Fifteen-year-old Lewis was stabbed in Plaistow, east London, yards from a church hall where a disco had been held earlier for young people. The event was organised by two staff members and a trustee from One World Foundation Africa, on behalf of another organisation - "Motivating Youth to Stir up their Potential in A Caring Environment" or MYSPACE. One World Foundation Africa, which works with socially excluded people from the African and BME communities in London, runs youth club sessions in east London.
The disco aimed to raise funds for a school in Uganda. Aidan Keightley, development and fundraising manager with One World Foundation Africa, said that the organisers had taken every precaution to ensure the event was safe. "They did a risk assessment and the feedback from the police was that they couldn't have done any more to have made it a safer event," he said.
The disco was a non-alcoholic event and had a strict school uniform dress code to ensure young people didn't come in wearing hoodies. "Anybody who was inappropriately dressed wasn't allowed in," said Keightley. Four professional bouncers used metal detectors to check for weapons and no knives were found, he added.
Keightley said that the Foundation's volunteers were determined to something to stop more young people being killed. "We had some of the young people in yesterday and they were distraught and vociferous in their hate for gang crime and knife crime," he said.
