We hope to arrive back again in Sri Lanka in September with a detailed plan for a four-month tour where we hope to visit the east and other tsunami ravaged regions," she says stating that she would use the time in-between to raise funds back in Britain.

Without mincing words, another trait that she has clearly inherited from her grandfather, Arabella says she is concerned about the manner in which the government and the NGOs are handling the aftermath of the crisis.

"Things are obviously moving too slow. There is clearly much to be done. With the rains expected soon, the plight of the displaced if they are allowed to exist in their fragile tents is unimaginable," she says. She also points out that she has her own reservations about the 100-metre buffer zone regulation. She does not see it as practical.

Arabella is married to Haggis McLeod, a juggler who has been featured in the Guinness Book of Records for his juggling achievements. In between speaking of her love for children and the enthusiasm her 15-year-old daughter shares for her work, she speaks of how fond her grandfather, Winston Churchill, was of the sea. Of the many themes the multi-faceted former wartime Prime Minister painted, the sea, she maintains, was what he loved to capture on canvas best.

She slowly shifts from the present to the past to recall poignant memories of him. Being fifteen years old when he died at the age of 91 she regretfully says that she should have been born earlier.

"I wish I could have had more time with him. He was a fascinating personality to me. I used to often join him and watch him at one of his favourite pastimes, building walls. There was a country cottage in Kent that he himself built over the years and the wall around it. He relished this physical exercise," she says.

"Perseverance is one of the most important lessons I learnt from him.” "One of the messages that I hope to convey in Britain and internationally is that the country is still one of the best tourist destinations," she adds.

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