Fashion meets charity

AIM: RAISE FUNDS TO BUY, DISTRIBUTE SANITARY TOWELS TO SCHOOLGIRLS

This month’s Indwangu Fashion Extravaganza is not only about clothes, glamour.

Buoyed by the overwhelming response to the inaugural Indwangu Fashion Extravaganza last year, the Wild Coast Sun in Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal, once again brings fashion to the fore this month.

In association with the Walter Sisulu University, the fashion event serves to showcase the talents of young designers while also highlighting the impact of poverty and access to personal hygiene items for young girls. Tickets can be booked through Computicket and its many outlets.

During the event and the cocktail afterparty, funds will be raised to buy and distribute sanitary towels and personal hygiene items to schoolgirls in the nearby communities to empower them to attend school during their menstruation, and restore their dignity. Mawande Genu, public relations officer and promotions coordinator at Wild Coast Sun, said: “A lot of schools in poor communities, like the ones in Zone 5, are faced with a high rate of absenteeism from teenage girls when they are menstruating, because they can’t afford sanitary products. “Some girls are forced to use unsafe methods to deal with their menstruation.

“We hope to alleviate this problem and show them that they can continue with life as usual.”

Because Wild Coast Sun believes in women empowerment and also supports educational projects, it will host the fashion extravaganza on August 25, to help young girls stay in school.

At last year’s event, sanitary towels and toiletries to the value of R38 000 were distributed to more than 300 young girls from Ebenezer Junior Secondary School in Mbizana.

“We are in the rural areas, and thus see major poverty around us,” said Genu.

“We want to bring about change, and aim at positively impacting women beyond the borders of our community.”

The aim of this year’s glamorous fashion event is to reach at least 3 000 schoolgirls and bring about awareness to more than a million people by means of an awareness campaign, involving influential personalities.