Sotheby’s charity auction to aid Bobbi Bear

The Life Ball, in association with Arms Around The Child, will host a charity auction at Sotheby’s in New York on Monday, 8 December to benefit Amanzimtoti-based Operation Bobbi Bear.
“I’m incredibly excited about the auction,” said Operation Bobbi Bear founder, Jackie Branfield, who has attended three Life Balls in Vienna and was the recipient of the Life Ball Crystal of Hope award, sponsored by the crystal jewellery company Swarovski, in 2012 for her outstanding work as an HIV/Aids activist and protector of sexually abused children.
The auction is the brainchild of Gery Keszler, the founder of the Life Ball, which is the biggest charity event in Europe that supports people with HIV or Aids.
Gery decided to hold the auction after hosting a similar event in a Vienna restaurant where Build-A-Bear Germany donated teddy bears and sponsors could buy a bear and dress it.

Bobbi Bear uses a stuffed bear in counselling sexually abused children. A bear is given to children to help them communicate what they have been through. The child is given a marker and stickers to write and draw where the offender touched him or her. This helps the children communicate what has happened without the traumatising experience of re-telling the rape to an officer and this technique has been approved by the judicial system the use of these testimonies in the courtroom.
Lee Blake of Arms Around The Child, another world-renowned HIV/Aids activist, soon pledged her support for the event.

For the auction, one-of-a-kind bears will be styled, dressed and signed by celebrities and auctioned off to raise funds for the child rights organisation. Celebrities include Heidi Klum, Janet Jackson, former USA president, Bill Clinton, Sean Penn, Sir Elton John, Bruno Mars and Nelly Furtado, among others.
“I’m gob-smacked by the calibre of celebrities who have already come on board,” said Jackie. “I’m finding it very hard to believe a little organisation like Bobbi Bear in Amanzimtoti, although well-supported by the community, has people like this dressing bears for the auction. It is mind-boggling.
What a privilege to be recognised by two such incredible Aids activists like Gery and Lee and for them to recognise my organisation is a badge of honour. I’m overwhelmed and it is an honour to have my name in an article with theirs.”
Jackie leaves for London on 16 November where she will give talks at various universities.  “I’m looking forward to these talks. They are not fundraisers; people just want to hear about Bobbi Bear. Hopefully I will get to spend some time with my family, before leaving for New York a few days before the auction, as the organisers hope to set up some interviews.”

To lend your support, like the Facebook page ‘Operation Bobbi Bear Charity Auction’.