Top artists are coming to London’s deprived East End to paint portraits of 50 kids living in poverty.

East London Advertiser: Artist Andrew SalgadoArtist Andrew Salgado (Image: Myracles charity)

They want to highlight conditions many children are born into, as part of a campaign of public awareness.

The 50 artists, one for each youngster, have been chosen by the Miracles charity which has selected Tower Hamlets for the project.

“We selected Tower Hamlets because its 52 per cent child poverty is the worst in Britain,” explained the charity’s project director James Burton. “They are excluded from school trips because of poverty—and that’s right next to the City which is the wealthiest financial centre in Europe.”

The organisation is in touch with Tower Hamlets council and wants to select the 50 kids from East End schools.

The portraits the artists come up with go on show in December at a prestigious east London venue such as Shoreditch or Bethnal Green former town halls.

The charity was set up in 1995 to help children made homeless during the Yugoslav civil war. It runs a centre for Roma children near Sarajevo and has built homes for landmine victims.

Now the Sussex-based organisation is expanding its fundraising home to the UK.

Artists taking part in the Tower Hamlets portrait project are Andrew Saldago, Jessica Albarn, Gerald Scarfe, June Mendoza, Robbie Wraith, Melissa Scott Miller, Susan Ryder, Stephen Farthing, Eileen Cooper, John Wragg, Simon Davis, Tai Shan Schierenberg, Anthony Williams, Jason Walker, Tom Coates, Leonard McComb, William Bowyer, Mick Rooney, James Lloyd, Derl Turco, Carol Peace, Adele Wagstaff, Nick Offer, Nick Archer, Tim Benson, Charles Willmot, Christain Furr, Sophy Bristol, Anthony Barrow, Zachary Walsh, James Preston, Michael Frith, Hannah Collins, Maria Ines Aguirre, Theo Ellert, Geoffrey Lawrence-Smith, Kathy Preston, Ed Chapman, Katerina Botsari, Abigail Simpson, Nick Gentry, Henry Byrne, Thea Penna and Mary Jackson.