Christian Bale’s charity activity: What is the story of building 12 houses?
Christian Bale’s charity activity: Christian Bale unveils plans to build 12 foster homes in California. The Batman actor has been developing the idea since the birth of his daughter in 2005, after being ‘stunned and mad’ to learn how many children were in care in California.
Keep up with this part of the entertainment at Eternal Pen.
Christian Bale’s charity activity
Christian Bale’s charity activity: Christian Bale has led a tour round the new village in California where he plans to build 12 foster homes, as well as two studio flats to help children transition into independent living, and a 7,000 sq ft community centre.
The actor, who broke through aged 12 in Empire of the Sun before starring in films such as American Psycho and Christopher Nolan’s Batman series, has spearheaded the building of a unique complex of facilities with the aim of keeping siblings in the foster care system together, and ideally under the same roof.
Work is under way on the project, which has an estimated cost of $22m (£17.5m) and completion date of 2025. Situated next to a park in Palmdale, a city 60 miles north of Los Angeles, the village will be the first of its kind in the state.
Bale, 50, who is the co-founder of Together California, the organisation steering the development, called the village “something absolutely new, totally transformative and something completely needed.
Christian Bale’s charity activity: “Imagine the absolute pain and the trauma of losing your parents or being torn from your parents, and then losing your brothers and sisters on top of that. That’s no way to treat kids. And so, we will be the hub for that. I hope that this village will be the first of many, and I hope that people, Californians and Angelenos, know to come join us in opening our eyes to what’s happening right under our noses. These are our children, and we must help our children.”
Bale credited his late father, David, for his interest in philanthropy and direct action. “I grew up with a dad who was always very active and altruistic,” he told the Hollywood Reporter, “and we would be headed to protests and shouting at Maggie Thatcher and stuff. As a kid, I didn’t really know what I was doing, but I loved it, and I just admired the hell out of my dad in that way that he went out of his way to care for other people.”
Bale continued: “We were always having other people coming and living in our house who didn’t have homes, etc. That’s just the guy that he was.”
David Bale was an environmental activist who worked for organisations including the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Humane Society of the United States. He died in 2003, aged 62, three years after he married the writer and activist Gloria Steinem.
Christian Bale was born in Wales and grew up with his father and his mother, circus performer Jenny James, moving to England when he was two. The family relocated frequently, and Bale has said he had lived in 15 towns by the time he was 15.
The actor said he first became galvanised to try and help children in need after the birth of his daughter, Emmeline, in 2005. “I found myself trying to imagine what it would be like if we weren’t around,” he said. “At the same time, I was doing all-night searches for what was going on in LA proper and where we could help.
Read more:
Taylor Swift’s biography+ the latest couple photos with her boyfriend
