Amira in concert – October 2019

Concert-wise, October has been a very busy month for Amira. Here are some highlights!

On October 23rd, Amira and Corlea Botha performed at the Nelson Mandela University South Campus Auditorium in Port Elizabeth. The concert was titled Two Sopranos in Concert and organised by The Music Society of Port Elizabeth. The two ladies were accompanied by the Nelson Mandela University Choir. 

An eyewitness report, as provided by Robert Zahn:
What an incredible evening! 
Tine and I attended the grand finale concert in the 2019 series of the ‘Music Society of Port Elizabeth’ at NMU. 
The impressive university choir introduced two sopranos, namely Amira Willighagen and Corlea Botha. 
Amira Willighagen,15, won ‘Holland’s Got Talent’ in 2013 at the age of 9. She has moved to South Africa and is absolutely sensational. What I really admire the most about this young lady is that she makes donations to the ‘Gelukskinders Foundation’, ensuring that playgrounds for the underprivileged are built in South Africa. Her voice was powerful and repertoire wide. The packed theatre was spell bound by the magical voice. 
Corlea Botha is well known and needs no introduction. Her involvement in ‘Classics is Groot’ will be known to most and she has so much CHUTZPAH, that she had us in tears of laughter between her powerful pieces.
Corlea had a cold and apologised for not always being able to hit the high notes. I would not even have noticed had she not informed us. 

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Christmas gift/sponsor deal, fanday Nov. 30th and concert Dec. 1st

Important also for fanday and concert visitors. This comes after the Christmas gift part.

This year, the Christmas gift for Amira is the sponsor deal.
That item is listed separately in the Gelukskinders web shop: https://www.gelukskinders.org/shop/SPONSORDEAL-p149320449
This time no new playground, but a big boost for the maintenance fund. In the past five years, all maintenance has been done from the general income. However, the costs for this increase as the number of playgrounds grows, 12 new ones and one adopted now, so the general income is being spent more and more on maintenance. This is therefore at the expense of new playgrounds. The age of the playgrounds will also eventually count. All the equipment will eventually have to be replaced. The equipment is heavily used by the children. In order to be able to continue building new playgrounds, the realized playgrounds must be guaranteed to be maintained. It is essential that every playground is maintained by Gelukskinders. The schools cannot take that on themselves. They have no money for that.
The playgrounds bear Amira’s name, the foundation cannot afford to turn a blind eye to this very important work. Not now, not tomorrow and actually never. Accidents happen at playgrounds, that is the case everywhere and schools are insured against accidents like that. Scratches, bloody knees, bruises, up to, unfortunately, broken limbs – who hasn’t had that kind of experience as a child or as a parent? However, when a child is hurt as a result of negligent maintenance, it reflects directly on the foundation, including Amira. That must be prevented at all times.

Regular maintenance is of vital importance!

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