To postpone the HOPE anniversary concert was not an easy decision for initiator Viola Klein: “We have responsibility for the health of our guests. Even if our hygiene concept is still valid under the tightened Corona protection rules, the question is whether the guests really feel comfortable in an event with over 600 people”.
The concert will be moved into the open air season, a new date in 2021. “This is an important ray of hope, because together with many partners we have invested so much time in the preparation of the concert! At an open air event we can also sell more tickets. The money is urgently needed in South Africa and the tickets already purchased, remain valid. “ said Michaela Gornickel of the agency Par.X Marketing & Events, which organizes the concert.
More new plans for the charity dinners
While the charity dinners on 20.11.2020 in Berlin and on 29.01.2021 in Munich are under discussion, a charity dinner in Dresden was held in two parts on two evenings on the 30.10. and 31.10.2020 with 100 people each in the Hotel Taschenbergpalais Kempinski. The dinners were intended to raise urgently needed money for the HOPE Cape Town children´s project in South Africa.
The evenings were filled with a dinner by head chef Jörg Mergner, a program with roundtables and artistic contributions, among others by Alina, Philipp Richter and Professor Milko Kersten, who originally wanted to organize the concert in the Kreuzkirche with the Young Symphony Orchestra of the HSKD. Heinrich-Schütz-Konservatorium Dresden (HSKD). Another highlight was a silent auction. The guests had the opportunity to bid for prizes such as works of art by Udo Lindenberg and Otto, the limited Miniature Hope Award from Ulrich Eißner made of Meissen porcelain or an original concert guitar of the music group “Die Prinzen”. Both dinners were a big success.
For 15 years the organizers of the Dresden HOPE Gala have been collecting donations for the children’s project “HOPE Cape Town” in South Africa. At the moment donations are needed as urgently as never before to help children in the townships of Cape Town.
“The most important task of the HOPE staff is the fight against hunger”, emphasizes Stefan Hippler, co-founder and Chairperson of the HOPE Cape Town project in South Africa. “Due to the long lockdown, people cannot go to work, they earn no money and cannot buy food. The HOPE project has been organizing soup kitchens for months and provides food for over 1000 people per day”.
In addition, the HOPE project is facing drastic changes. The township of Blikkiesdorp, where HOPE Cape Town does important social work, will soon have to make way for a major construction project at the airport and plans to move to Delft with its container site. The care of HIV-positive children is also proving difficult at the moment. “Many patients miss their check-up appointments at the hospital for fear of the corona virus,” says Stefan Hippler. “Pregnant women do not come for an HIV test, and so more positive babies are born again. This sets the project back for years. But there is also hope. The plans to provide vocational training for young people like in Germany are taking shape. Next spring we will start”.
