Lent Lecture 2015 - Baroness Cox review

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Published: Wednesday, 11 March 2015 10:12

Baroness Caroline Cox - The Pain and the Passion - the privilege of making a difference

"I cannot do everything; but I must not do nothing"

In the presence of the High Sheriff of Wiltshire Mr Peter Addington and the Mayor of Marlborough Marian Hannaford- Dobson, Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury gave an impassioned and moving lecture on the work of the charity that she founded in 2003 the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust HART (www.hart-uk.org).

Originally trained as a nurse and then as a social scientist, Baroness Cox said she became a Baroness "by astonishment". From that point she wondered how she could use the privilege of being a baroness to advance the relief of suffering. In the first instance she uses the privilege of a seat in the House of Lords to raise humanitarian issues and the case for aid and advocacy on behalf of those suffering from wars and oppression, particularly those where the main official aid agencies did not reach. She founded HART to put those principles into action on behalf of victims of oppressive regimes and communities suffering from cross border conflicts.

A fundamental principle of HART is that it works in partnership with damaged communities, in a way that respects their dignity, and avoids aid dependency. It consults communities on what they consider their priorities, and jointly plans action that will enhance rather than undermine local capabilities. Baroness Cox said that she always travelled personally to meet communities involved – even when they were in restricted zones - in order to see and experience for herself the conditions. In answer to a question she said she spent some half of her year abroad; the other half devoted to her advocacy role in the UK and elsewhere.

Metaphorically she took the audience on an illustrated tour of some of the main places where HART is in action.

Read more: Lent Lecture 2015 - Baroness Cox review

Lent Lecture 2016 - Harriet Lamb

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Published: Wednesday, 11 March 2015 10:12

Lecture: "To Bomb or Not to Bomb?" : That is the Wrong Question!

Thursday 10 March 2016, 8pm
Marlborough Town Hall
Admission free with a retiring collection

Harriet Lamb explains how we can and must build the economic underpinnings of peace.....

Thank you to everyone who attended this year's Lent Lecture. Harriet gave a timely and thought provoking delivery on the role of grassroots efforts as an essential part of peace process. Read journalist Jim Fletcher's article in Marlborough News Online Working on the road to peace with "The long slow walk of the snail".

Harriet Lamb was born in England, lived in India as a child and then grew up and was educated in the UK, taking a first degree in political science at Cambridge University and an MPhil at the Sussex Institute of Development Studies. She was Director of the Fairtrade Foundation in the UK until moving to Bonn, Germany to become Director of Fairtrade International.

In 2008, sales of Fairtrade products topped £700 million, with over 4,500 Fairtrade products available from cotton to coffee, face-cream to ice-cream. Harriet Lamb has appeared on Any Questions and is the author of "the Banana Wars and other Fair Trade battles".

In September 2015 she was appointed Director of International Alert which works globally for peace.

"We help people find peaceful solutions to conflict."

We empower local people to build peace by providing them with training, advice and support. We bring together communities divided by conflict to find ways of resolving their differences without violence. And we advise companies, governments and international organisations on how their policies and operations can better support peace.

Read Harriet Lamb's article in The Huffington Post December 2015 From Fair Trade to Building Peace: Falling in Love Again at 54.

The 2015 Marlborough Brandt Lent Lecture was given by Baroness Cox, Founder and CEO of HART (Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust) 

Read MBG Trustee Geoffrey Findlay's review of the 2015 lecture in the MBG Blog.