MTN Bushfire and Young Heroes launched the operations of Young Heroes in Lobamba Lomdzala, Eswatini during an event on November 6th 2018.
The new operation is a result of Bushfire’s efforts to focus its distribution of the proceeds from the festival towards direct and tangible results that benefit the immediate community. MTN Bushfire’s call to social action and change, Bring Your Fire, is at the heart of the festival’s ethos, and to that end, since its inception, MTN Bushfire has partnered with organisations such as Young Heroes to support the work that they do.
Dating back to the very first MTN Bushfire 12 years ago, the festival and its partners have sponsored over E1,858,775 to the organization, enabling Young Heroes to provide food and clothing to over 1,000 orphans. At the launch of this new project, the MTN Bushfire team was excited to hand over a cheque for E158,775.
E15 of every MTN Bushfire Festival ticket sold goes directly towards Young Heroes. Additionally, the MTN Bushfire Festival supports year-round fundraising efforts to ensure the sustainability of the organization.
Young Heroes, a non-profit organization that supports double orphaned families from Eswatini, provides relief services to the orphans through cash transfers (Life Support Grants) and has since expanded to the NGO’s vocational skills training empowerment program, healthcare, HIV prevention, and projects sustaining OVC at Neighborhood Care Points (NCP).
The newly launched project will contribute towards ensuring members of the immediate community benefit from some of Young Heroes’ projects including: Life-Support Grants, Healthcare, Skills Training Empowerment Program (STEP,) HIV Prevention for Adolescents and Young Women, Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD,) Income Generating Activities for OVC caregivers, Mobile Clinic.
Young Heroes began as a response to the number of children who were orphans from HIV/AIDS in Swaziland. It was established by Swaziland’s National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) and was launched in 2006.
MTN Bushfire Festival Director Jiggs Thorne had this to say at the cheque handover ceremony, “When we started Bushfire 13 years ago we asked ourselves how the festival could play a meaningful role in society.
In our minds, Bushfire could be more than entertainment. It was about exploring the potential for arts to become a tool for positive social change. We are all tremendously excited about the potential that this annual sponsorship supports in terms of offering our children financial, medical, educational and psychological support they too often go without.”
MTN Bushfire is more than a festival, it’s a living, breathing ecosystem deeply rooted in African soil, yet inclusive and welcoming to guests from all over the world. This uniquely African, and yet globally infused festival experience welcomes thousands in an atmosphere of tolerance and passionate commitment to music, the arts and the environment. Every year, over 26,000 attendees hailing from 60 different countries make the journey from near and far to the peaceful Malkerns Valley of eSwatini for an energizing and uplifting weekend that celebrates the music and arts of Africa and beyond.
Winner of the African Responsible Tourism Awards Best Sustainable Event Award in 2017, MTN Bushfire was also hailed in 2016 by CNN as one of the “7 African music festivals you really have to see” and listed by BBC as a “Top African festival.”
To find out more about Young Heroes please visit,https://youngheroes.org.sz/ and to find out more about MTN Bushfire visit https://www.bush-fire.com