Lady IN Red: a yearly gala event to honour and motivate township learners
Cape Town – The Lady Red Annual Gala Dinner is an event whose main goal is to inspire students and is set to amaze guests and other individuals with an enjoyable evening driven by missions entertaining from opera performances.
The event will be different this year since they will be giving away bursaries to top-achieving students.
The founder, Vukile Sodlongwana, said that they have had an annual gala dinner every year since 2015, with the exception of 2019 due to the Covid-19 lockdowns.
"The main motivation is a love of music, fashion, excellence, and, most importantly, education, and we will bring together famous practitioners from a variety of professions, including medicine, law, engineering, physics, etc," said Sodlongwana.
The high-achieving students will receive bursaries that are completely funded and will pay their entire tuition at the South African university of their choice.
The gala dinner will take place this Saturday, September 30, 2023, at the Westin Hotel in Cape Town, with classical opera sounds enticing visitors and students, of course.
Their plan is to expand this event by having more business people and corporations participate in it, contribute financially, and help more students from the townships.
They have collaborated with a non-profit organisation called Amaqhawe Ngemfundo from Khayelitsha,an organisation that teaches STEMs led by Prof. Ajayi from the University of the Western Cape.
“Seeing children from disadvantaged backgrounds with no opportunities inspires me to help and expose children to more opportunities,” added Sodlongwana.
They will have students from Joe Slovo High School and Luhlaza High School, and over 30 students will attend this event.
Sodlongwana said that students will network and meet potential mentors from different fields.
The experience will impact the kids’ lives, and there is still more to learn and opportunities to speak with professionals.