Award-winning writer Lemn Sissay supports young people in care as part of the Big Give Christmas Challenge, using his previous foster care experience.
The 57-year-old is a trustee of London’s Foundling Museum, of which the Princess of Wales is also a patron. Founded in 1739 by Thomas Coram as the Foundling Hospital, the UK's first children's home, today the museum offers training and opportunities in the arts for young people who have been in care.
This Christmas, it is working with The Big Give to raise £20,000 for its campaign Help us Bring Past and Present Together. In an interview with HELLO! Lemn says: "The museum’s past is that it was a children’s home funded by artists, and now we’re working with artists to help young people who are possible curators of our futures."
A charity close to home
When Lemn Sissay was two months old, he was placed with a foster family. His mother – then very young, unmarried and recently arrived in Britain from Ethiopia – had to finish her studies, but she wanted to be reunited with Lemn when she could manage better.
Sadly, this didn’t happen. Lemn was renamed Norman by his social worker, and his new foster family were told to treat him as an adoption. He was also told that his mother had abandoned him. By the time he was 12, the family had three birth children and sent Lemn to a children’s home.
In his teens, Lemn lived in four care homes. As an adult, he was finally able to access his files – including his birth certificate, revealing that his real name was Lemn Sissay, and letters from his birth mother asking for his return. They were reunited when he was 21 and the pair were able to reconnect, however, his mother sadly died in November and Lemn went to New York for her funeral.
Words of Inspiration
The 57-year-old explained his creative ambition to HELLO!: "Poetry was a way of being able to root myself in a place and time. I felt as though I’d been swept up like Dorothy and the house had exploded in the middle of a hurricane, and I was being swirled around and around," says Lemn, who received an OBE for services to literature and charity in 2021.
"Everything that I knew was mine, I’d lost. Writing a poem was a way of being able to calm the storm and say: "I am here, this has happened and I’m not going crazy.'" He adds: "I don’t think anybody who did what they did to me had bad intentions. I know that families, when they’re protecting themselves, can be very cruel, and they don’t mean to be."
Lemn, who was the official poet of the London 2012 Olympic Games and displays his work in the museum, believes that art is an "incredible salve", as is therapy." Since I was 30, I’ve been able to have some very solid therapy, and I think that’s helped a lot," he says. Lemn also founded nationwide initiative The Christmas Dinner, which organises festive dinners, plus gifts and transport, for care leavers.
"Christmas Day was the hardest for me as a young adult when I left care."
He says: "Christmas Day was the hardest for me as a young adult when I left care. It is psychologically incredibly difficult to suddenly be left on your own in an apartment and have to fend for yourself. It’s an amazing project." He wants to pay tribute to dedicated social workers.
"They see the violence that can happen inside families. I think the people who are doing the good work are going unnoticed – we need to support them," he says. Of his own triumph over adversity, Lemn adds: "I feel as if I’m lucky because I got to find the thing that I love, and I feel as if that’s a blessing. It's what we want for all our children, right?"
Royal greetings
On meeting the royals he says: "I have met the Princess, whom I personally think of as a mother, wife, sister, photographer and activist. I'm proud that she’s patron of the Foundling Museum and I’m a supporter of the work that she does for the wellbeing of the family." it had famous supporters including painter William Hogarth, author Charles Dickens and composer George Frideric Handel, who held performances of his Messiah in the hospital chapel to raise funds.
By lunchtime on Thursday, the Big Give Christmas Challenge had raised an incredible £22.3million since it launched on Tuesday. This means the campaign is well ahead of last year’s and on course to raise a record amount, rivalling Comic Relief and Children in Need in terms of scale.
The Christmas Challenge runs until 12 noon on the 10th of December 2024. To double your donation and make double the difference this Christmas, visit: donate.biggive.org/christmas-challenge-2024.