Cosmetics company donates £100,000 to educate widows' children

A leading international cosmetics company has donated £100,000 to the Loomba Trust to help educate children of widows in India.

Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista presented a cheque to London Mayor Ken Livingstone, who is also the Patron of the trust at a gala function organised by the cosmetics company Make-Up Art Cosmetics in London on Sunday night.

Livingstone praised the work of the trust in educating children of widows in India. Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife Cherie Blair is the president of the trust.

Livingstone said June 23, the day UK-based Indian industrialist Raj Loomba's mother became a widow, would be observed as International Widows Day.

"We are asking the UN to recognise it," he said.

Founder of the Trust Raj Loomba said the £100,000 donated by MAC will be utilised for educating 300 children of widows for five years in Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.

The trust has already implemented the scheme in several states and plans to educate at least 100 such children in all Indian states.