How bean counters and mask makers are helping Leamington charity

Novelty mask company Mask-arade and accountants Harrison, Beale and Owen are both supporting Cord, which works with communities torn apart by conflict.

Southam-based Mask-arade, which featured on BBC2’s Dragons Den and has recently been given the licence to produce Only Fools and Horses masks, is donating proceeds from its personalised mask sales to the charity.

It means that every time people buy masks of their friends for stag parties, they are helping people in the developing world.

The partnership came about after Mask-arade director Ray Duffy met Cord’s corporate fundraiser Kit Lawry at a Leamington networking event.

He said: “When I first sat down I had my salesman hat on and thought I could sell something to her. Then I thought ‘This is brilliant. This is the kind of charity we want to support’.”

Ms Lawry said: “It’s a nice contrast between fun and froth and something that really makes a difference to people’s lives.”

Spreadsheets and invoices may seem as far as you can get from Del Boy and Boycie, but accountancy firm Harrison, Beale and Owen is providing 9,000 solar cookers and donating £500 to help Darfuri refugees in Chad in Cord’s Cooking Up Peace campaign.

The simple cookers work by reflecting the sun’s rays, meaning women and girls do not spend up to ten hours each week walking and collecting firewood.

It also reduces tension with local Chadian population who also need wood, and means women and girls are not vulnerable to attack and can instead attend classes.

Each cooker costs around £40, including the materials to make it, training for families who use them and distribute them.

Managing director Rob Kendall said: “The ‘Cooking Up Peace’ initiative is a tremendous project which will reach hundreds of people who desperately need help and as soon as Cord told us they were extending the project we were more than pleased to get on board and do our bit to help out.”

l The Cooking Up Peace campaign will be this week’s Radio 4 appeal on Sunday at 7.55am and 9.25pm and on Thursday at 3.27pm.

Call Cord on 315301 for information or visit www.cord.org.uk