THE CHARITY FOR CHILDREN AFFECTED BY WAR
THE CHARITY FOR CHILDREN AFFECTED BY WAR
OUR MISSION:
To protect, educate and stand up for the rights of children caught up in war.
- Telephone: 0207 112 2555
- Address: Studio 320, Highgate Studios, 53 – 79 Highgate Road, London, NW5 1TL
- Email: info@warchild.org.uk
How it all started
War Child was founded in 1993 by film-makers David Wilson and Bill Leeson. On assignment in the former-Yugoslavia they were horrified by the violence and ethnic cleansing they witnessed. And especially its impact on children.
"Sam Smith is donating his 26th birthday to War Child UK and he's calling on you to be a part of it.
"This year, Sam wants to make a difference with his birthday.
"Instead of asking for gifts or cards, Sam is asking his friends, family and you to make a donation to his fundraiser.
"Together we can all celebrate his birthday by making a difference to children affected by conflict.
"Sam's fundraiser will support some of the world’s most vulnerable children, from Syrian refugees in Jordan to child soldiers in the Central African Republic.
"WE CAN STOP THESE KIDS FROM HURTING, AND WE CAN HELP THESE CHILDREN GROW UP TO BE KIND, WHO HAVE A PURPOSE, WHO HAVE DREAMS, WHO HAVE HOPES. - SAM
"Wish Sam a Happy Birthday with a gift today" END QUOTE.
Photo: Richard Pohle/War Child UK
Data for financial year ending 31 December 2016
Income £13.3M
Spending £10.4M
StatusUp-to-date
Charity no. 1071659
Company no. 3610100
Contact detailsWebsite: http://www.warchild.org.uk
Email: info@warchild.org.uk
Public addressMs Tracey Deal, War Child, Studio 320, 53-79 Highgate Studios, Highgate Road, London, NW5 1TL
Aims & activitiesProviding support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. This includes providing medical care & counselling to victims of sexual violence; creating safe havens for street children; rebuilding schools and supporting education; and helping children get their voices heard and their rights met.
Safeguarding at War Child
For War Child nothing is more important than the safety and security of our staff and the children and communities we support.
We have a responsibility to ensure that our work is conducted in a safe and respectful environment and that we foster a culture of trust and transparency.
War Child has in place a series of policies and procedures that seek to prevent sexual misconduct and to safeguard the children and communities we work with – this includes a Code of Conduct that all staff have to sign, a Child Safeguarding policy and specific child safeguarding code of conduct that all staff must follow along with our robust recruitment procedures.
War Child currently has two child safeguarding officers in our London Head office and we have child safeguarding focal points in all our country programmes.
We are currently recruiting a full-time dedicated Safety and Safeguarding Advisor- a decision made at the end of 2017.
We are committed to ensuring that our staff are able to report issues in a way that offers the best protection possible for them and the children we support and encourages a culture of safety and accountability.
When recruiting we have robust hiring procedures to ensure that we conduct due diligence on employees and thoroughly check references and employment history, all staff have to sign our child safeguarding policy and we conduct DBS background checks on all employees.
At the end of 2017 we decided to review some of our policies - including our code of conduct and our whistle-blowing policy.
The new versions of these policies will be made available on this page once they have been finalised.
Sacha Deshmukh – Chair of Trustees
Sacha has considerable executive and board-level experience in the voluntary sector. He's also run his own business in the commercial sector and led one of the country's largest marketing and PR businesses.
He is currently the Chief Executive of Smart Energy GB, and for five years served as a non-executive Director and Deputy Chair of Citizens Advice England & Wales. He previously led communications at equality charity Stonewall and was a Commissioner of the NCVO Inquiry into Executive Pay in the Voluntary Sector. He has also held senior positions at Consumer Focus and the Parliamentary Ombudsman.
Sacha's family have experienced the horror of conflict, as they lived through the partition of India and Pakistan. His experience and energy is a huge boost to the War Child team.
Heather Francis – Treasurer
Heather Francis is currently the Director of Finance and Resources at the Victoria and Albert Museum, responsible for the finance, HR, IT and procurement functions.
Before joining the V&A, Heather worked for Save the Children in a number of different roles, both in the UK and overseas. Latterly, her role as Director of International Programs Finance for Save the Children International involved recruiting, developing and leading a professional global finance team to support the $1bn organisation.
Guy Gibson – Trustee
Guy is the Head of Global Equities for Northern Trust Securities. Guy manages Northern Trust Securities’ sales, trading and operations teams in London, Hong Kong, Sydney and New York.
Guy joined Northern Trust in May 2016 with the acquisition of Aviate Global where he was a co-founder and CEO. Before founding Aviate in 2007, Guy worked at Credit Suisse, Salomon Brothers, Citi and Knight.
Guy also has a degree in International Business Management and Finance from Massey University in New Zealand.
Rod MacLeod – Trustee
Rod MacLeod is a principal consultant with INTRAC – a civil society support organisation, based in Oxford.
As a consultant, he works on reviews, evaluations, training, facilitation, accompaniment and research for a wide range of organisations across the world. Previously he worked with Concern Worldwide in Cambodia, India, Sudan, and Haiti, in a range of management positions, including three at country director level.
He has also worked at Save the Children Norway as an adviser covering East Africa and the Horn of Africa, and at Y Care International and Progressio as international programme director.
Nabila Jiwaji – Trustee
Nabila is an international development consultant with a focus on governance, financial management and programme management. She qualified as a chartered accountant with KPMG, where she worked for several years with public sector organisations, donors including ECHO and DFID, and a range of civil society organisations.
She has performed a number of aid effectiveness valuations, including for the Independent Commission for Aid Impact. Nabila has travelled extensively in fragile and post-conflict states.
Before joining KPMG, Nabila worked at the Institute of Development Studies. She has a Masters in Development Studies.
Penny Richards – Trustee
Penny spent many years working in foreign news at the BBC. Her last role was as the Asia-Pacific Bureaux Editor, during which time she was responsible for the BBC's news coverage of half the world’s population. She spent much of her time in areas where War Child's work is most crucial.
More recently she has been the COO for The Elders, a group of independent former world leaders including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan, working together for peace and human rights.
Before that she was Head of Communications and Advocacy for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in India. Currently Penny is the Director of the Institute of Masters of Wine, based in London.
Jacob Tas – Trustee
Jacob is Chief Executive of national crime reduction charity Nacro. Before that he was Director of Operations and Deputy Chief Executive of Action for Children. Previously Jacob was Director England and Head of Volunteering at The Prince’s Trust.
He has worked in the commercial sector too, for example as global HR&D Director and Operations Director at Royal P&O Nedlloyd. He has been an active volunteer with Amnesty International in Taiwan, the Netherlands and UK. He is also a trustee of the Dutch Centre in London and former Chair of Trustees of an inner London Steiner School.
Jacob studied at the University of Amsterdam, gaining a Masters in Applied Econometrics, and later completed the Advanced Management Programme at Oxford University. Jacob is an accredited mediator, trained at Regent’s College.
Julie Weston – Trustee
Julie has more than 20 years of experience in fundraising, working with teams around the world to deliver results for development and humanitarian organisations.
She is currently a strategic adviser to UNICEF on its international fundraising. From 2010–2012 she was UNICEF UK’s Deputy Executive Director responsible for fundraising, and led the team to increase income by more than 40%.
Julie has worked with UNHCR, WaterAid and Oxfam Hong Kong, and been a consultant to Amnesty International, Greenpeace, the International Rescue Committee and Save the Children. Julie served on the Advisory Board of the International Fundraising Congress and is currently a strategic adviser to the International Fundraising Leadership Forum, with members from the 20 leading fundraising organisations in the world.
Tom Scourfield - Trustee
Tom is a solicitor advocate and partner at international law firm CMS, specialising in intellectual property, where he holds a number of senior leadership roles. Tom has over 17 years of experience in advising blue chip corporates, high net worth individuals and not-for-profit and charitable entities on brand strategy, commercialisation and enforcement. Tom is a pro-bono champion at CMS and advises a great many charities on their branding and IP related issues
Tom studied at the University of Nottingham, and the University of Texas at Austin, and holds a post-graduate qualification in IP law from the University of Bristol.
- Telephone: 0207 112 2555
- Address: Studio 320, Highgate Studios, 53 – 79 Highgate Road, London, NW5 1TL
- Email: info@warchild.org.uk
http://www.highgatestudios.com/community/
| UNIT | COMPANY NAME |
| 1001 | Active Standards |
| 710 | AJP Sports |
| 610 | Alison Brooks Architects Ltd |
| 610 | Alison Brooks Architects Ltd |
| 310 | APL Media |
| 320 | Appco Group |
| 305 | Benugo |
| 100 | Blast Films Ltd |
| 311 | Brainstorm Mobile Solutions |
| 200 | Bright Horizons Family Solutions | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 802 | Buzz Retail | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 700 | Dreamer Productions Ltd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 512 | DunnettCraven | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 701 | Eighty-Sixth Floor Music Ltd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 120 | Eland Cables | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 443 | Family & Education Marketing Ltd | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 522 | Forest Health Care | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 315 | Full Broadside | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 520 | Gingerbread | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 315 | Greedy Media | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 444 | iChild | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 443 | iChild.co.uk | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 410 | iD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 503 | iD Meeting Rooms | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 605 | Joskos | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1000 | Kinnerton Confectionery | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 500 | London Buildings | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Courtyard 1 | Lulu Guinness | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 700 | M&M Studio
|
You will note Unit 320 is occupied by "Appco Group". Do we therefore assume that the unit has recently been vacated by them and been taken over by 'War Child', or that the premises information is otherwise unreliable? 'War Child' is not listed anywhere else in the building on this current list, unless it goes under another name there. It is certainly not listed at Studio 320, unless as I say it has taken over from "Appco Group".
Incidentally what Appco does or did is clear from its web page here: http://www.appcouk.com/ one of which is to:
"Fundraising & donor acquisition
Appco UK has been delivering professional fundraising(sic) campaigns for charities since 1999. We provide a range of face-to-face donor acquisition programmes, focussed (sic) on signing regular-giving donors and raising brand awareness. Regular, ongoing donations are vital to charities, helping them plan their programmes in advance and fund them over the long term."
Is it in fact responsible for the War Child campaign without mentioning it or is it completely unconnected to War Child although operating from its stated address? Maybe 'Warchild', in the interests of transparency, would like to clear up this curious disparity?
https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Employee-Review-Appco-Group-RVW14144960.htm where this review appears to be very uncomplimentary:
"I worked at Appco Group full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
I worked at Appco for over two years, and a "high level", opening up an office in another country.
I was 18, at the time, and quite gullible. I was drawn to the ability to make enormous sums of money.
Here's the reality:
- The owners / business partners / MDs are not rich. They're not successful. The only people in Appco making a decent amount of money are org heads. The issue is that it's a lot easier to get wealthy through literally any other professional opportunity than being an org head.
- I was quite close to an international group of MDs / Org heads / VPs. They are all fully aware that it's a scam. Trust me.
Here's the reality: if you run a business of 30+ people, where the average person ends up in debt, unable to pay their bill and entirely burnt out - it's immoral. Period.
The idea that it's okay to extract such a huge amount of people just because there's an "opportunity" is wrong.
But, I learned a lot from my time. I work at a senior level in a major tech firm, which would have been impossible if I hadn't built my resilience from Appco."
- I was quite close to an international group of MDs / Org heads / VPs. They are all fully aware that it's a scam. Trust me.
Here's the reality: if you run a business of 30+ people, where the average person ends up in debt, unable to pay their bill and entirely burnt out - it's immoral. Period.
The idea that it's okay to extract such a huge amount of people just because there's an "opportunity" is wrong.
But, I learned a lot from my time. I work at a senior level in a major tech firm, which would have been impossible if I hadn't built my resilience from Appco."
Stars quit charity in corruption scandal
Luciano Pavarotti has walked out of the high-profile overseas aid charity, War Child UK, with five other celebrity patrons after discovering that its co-founder had taken a bribe from contractors building a prestigious music centre named after him in Bosnia.
The opera maestro - who along with the rock musician Brian Eno persuaded other stars like Elton John, Bono and Eric Clapton to perform in concerts and donate royalties to raise millions of pounds for the charity - quit after discovering that two people involved with the organisation had taken bribes and that there were concerns over financial and management controls. Pavarotti himself has raised more than $10m (£6.6m).
High profile patrons of the charity included the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, film and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Juliet Stevenson, pop star David Bowie, and MTV chief Brent Hanson. They have also resigned because they are not happy about the direction of the organisation which helps children rebuild their lives in war-torn countries from former Yugoslavia to Liberia and Rwanda.
A spokeswoman for Pavarotti said: "He did not want to be associated with anything that was corrupt and wanted every dollar that he had raised to be accountable. On one project - the Liberian children's village - he had to wait one year before he could get the accounts and then found most of the money had been spent on the project in London but without practical result."
As a result, the world-famous tenor personally directed that money for former War Child UK projects in former Yugoslavia, Liberia and Guatemala be chanelled by other charities.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and Channel 4 News - to be shown at 7pm tonight - has discovered that the decision by the celebrities to quit and resignations from 11 trustees over the last two years has led to an inquiry by the charity commission into the running of War Child UK.
The inquiry - conducted with the co-operation of the remaining trustees - has confirmed the payment of bribes in Bosnia, excessive administrative expenditure and that too many staff took trips abroad to visit projects and attend fund-raising concerts. The charity commission says the new trustees are well on the way to restructuring their management and cutting administrative costs.
Documents passed to the Guardian and Channel 4 News show it was the bribery revelation that forced the patrons and former trustees to take action. Bill Leeson, the charity's co-founder, and Mike Terry, employed as a consultant, took a DM40,000 (£14,716) gift in November 1996 from Hydrogradnja, the main contractor, for building the Pavarotti music centre in Mostar. The pair offered to share the proceeds with David Wilson, the Mostar centre director and co-founder, who refused and notified trustees.
The trustees convened an extraordinary meeting and ordered that the money to be returned - only to discover that Mr Leeson had six months earlier also taken DM5000 (£1,670) from the sale of bakery machinery. The charity says this was authorised.
Nigel Osbourne, director of music for the centre and professor of music at Edinburgh University, described the "bung" as "a catastrophic betrayal" for "those who have risked their lives and livelihoods for the music centre".
Bill Leeson, who had spent some of the cash, defended his decision to Mr Wilson saying: "It was a totally legitimate business gift ... a small consolation for the price I have paid financially and emotionally and probably physically for the last four years."
The trustees hushed up the episode from the patrons, kept Mr Leeson in his post and told Mike Terry he must quit.
Two years later Mr Terry was re-engaged on fresh projects against the trustees' advice. This led David Wilson to inform Luciano Pavarotti in New York about the scandal. Within a month, on April 9 1999, Brian Eno and Sir Tom Stoppard met trustees at the charity's office in London to try to sort out the problem.
They called for the retirement of Bill Leeson, the disolution of the management committee, and the transfer of Pavarotti projects out of War Child UK. But nothing happened and the patrons and nearly all the trustees quit.
Sir Tom Stoppard told the Guardian: "It was a very confusing situation and I became confused myself and I felt it could only be resolved by a thorough inquiry, so I decided to leave."
Bill Leeson, who could not be contacted, has inflamed the situation by now saying on behalf of War Child that he wanted to get rid of the celebrities all along.
Rosie Boycott, editor of the Daily Express, a current trustee of War Child, said yesterday that she hoped the charity would overcome what she admitted had been a nightmare and continue its unique work.
Daily Express readers raised £165,000 for a War Child bakery in Kosovo last year - a project praised by Parliament's financial watchdog, the national audit office, and given £350,000 by the government.
Stars quit charity in corruption scandal
Luciano Pavarotti has walked out of the high-profile overseas aid charity, War Child UK, with five other celebrity patrons after discovering that its co-founder had taken a bribe from contractors building a prestigious music centre named after him in Bosnia.
The opera maestro - who along with the rock musician Brian Eno persuaded other stars like Elton John, Bono and Eric Clapton to perform in concerts and donate royalties to raise millions of pounds for the charity - quit after discovering that two people involved with the organisation had taken bribes and that there were concerns over financial and management controls. Pavarotti himself has raised more than $10m (£6.6m).
High profile patrons of the charity included the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, film and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Juliet Stevenson, pop star David Bowie, and MTV chief Brent Hanson. They have also resigned because they are not happy about the direction of the organisation which helps children rebuild their lives in war-torn countries from former Yugoslavia to Liberia and Rwanda.
A spokeswoman for Pavarotti said: "He did not want to be associated with anything that was corrupt and wanted every dollar that he had raised to be accountable. On one project - the Liberian children's village - he had to wait one year before he could get the accounts and then found most of the money had been spent on the project in London but without practical result."
As a result, the world-famous tenor personally directed that money for former War Child UK projects in former Yugoslavia, Liberia and Guatemala be chanelled by other charities.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and Channel 4 News - to be shown at 7pm tonight - has discovered that the decision by the celebrities to quit and resignations from 11 trustees over the last two years has led to an inquiry by the charity commission into the running of War Child UK.
The inquiry - conducted with the co-operation of the remaining trustees - has confirmed the payment of bribes in Bosnia, excessive administrative expenditure and that too many staff took trips abroad to visit projects and attend fund-raising concerts. The charity commission says the new trustees are well on the way to restructuring their management and cutting administrative costs.
Documents passed to the Guardian and Channel 4 News show it was the bribery revelation that forced the patrons and former trustees to take action. Bill Leeson, the charity's co-founder, and Mike Terry, employed as a consultant, took a DM40,000 (£14,716) gift in November 1996 from Hydrogradnja, the main contractor, for building the Pavarotti music centre in Mostar. The pair offered to share the proceeds with David Wilson, the Mostar centre director and co-founder, who refused and notified trustees.
The trustees convened an extraordinary meeting and ordered that the money to be returned - only to discover that Mr Leeson had six months earlier also taken DM5000 (£1,670) from the sale of bakery machinery. The charity says this was authorised.
Nigel Osbourne, director of music for the centre and professor of music at Edinburgh University, described the "bung" as "a catastrophic betrayal" for "those who have risked their lives and livelihoods for the music centre".
Bill Leeson, who had spent some of the cash, defended his decision to Mr Wilson saying: "It was a totally legitimate business gift ... a small consolation for the price I have paid financially and emotionally and probably physically for the last four years."
The trustees hushed up the episode from the patrons, kept Mr Leeson in his post and told Mike Terry he must quit.
Two years later Mr Terry was re-engaged on fresh projects against the trustees' advice. This led David Wilson to inform Luciano Pavarotti in New York about the scandal. Within a month, on April 9 1999, Brian Eno and Sir Tom Stoppard met trustees at the charity's office in London to try to sort out the problem.
They called for the retirement of Bill Leeson, the disolution of the management committee, and the transfer of Pavarotti projects out of War Child UK. But nothing happened and the patrons and nearly all the trustees quit.
Sir Tom Stoppard told the Guardian: "It was a very confusing situation and I became confused myself and I felt it could only be resolved by a thorough inquiry, so I decided to leave."
Bill Leeson, who could not be contacted, has inflamed the situation by now saying on behalf of War Child that he wanted to get rid of the celebrities all along.
Rosie Boycott, editor of the Daily Express, a current trustee of War Child, said yesterday that she hoped the charity would overcome what she admitted had been a nightmare and continue its unique work.
Daily Express readers raised £165,000 for a War Child bakery in Kosovo last year - a project praised by Parliament's financial watchdog, the national audit office, and given £350,000 by the government.
Stars quit charity in corruption scandal
Luciano Pavarotti has walked out of the high-profile overseas aid charity, War Child UK, with five other celebrity patrons after discovering that its co-founder had taken a bribe from contractors building a prestigious music centre named after him in Bosnia.
Luciano Pavarotti has walked out of the high-profile overseas aid charity, War Child UK, with five other celebrity patrons after discovering that its co-founder had taken a bribe from contractors building a prestigious music centre named after him in Bosnia.
The opera maestro - who along with the rock musician Brian Eno persuaded other stars like Elton John, Bono and Eric Clapton to perform in concerts and donate royalties to raise millions of pounds for the charity - quit after discovering that two people involved with the organisation had taken bribes and that there were concerns over financial and management controls. Pavarotti himself has raised more than $10m (£6.6m).
High profile patrons of the charity included the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, film and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Juliet Stevenson, pop star David Bowie, and MTV chief Brent Hanson. They have also resigned because they are not happy about the direction of the organisation which helps children rebuild their lives in war-torn countries from former Yugoslavia to Liberia and Rwanda.
The opera maestro - who along with the rock musician Brian Eno persuaded other stars like Elton John, Bono and Eric Clapton to perform in concerts and donate royalties to raise millions of pounds for the charity - quit after discovering that two people involved with the organisation had taken bribes and that there were concerns over financial and management controls. Pavarotti himself has raised more than $10m (£6.6m).
High profile patrons of the charity included the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, film and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Juliet Stevenson, pop star David Bowie, and MTV chief Brent Hanson. They have also resigned because they are not happy about the direction of the organisation which helps children rebuild their lives in war-torn countries from former Yugoslavia to Liberia and Rwanda.
A spokeswoman for Pavarotti said: "He did not want to be associated with anything that was corrupt and wanted every dollar that he had raised to be accountable. On one project - the Liberian children's village - he had to wait one year before he could get the accounts and then found most of the money had been spent on the project in London but without practical result."
As a result, the world-famous tenor personally directed that money for former War Child UK projects in former Yugoslavia, Liberia and Guatemala be chanelled by other charities.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and Channel 4 News - to be shown at 7pm tonight - has discovered that the decision by the celebrities to quit and resignations from 11 trustees over the last two years has led to an inquiry by the charity commission into the running of War Child UK.
The inquiry - conducted with the co-operation of the remaining trustees - has confirmed the payment of bribes in Bosnia, excessive administrative expenditure and that too many staff took trips abroad to visit projects and attend fund-raising concerts. The charity commission says the new trustees are well on the way to restructuring their management and cutting administrative costs.
Documents passed to the Guardian and Channel 4 News show it was the bribery revelation that forced the patrons and former trustees to take action. Bill Leeson, the charity's co-founder, and Mike Terry, employed as a consultant, took a DM40,000 (£14,716) gift in November 1996 from Hydrogradnja, the main contractor, for building the Pavarotti music centre in Mostar. The pair offered to share the proceeds with David Wilson, the Mostar centre director and co-founder, who refused and notified trustees.
The trustees convened an extraordinary meeting and ordered that the money to be returned - only to discover that Mr Leeson had six months earlier also taken DM5000 (£1,670) from the sale of bakery machinery. The charity says this was authorised.
Nigel Osbourne, director of music for the centre and professor of music at Edinburgh University, described the "bung" as "a catastrophic betrayal" for "those who have risked their lives and livelihoods for the music centre".
Bill Leeson, who had spent some of the cash, defended his decision to Mr Wilson saying: "It was a totally legitimate business gift ... a small consolation for the price I have paid financially and emotionally and probably physically for the last four years."
The trustees hushed up the episode from the patrons, kept Mr Leeson in his post and told Mike Terry he must quit.
Two years later Mr Terry was re-engaged on fresh projects against the trustees' advice. This led David Wilson to inform Luciano Pavarotti in New York about the scandal. Within a month, on April 9 1999, Brian Eno and Sir Tom Stoppard met trustees at the charity's office in London to try to sort out the problem.
They called for the retirement of Bill Leeson, the disolution of the management committee, and the transfer of Pavarotti projects out of War Child UK. But nothing happened and the patrons and nearly all the trustees quit.
Sir Tom Stoppard told the Guardian: "It was a very confusing situation and I became confused myself and I felt it could only be resolved by a thorough inquiry, so I decided to leave."
Bill Leeson, who could not be contacted, has inflamed the situation by now saying on behalf of War Child that he wanted to get rid of the celebrities all along.
Rosie Boycott, editor of the Daily Express, a current trustee of War Child, said yesterday that she hoped the charity would overcome what she admitted had been a nightmare and continue its unique work.
Daily Express readers raised £165,000 for a War Child bakery in Kosovo last year - a project praised by Parliament's financial watchdog, the national audit office, and given £350,000 by the government.
Problems in the past: Stars quit charity in corruption scandal.
Luciano Pavarotti has walked out of the high-profile overseas aid charity, War Child UK, with five other celebrity patrons after discovering that its co-founder had taken a bribe from contractors building a prestigious music centre named after him in Bosnia.
The opera maestro - who along with the rock musician Brian Eno persuaded other stars like Elton John, Bono and Eric Clapton to perform in concerts and donate royalties to raise millions of pounds for the charity - quit after discovering that two people involved with the organisation had taken bribes and that there were concerns over financial and management controls. Pavarotti himself has raised more than $10m (£6.6m).
High profile patrons of the charity included the playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, film and Royal Shakespeare Company actress Juliet Stevenson, pop star David Bowie, and MTV chief Brent Hanson. They have also resigned because they are not happy about the direction of the organisation which helps children rebuild their lives in war-torn countries from former Yugoslavia to Liberia and Rwanda.
The inquiry - conducted with the co-operation of the remaining trustees - has confirmed the payment of bribes in Bosnia, excessive administrative expenditure and that too many staff took trips abroad to visit projects and attend fund-raising concerts. The charity commission says the new trustees are well on the way to restructuring their management and cutting administrative costs.
Documents passed to the Guardian and Channel 4 News show it was the bribery revelation that forced the patrons and former trustees to take action. Bill Leeson, the charity's co-founder, and Mike Terry, employed as a consultant, took a DM40,000 (£14,716) gift in November 1996 from Hydrogradnja, the main contractor, for building the Pavarotti music centre in Mostar. The pair offered to share the proceeds with David Wilson, the Mostar centre director and co-founder, who refused and notified trustees.
The trustees convened an extraordinary meeting and ordered that the money to be returned - only to discover that Mr Leeson had six months earlier also taken DM5000 (£1,670) from the sale of bakery machinery. The charity says this was authorised.
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