Rapper Riky Rick ?s heart of gold lives beyond the grave. Hardly two years after his passing, Africa's much loved hip pop and stylish rapper Riky Rick will still be empowering the youth beyond the grave.
BURSARY FUND
His partner Bianca Naidoo has established the Cotton Festival bursary initiative in his honour. It will award three student bursaries to study at AFDA Film school in Johannesburg. The Cotton Fest team recently launched the Cotton Fest Creative programme which aims at giving back to impoverished students while creating outlets to empower young creatives to succeed in their studies and careers at AFDA.
Riky, who also went to the renownedfilm school himself, must be smiling in his grave. His team along with his beautifulwidow decided to further build on his legacy by creating a platform to supportcreative students in their first year.
HOW THE PROGRAM WORK
Riky's foundation has selected some of the best and deserving students from different cities.
According to the foundation, the programme selected three top AFDA students from the AFDA Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban campuses awarding them bursaries," Cotton Fest and its long-standing partner, PUMA, will then come forward to cover the shortfall of their tuition fees and assist them in graduating. Bianca says she is excited to be part of such a beautiful initiative, because Riky was a giver and someone who always wanted to empower other people.
"We are extremely excited to have the privilege to assist young people achieve this huge milestone in their educational journey," Bianca said. She adds that when they started Cotton Fest none of them had a clue that it would expand beyond music and fashion. "When we started Cotton Fest, the idea was not just to have a once off concert, but todo so much more for the culture as a whole, and moreover offer support within the community". She brags now they have a big brandlike Puma on board. "Now with the additional financial injection from PUMA this year, we were finally able to make the Cotton Fest Creative Programme a reality and action this support."
APPEALING FOR SPONSORSHIP
Bianca added that the programme is aimed to run annually and welcomes the support of other corporates and financial institutions who want to come on board.
COTTON FEST
Founded by the late rapper Riky Rick, the festival boasts three stages: The Cotton Stage featuring headline acts, the Better Stage dedicated to New Wave young talent, and the J?germeister Stage promoting the best of house, electronic and Amapiano music. The highly anticipated festival will be held on the 4th of February and hundreds of partygoers are expected to attend.
