The Soweto Wine & Lifestyle Project is supporting a crowd-funding initiative to help a young mother – Buhle Kwatsambe - from Edenvale, Johannesburg, receive funding for life-saving heart surgery.
Buhle’s story
Twenty-three year old Buhle was diagnosed with inflammatory heart disease at the age of 12 and has recently learned from doctors that she may only have 8 months to live if she does not have life-saving heart surgery soon.
She is the mother of a three-year-old boy and works as a waitress at a pizzeria in Edenvale.
Despite her condition, she remains enthusiastic in her outlook on life, waking up every day to earn a hard days keep for her son’s future.
How we all can help
Hearing about Buhle’s story, five friends in Soweto - Mpumelelo Mfula, Success Maake, Athandiwe Maake, Sandile Mhlongo and Vuyo Xegwana - decided to do something to help by launching a crowd-funding campaign to help raise funds for Buhle.
To date, the crowd-funding project has raised R11 375 for the heart surgery.
The surgery costs R35 000, so they need to raise just under R24 000.
Says campaign co-founder, Mpumelelo Mfula, “The project is inspired by approaching social ills through positive and productive ways, it’s based on the idea of not fighting against but to fight for good to leave less room for social ills and to help each other in the process.”
The eleventh instalment of the annual Soweto Wine and Lifestyle Festival was a runaway success this past September. The launch of the #72hrsSoweto campaign hit just the right notes as eight local influencers shared their experiences of Africa’s most exciting destination over the three days of the event.
Exposed to the vibrant street art, design, fashion, theatre and culture of Soweto, the #72hrsSoweto digital campaign aimed to position Soweto as a must-experience destination, right on your doorstep; and worth visiting for a few days.
The expectations of the hosted influencers were not only met, but far exceeded. Everyone agreed, Soweto is Africa’s most happening place.
This year, the festival secured a strategic partnership with Destinate, a destination marketing agency owned by Mariette du Toit-Helmbold, well known for its innovative work in destination marketing, digital campaigns and wine tourism. Du Toit-Helmbold says; “This year the Soweto Wine Festival and Gauteng Tourism partnered with us on an innovative new digital campaign that saw wine tourism and destination marketing come together in the most effective way. A fun-filled and educational weekend was had by all and this came across in the multitude of Facebook posts, Tweets and Instagram posts shared by our influencers and their followers.”
According to BrandsEye, the #72hrsSoweto hashtag reached more than 9.9 million people and generated an AVE of R2.2million on social media alone. There were 447 unique accounts that posted content using the #72hrsSoweto hashtag, while 986 people shared content that contained the hashtag. On Twitter, more than 1 800 Tweets were posted during the #72hrsSoweto campaign.
Heather Mason for @2summers commented; “Before this trip I thought I knew Soweto, kind of. I’d been there a lot, doing a lot of different things. But #72hrsSoweto held many surprises. Almost everything we did over the course of the weekend was new (or at least partially new) to me.”
Andy Carrie, @AndyCarrie, added; “#72hrsSoweto definitely changed my perspective of how incredible our country is. I had one of the best nights of my life in Soweto, and I am South African! The campaign was amazing. Every activity was so special and allowed me to take something away that was personal. I was blown away by the friendliness and acceptance that we felt from the locals. In short, Soweto stole a piece of my heart.”
Andy then went on to use the #72hrsSoweto campaign as an example of “a great campaign to create visual content” in a presentation he did for the E-Tourism Africa Summit 2015 and has posted this lovely #72hrsSoweto video on Youtube.
Mnikelo Mangciphu, festival co-founder and owner of Morara Wine and Spirits Emporium in Mofolo, Soweto, concludes; “This year we introduced a new format to the festival that went down very well and we launched the #72hrsSoweto campaign that far exceeded our expectations in terms of reach. South Africa’s wine industry and Soweto are undergoing exciting changes, so the timing to bring together wine and tourism in one campaign was perfect.
The stage has been set for a new era in the Soweto Wine Festival’s future. There’s just so much to showcase about South Africa’s wine industry, and many different layers to share about destination Soweto, that 2016 promises to be bigger and better. We hope to invite many more influencers – some from around the world – to come and experience Africa’s leading wine, food and lifestyle festival and the warmth, generosity and culture of Soweto.”
The Soweto Wine and Lifestyle Festival 2016 will take place from 2 – 4 September.
This year, we invited a few of South Africa’s top digital storytellers to spend 72 hours in the heart of Soweto during the weekend of the Soweto Wine Festival.
We lined up some of Soweto’s coolest people and a series of Soweto experiences to give them a taste of what makes this Africa’s most exciting city.
See what they experienced, through their Instagram posts.
We are proud and excited to be working on an exciting destination campaign around the 2015 festival, in conjunction with Destinate Solutions, South African Tourism, Gauteng Tourism Authority and Flow Communications.
From 4-6 September 2015, we will bring some of South Africa’s top influencers to the heart of Soweto for the #72hrsSoweto adventure; an exciting new digital campaign which brings together our food, wine and lifestyle festival and some of SA’s most influential digital voices.
We’ve invited 7 top bloggers to stay and play in Soweto for the duration of the Soweto Wine Festival weekend. Influencers will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the heart of Soweto, meet the local changemakers and hang out in the hottest local spots.
We’ve lined up a really exciting itinerary, which includes all the sights, sounds, colours and flavours of Soweto and the Soweto Wine Festival.
Follow along as these talented storytellers explore Soweto and experience the Soweto Wine Festival: #72hrsSoweto #SowetoWineFest #meetsouthafrica #WineRevolution #myhood #visitgauteng #geepeeshotleft
