Community relations - UK
The following organisations are supported by British Airways and receive complimentary tickets.
Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI)
BGCI is the largest professional body uniting botanic gardens across the world. Established in 1987, it links more than 800 botanic gardens in 115 countries, helping to focus their efforts on plant conservation and environmental education. With a wide range of activities, from grass roots conservation programmes to organising major meetings, workshops and training courses for botanic garden staff, BGCI has helped to create or strengthen national and regional networks of gardens in many parts of the world, including Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Russia.
BGCI's education work has become an important means to enhance the role of gardens in many countries in environmental education and awareness and it produces and distributes a wide range of educational materials in several languages.
BGCI is an independent UK registered charity (No. 1098834) funded by member's subscriptions, sponsors, foundation grants, research contracts and donations.
Visit www.bgci.orgBritish Airways at Gatwick and the UK Regions
At Gatwick and in the UK regions which include : Manchester, Newcastle and Scotland we have a small team of community champions who coordinate and support community activity. Their role is to work with members of their local communities to identify projects that fit with our corporate priorities.
Find out more about our activity in Gatwick and the regionsThe British Airways Community Learning Centre at Heathrow
We have welcomed almost 50,000 children and adult learners to the British Airways Community Learning Centre at Heathrow since its opening in 1999. The Centre offers a range of educational programmes to local primary, secondary and special schools. The activities support specific areas of the school curriculum including Customer Service, Information Communication Technology (ICT), Business Studies, Languages, Citizenship and Environmental Education.
We also host a range of holiday programmes for local community groups.
Find out more about the British Airways Community Learning Centre at HeathrowCommonwealth Youth Exchange Council
British Airways supports the Commonwealth Youth Exchange Council's programmes promoting youth development and global citizenship skills and understanding.
CYEC achieves its goals by promoting high quality community to community exchanges for local groups of young people. Each project has an agreed theme with an environmental, community development or cultural focus, providing a voice for young people to contribute their views of the Commonwealth in a globalising world.
Projects supported by British Airways include; a new and innovative youth worker exchange between Bangladesh and Scotland which took place in 2005. This project meant good practice and training materials were shared and links for voluntary youth organisations were forged in both countries.
Support was also given for the Commonwealth Youth Forum held in Abuja, Nigeria at the time of the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. This Forum enabled young people to articulate their vision and concerns about development and democracy for the Commonwealth of the 21st century.
Visit www.cyec.org.ukDreamflight
Dreamflight is a charity whose purpose is to take incurably ill, sick or disabled children on a week long “Holiday of a Lifetime” to the theme parks of Orlando, Florida. Dreamflight’s aim is to bring some fun and joy into the lives of children who perhaps can’t wait long enough for the medical breakthrough they need or whose illnesses and treatments have brought pain, distress and disruption to their lives.
The charity was founded in 1986 by Patricia Pearce and Derek Perriera along with a small group of other British Airways staff, and together, these volunteers raised enough money to take a Boeing 747 full of children and helpers to Florida.
THE CHILDREN: Each year, Dreamflight asks paediatricians throughout the UK to nominate children whom they feel would benefit from the holiday. They look for children in the 8-14 age group who are, or have been, seriously ill enough to qualify for the trip, yet who will be fit enough to enjoy the flight and the busy week in America. Typically, many children with leukaemia, muscular dystrophy, cancers, and cystic fibrosis, are nominated, as well as children suffering from a whole range of other conditions. Each child’s medical history is reviewed by their consultant paediatrician before the final selection is made.
THE ESCORTS: For many of the children, Dreamflight will be their first time away from home and, of course, most will require medical treatment or supervision. For this reason, for every two children there is one adult escort, a high proportion of whom are from the medical professions. Helpers are also assigned to each group so that, while in America, each child is accompanied on a one to one basis.
THE HOLIDAY: The high point of the holiday is the two days spent at Disneyworld, but they also visit many of the other theme parks and water parks including MGM and Universal.
Visit www.dreamflight.orgGet Kids Going
Get Kids Going! is a National charity which gives disabled children and young people, up to the age of 26 yrs, the opportunity of participating in sport.
It helps promote sports for disabled children by providing them with specially built sports wheelchairs so they can do marathons, triathlons, tennis, athletics, mountain skiing, rugby, basketball etc. Get Kids Going! also helps and encourages British disabled children to compete by supporting them with their sports training, physiotherapy, and travel and also designs and develops sports’ wheelchairs for their use. Many have now become record holders and Paralympic champions.
Visit www.getkidsgoing.comMeninos do Morumbi
Meninos do Morumbi Oldham is a community performing arts group founded in 2003. The founder, Leon Patel recognized the potential for the group within Oldham after being involved with the delivery of music workshops in local primary and secondary schools.
Building upon these foundations the group has had remarkable success in attracting members of all ages and all levels of experience. The expanding membership is inclusive and welcomes social groups that would not usually access arts projects.
Meninos do Morumbi, Oldham and Meninos do Morumbi (Sao Paulo, Brazil) have worked together in their respective countries and created a global link through their love of performing arts. Whilst each of them works in their local communities, they are able to offer an international dimension to their shared and respective visions. They have immediate and medium term plans to broaden exchange visits to other musical directors and participants.
Visit www.meninos.co.ukPeace one Day
The Peace One Day film project began as the vision of one man, British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley.
Launched in September 1999, Peace One Day has gained the active support of governments, UN agencies, inter-governmental organisations, NGOs, Nobel Peace Laureates, religious organisations, corporations, universities, schools, key individuals, adults and young people alike.
On 7 September 2001, Peace One Day achieved its primary objective. A resolution (GA 55/282), put forward by the UK and Costa Rican governments, was unanimously adopted by UN member states formally establishing an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on the UN International Day of Peace, fixed in the global calendar on 21 September.
Peace One Day has now embarked on a worldwide networking exercise to inform the world's people of the Day's existence, engaging them in the Day's observance in accordance with the Resolution; the finished feature-length documentary ‘Peace One Day’ has become a powerful tool in the awareness raising process.
Visit www.peaceoneday.orgThe Royal Botanic Gardens Kew
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew was established over three centuries ago and includes spectacular gardens and is a World Heritage Site.
Kew Gardens is visited by over a million visitors each year. It is Kew's mission to enable better management of the Earth's environment by increasing knowledge and understanding of the plant and fungal kingdoms - the basis of life on earth.
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew supports the conservation and sustainable use of plant resources in the UK and overseas and informs the wider public about its activities through the world-class Gardens that provide a window on its work.
Kew is building on the global capacity for studying and conserving plant diversity through collaborative partnerships in over 60 countries worldwide, and by training scientists from developing countries. One of Kew's most ambitious projects is its Millennium Seed Bank Project which aims to safeguard 24,000 plant species from around the globe against extinction, by collecting and conserving 10% of the worlds seed-bearing flora by 2010. British Airways is a corporate sponsor of The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew.
Visit www.kew.orgThe Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is one of the largest conservation charities in Europe. It works to secure a healthy environment for birds and other wildlife. It is the UK member of BirdLife International, a partnership of national conservation organisations from more than 100 countries worldwide.
Internationally, the RSPB operates mainly by supporting and collaborating with partner organisations around the world; by delivering training to these and other organisations; and by working to influence policies in areas such as on agriculture, water use, fisheries, transport, trade and biodiversity protection. It has formal, long-term relationships with partners in more than 20 countries in Africa, Asia and southern and eastern Europe, and throughout the UK Overseas Territories. In addition, it collaborates with a number of other organisations on specific issues.
The work that the RSPB carries out with its partners includes research on key conservation problems and potential solutions; projects to conserve special sites and threatened species; and education to raise people’s awareness of the importance of the natural environment and the extent to which they depend on it.
Visit www.rspb.org.ukBobby Moore Cancer Research UK
Bobby Moore died from bowel cancer in 1993, inspiring Stephanie Moore MBE to set up the Bobby Moore Fund. The Fund is part of Cancer Research UK, the UK's leading charity dedicated to research into the causes, treatment and prevention of cancer.
Since the Fund was set up, over £4 million has been raised. The Fund not only raises money for much needed research, but also increases the profile of bowel cancer and informs people about the symptoms of the disease. British Airways provides prize tickets for fundraising raffles for The Bobby Moore Fund.
Visit www.bobbymoorefund.orgThe Duke of Edinburgh's International Award
The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award is an exciting self development programme available to all young people worldwide equipping them with life skills to make a difference to themselves, their communities and the world.
To date over 500,000 young people from over 100 countries have been motivated to undertake a variety of voluntary and challenging activities.
The Award concept is one of individual challenge. It presents to young people a balanced, non-competitive and fun programme of voluntary activities which encourage personal discovery and growth, self-reliance, perseverance, responsibility to themselves and service to their community.
The Award has been working with young people around the world for almost 50 years and is more popular than ever. The lives of young people are currently being touched by the Award in such projects as rehabilitating young offenders in South Africa; learning vocational skills in Kenya; helping street kids in India; and providing a vital self-development programme to young people in Romania.
Visit www.intaward.orgThe Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum provides scientific solutions to global problems. The Museum has internationally respected experts leading vital research into the quality of the air we breathe, the safety of food we eat, the cause of diseases afflicting millions of people worldwide and the maintenance of delicate ecosystems struggling to survive across the world.
Research, which is underpinned by extensive collections, is focused on taxonomy and systematics. These are the sciences of naming, describing and classifying living things, and uncovering the relationships between them. British Airways has been a valued supporter of the Natural History Museum's work for more than ten years.
Support given under BA's Communities and Conservation Programme has enabled over 150 scientists to travel to key research sites to continue their valuable work. This support is invaluable and helps the Museum to deliver its core mission. British Airways is a corporate sponsor of the Natural History Museum.
Visit www.nhm.ac.ukThe Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) is the Learned Society representing Geography and geographers.
It was founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical science and has been among the most active of the learned societies ever since.
The largest geographical society in Europe, and one of the largest in the world, the RGS-IBG operates at a regional, national and international scale. The Society supports research, education and training, together with the wider public understanding and enjoyment of Geography.
With its focus on society and environment, Geography is one of the most popular subjects in formal education and highly relevant to both life-long learning and fulfillment from travel.
Visit www.rgs.orgThink London
Think London is the official foreign direct investment agency for London. It connects international businesses to London, helping them set up, succeed and grow.
Think London is a not-for-profit, private-public partnership delivering expertise and advice to international businesses. Its service is completely free, comprehensive and confidential. Its experts work with government and the business community to help companies access the best people, places and opportunities in the city.
Visit www.thinklondon.comVariety Club Children’s Charity
The Variety Club Children's Charity was established by the members of The Variety Club of Great Britain in 1949, and has been working hard to improve the lives of sick, disabled and disadvantaged children ever since.
The Variety Club has over 1700 members who dedicate their time and energies to helping needy children throughout the UK. British Airways provides prize tickets for fundraising raffles for the Variey Club Children’s Charity.
Visit www.varietyclub.org.uk