To support the actions of her Children of Africa Foundation, the wife of the Ivorian president brought together artists and personalities from all walks of life in Abidjan.
Ira de Fürstenberg, Charles-Philippe d’Orléans and his cousin Serge de Yugoslavia: on March 11, in Abidjan, for a day and a gala evening, a few crowned heads from the Old Continent rubbed shoulders with tribal chiefs adorned with their finest attire. There was the group Magic System, and something of “Magic in the Air”… Among the assembly of VIPs who came to support Dominique Ouattara’s foundation, the greatest artists of the African and French-speaking music scene lined up, among others the griots Sidiki and Toumani Diabaté, Charlotte Dipanda, Fally Ipupa, Irma, Kaaris, DJ Kerozen, Aïcha Koné, Vegedream, kings and queens of undermining and groove, around Youssou N’Dour and the rasta philosopher Alpha Blondy. “If I support Dominique Ouattara as an artist, explained Dobet Gnahoré, the first Ivorian consecrated by a Grammy Award, it is because she does not pretend, she acts. She is there for everyone, from the most anonymous to the most famous…»
And such was the spectacle during the visit of the school group of Abobo, financed by donations collected during the previous gala. Where, “four years ago, there was only brushwood”, as Dominique Ouattara pointed out, a school of excellence now welcomes 500 students from this disadvantaged neighborhood. “It’s magnificent, it’s the future”, exclaimed the actor and musician Gary Dourdan (“The experts”), shaking a thousand little outstretched hands. “There is something warm and benevolent about this event,” commented actor Samuel Le Bihan, co-president of the Autisme info service association. “Dear mother Dominique, thank you, thanks to this school we have the same chance of success as those in the beautiful districts of Abidjan…” declaimed MarieOlive, 11, in her gingham uniform dress. Those of the evening gala, at the Hotel Ivoire, were longer and more sophisticated. Nicolas Sarkozy with big bosses Cyrille Bolloré and Martin Bouygues rubbed shoulders at the head table with Didier Drogba, Tomer Sisley and Emmanuelle Béart who wore a sumptuous red Elie Saab dress.
She took advantage of the moment to send her son photos of her and Kaaris. On the arm of her fiancé Diego El Glaoui, Iris Mittenaere shone in an “Eighth Label” dress. At the head table Nicolas Sarkozy, seated next to the First Lady, seemed in a good mood. Arrived at the end of the afternoon, he left early the next morning after a breakfast alone with President Alassane Ouattara. The jeweler Edouard Nahum had offered a gold and diamond set, cuff and earrings worth 53,000 euros and the sculptor Richard Orlinski, a panther in black resin, adorned with a Swarovski crystal necklace. The highlight of the sale? a painting by the Ivorian artist Aboudia, already in the collections of Beaubourg and soon perhaps those of MOMA. The sale brought in a total of nearly one million euros out of the six needed for the foundation’s projects.
Coming from urban music, Zeynab Habib didn’t wonder what she was doing there: “I usually act in silence, but I’m not against using my notoriety to bring money into the cash register, like here. Why be modest when you can help women, children, people who are suffering? The funds raised during the dinner orchestrated by chefs Yannick Alléno and Prisca Gilbert and the auction will be allocated to two concrete projects. The construction of a home for women victims of violence and their children, as well as the extension of the Case des enfants, which since 1998 has taken in vulnerable children. “I chose to sponsor three who sang on stage, they were proud, touching,” confided MCSolaar. Straight as an “i” in her chair, Marie Olive, from the Abobo school, couldn’t get over having crossed paths with her idols Innoss’B, Toofan and Singuila: “I was, said- she nicely, very “moving”…”
Find the page of the childrenofafrica.org foundation.
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