On a crystalline March morning in Mayfair, beneath the hand-painted blossoms of the Garden Room, Annabel’s marked International Women’s Day for the seventh consecutive year in partnership with The Caring Family Foundation. The room is a fantasia of flora, gilt and soft light, fitting for a conversation rooted in growth.
This year’s theme, Give To Gain, was a call to action. Hosted by broadcaster and cultural commentator June Sarpong OBE, the panel gathered an extraordinary constellation of women: actress and advocate Lucy Boynton, Professor Katrin Hohl OBE, a leading authority on violence against women and girls; domestic abuse survivor and campaigner Natalie Queiroz MBE; alongside Soma Sara MBE, Emma Dabiri FRSL, stylist and editor Leith Clark, and Charlotte Hill OBE of The Felix Project. A live performance from rising British artist Olive Jones lent the morning a note of intimacy.
At the centre of it all was the formidable Patricia Caring, co-founder of The Caring Family Foundation, whose quiet clarity anchored the discussion. For Patricia Caring, the partnership between Annabel’s and the Foundation is personal. We spoke to her about the incredible and tireless work of The Caring Family Foundation.
“For seven years we have brought people together on International Women’s Day to reflect, listen and support one another,” she explained. “Each year it reminds me how important those moments of connection are.”
The theme Give To Gain is disarmingly simple. When we give – time, voice, resources – the return is exponential. Communities strengthen, opportunities widen and lives change trajectory. In a world that often rewards accumulation, the panel proposed something more radical: contribution as currency.
Caring is clear-eyed about what makes progress possible. “Meaningful change is never achieved alone,” she said. Why does collaboration matter so deeply when confronting issues such as domestic abuse, child poverty and environmental degradation? Because these challenges are interconnected and so must be the solutions.
Through the Foundation’s work in the UK and Brazil, Caring has witnessed first-hand how partnerships multiply effectiveness. Grassroots organisations bring lived experience. Academic experts contribute research. Advocates amplify visibility. Donors provide fuel. Together, they build systems that are sustainable rather than symbolic.
“There is a saying that it takes a village to raise a child,” she reflected. “The same is true when addressing social challenges.”
The sentiment resonated strongly as Professor Hohl spoke to systemic patterns of violence, while Natalie Queiroz shared lived testimony of survival and rebuilding. Lucy Boynton articulated the responsibility of public platforms. Each voice distinct and aligned.
Since its founding in 2019 by Patricia and Richard Caring, The Caring Family Foundation has grown into one of the UK’s largest donors to Brazilian reforestation. It has planted over 3.9 million trees and seedlings. It has distributed more than 3.5 million meals. It has delivered over 31,000 domestic abuse services across the UK and Brazil. The numbers are striking. Yet for Caring, the statistics are secondary to the stories.
“Every meal represents a child who can go to school fed and ready to learn,” she said. “Every domestic abuse service represents a woman or child receiving support during one of the most vulnerable moments in their lives. And every tree planted represents a step towards protecting the environment and supporting communities.”
It is easy, in philanthropy, to become enamoured with scale. What distinguishes the Foundation’s ethos is its insistence on humanity. The figures are not trophies. They are evidence of individual lives steadied, nourished, safeguarded. Behind each tree is a rainforest community. Behind each service, a moment of courage.
The Foundation’s mission – to build a world free from hunger, harm and hurt – is ambitious by design. The issues it confronts are entrenched and generational. How does one balance vision with practicality?
“Meaningful change comes from taking consistent, practical steps over time,” Caring emphasised. Ambition provides direction. Partnerships provide infrastructure. Measurement ensures accountability.
The Foundation works closely with organisations embedded within their communities. Meals are tracked. Support services recorded. Reforestation monitored. It is philanthropy disciplined by data, yet guided by empathy.
In an era where grand declarations are easy, sustained commitment is rarer. The Foundation’s seventh year marks not just growth, but durability. Perhaps the most urgent strand of the morning centred on prevention. Violence and insecurity remain profound barriers preventing women and girls from thriving. Trauma – particularly when experienced in childhood – casts long shadows. Without early intervention, cycles of harm perpetuate.
Caring advocates for education from the earliest stage: teaching young people about healthy relationships, respect and equality before patterns calcify. Prevention, she believes, is both the most compassionate and the most effective strategy. If you invest in children today, you reshape tomorrow.
Looking ahead, The Caring Family Foundation will continue to deepen its work across three pillars: protecting the environment, supporting women and children, and addressing child poverty.
Reforestation in the Amazon remains critical, alongside support for Indigenous communities. Programmes ensuring reliable access to nutritious meals continue to expand. Domestic abuse prevention and early intervention are increasingly prioritised.
Growth, Caring insists, must be responsible. Expansion without grounding serves no one. The goal is long-term resilience: families able to thrive independently, ecosystems restored sustainably, communities strengthened from within.
As Olive Jones’ voice filled the Garden Room, there was a palpable sense that something rare had occurred. Luxury, at its highest expression, is not excess. It is access, to rooms where decisions are made, to networks that can mobilise change, to platforms that amplify unheard voices.
In Mayfair, beneath a canopy of painted blossoms, the message resonated with force: when women come together, they protect, they encourage, and they build a better future, one shaped with compassion and care.
