Change Projects

Our Change projects are all about Sustainable Change, One Human at a Time.

And knowing that good mental and physical health are inseparable. Everything we do is about improving health and wellbeing, so our beneficiaries – whether local residents or new arrivals – feel better about themselves, about their place on the planet, and about their journey through life.

We love to help people get to where they want to go, and we know how important it is to feel good along the way. Our Change projects offer activities to improve health & wellbeing, highlight important issues, raise necessary questions, and provoke positive change. We design them in partnership with influential organisations, local communities, and involve those we support as leaders, contributors and participants.

Current events

Special screening & Fundraising event for medical aid in Palestine

‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk’ is a stirring chronicle of Fatma Hassona, a Gaza Journalist who was killed before the film premiered in Cannes in May 2025, by Sepideh Farsi, the Paris-based Franco-Iranian director of The Siren (2023).

Book here

The screening will be followed by a live virtual Q&A with director Sepideh Farsi and Karmabank will co-host a post-screening fundraising reception for medical support in Gaza (featuring live performances, a postcard art sale, and materials for the community to craft their own poetry & art responses). To honour Fatma Hassona’s work as a photojournalist, Karmabank welcomes your photos on the theme of “be human” submitted here.

Past Events

COPA 71

Special Screening at Ciné Lumière on March 16th, 2024

16/3/24: Karmabank connected Amnesty’s Football Welcomes project with the Institut Français, QPR, and the FA for a screening + Panel discussion + Q&A with Uk & Afghan women’s football players.

16/3/24: "COPA 71" Screening x Amnesty International's Football Welcomes

Film info at Institut Français

#footballwelcomes #footballforall #humanrights #WearWhatYouWant #SEE

What to Expect:

Powerful film screening, panel with UK & Afghan footballers on the wider social impact of women’s football, an introduction by Sandy Abi-Elias to Amnesty’s Football Welcomes project, and a chance to meet and hear from players from QPR’s Women’s Team, with a special appearance from one of the Afghan “Girl Power” team, who fled the Taliban after the fall of Kabul.

What is COPA 71?

Mexico City, August 1971. 100,000 spectators going wild for the international football players battling it out on the pitch. It’s one of the greatest moments in international football history. And it’s likely you’ve never even heard of it. This is Copa 71, the unofficial Women’s World Cup. Dismissed by both FIFA and domestic football associations around the world, this event has been entirely written out of history. Until now.

About the Panel

As part of Women’s History month we connected Amnesty’s Football Welcomes project with the Institut Français, QPR & the FA for a screening + Panel + Q&A with UK & Afghan football players. Prior to the film, the IF will showed a short intro trailer on Amnesty’s Football Welcomes project.

Who is on the Panel?

Since the COPA World Cup, the women’s game has come a long way, but only in certain parts of the world. In partnership with the Institut Français, Amnesty International and QPR Football club, we’re delighted to present a post screening panel where we’ll discuss the real experience of the women’s game and the wider social impact of inclusive sport.

On the panel: Nicole Melling, Kasha Petit & Courtany Ward-Chambers from the QPR women’s football team, Najma Arefi who played for Herat City in Afghanistan before seeking asylum in the UK, Sandy Abi-Elias, Women’s Football Officer for Amnesty International and Maria Fernandes. The event was introduced by Karmabank Founder Andrew Standen-Raz, and para-athlete and para- contemporary dancer Ayuna Berbidaeva.

This was our third-sports related film event with the Institut Français, and the fourth on the subject of female equality in sports and the arts, in a cooperation stretching back over 5 years to the charity premiere of Ai Wei Wei’s “The Rest.”

More on our Social Impact events with the Institut Français

The workshops organised by the IF following film screenings attract up to 50 participants. For the first in 2021, we invited newly arrived Afghan women evacuated from Kabul, some of whom had never been to a cinema before.

– Najma Arefi’s inspiring story (click image)

Learn more

This event is in solidarity with the #noexcuse campaign to end violence against women and girls, and with our commitment to #SEE: Supporting Equality Everywhere.

A collaboration with The Institut Français

The Institut Français is the French Agency of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs in charge of promoting French culture overseas and international cultural exchanges.

Najma Arefi

Afghan Female Footballer (Fled Afghanistan 2021)

“When we were in school, everyone was saying, ‘I will be a teacher, I will be a nurse…’ and it’s so hard for me to see them now. Because we have the opportunity, we should be their voice and speak up for them: girls can study, girls can be everything they want to be.”

Read Najma’s Inspiring Story

Sandy Abi-Elias

Women’s Football Officer at Amnesty International UK

“The French Football Federation’s ban on religious clothing not only prevents Muslim women from playing football with a hijab but also coaching and officiating, violating their rights to freedom of expression, association, and religion. All women, anywhere in the world, should be able to #WearWhatYouWant We stand in solidarity with every single woman and in defiance of all those who deny them their rights.” #footballwelcomes #footballforall #humanrights

QPR Women’s Team

Team Members from the QPR Women’s Team will offer their take on playing professional sports.

“The women’s game is now continuing to grow, having this many women players, inspiring the whole of the UK and England to get involved in the sport in some way. The sport will never look back.”

-Kasha Petit, Captain at QPR FC Women

”This is me. I am going to School.
Dream picture drawn during the first Institut Français "Film + Art" session.By an afghan grandmother who was never allowed to go to school.

For September 2024, we partnered with ONE YOU for the National Know Your Numbers Week” From 2nd September until 8th September, the Know Your Numbers campaign #knowyournumbers encourages everyone to check their blood pressure numbers. One You provided a free health check session for our swim members on September 27th.

Spotlight: School Choir on Spotify

This year, we connected the St. Mary’s Ukrainian School Choir with our partner London Youth Choirs. Many St. Mary’s pupils have suffered trauma from fleeing the ongoing war in their country. Here is a recording of St. Mary’s singing John Lennon’s Imagine on Spotify, which we produced last year with the kind help of the Rugby Portobello Trust, and funding from RBKC’s Community fund.

2023

PARALLAX ART FAIR – July 8-9

Kensington Town Hall, W8 7NX

Past events

For past events please click here.