Physical exertion, determination and wanting to make a difference in the world of young people is the building blocks for Brand South Africa’s Play Your Part Ambassador, Angela Yeung as she made history when she became the first South African female to summit the True Sumit of Manaslu in 2023.
Yeung has many faces, philanthropist, award winning bespoke jewellery designer, wife, mum and most recently she has claimed the title of mountaineer in her relentless pursuit for social justice.
In a life filled with difficulties, she believes that you can only give what you truly have. After 30-years of constantly looking for her biological mum, she finally met her in 2017. Due to the hardships, she faced in her childhood and being a mother herself, she wants to lead by example.
She founded the Impilo Collection Foundation, a humanitarian project that caters for the Empower Her, Empower Him and Empower Them projects, so that she could share her adventures and mountain experiences and empower others to never give up.
Yeung was twice invited by Trek4Mandela to climb Kilimanjaro for Caring4girls. The foundation which caters for providing sanitary pads for girls, resonated with Yeung and she took up the invite in 2018 and 2019 to give back as she wanted to show children that we can heal our selves and through education we can achieve the power of self-healing.
Having as sense of mission Yeung kept pushing herself. She climbed Manaslu in the Himalayas, which is the eight highest peak in October 2023 to raise funds for an educational centre at House of Paradise in Kathlehong and to raise awareness of Gender Based Violence. The aim of the centre is to empower and uplift young women who have faced the brunt of GBV. A mountain for a mountain is how one needs to look at it, as the girls and women whom will attend the centre will have the tools to take charge of their lives and control their destinies.
“Teaching a man to fish is the only way to end this tragedy of thousands of women and girls losing their lives to GBV every year. It is a mountain that we as South Africans, must overcome. Also ensuring that I brought my SA Flag to the top of Manaslu 8,163m was essential for my course,” she said.
When Yeung hung 100 bras at the base camp to create awareness for the cause, eyebrows and questions were raised by the 339 climbers from 47 countries that participated in the Manaslu expedition and Angela so eloquently replied,
“I’m climbing for the victims of GBV and ensuring our society is GBVF (Gender Based Violence Free) and creating global awareness.”
Angela Yeung to Fellow Climbers when She Hung 100 Bras at Manaslu Base Camp
Before the climb Yeung visited two local schools and donated 40kg of clothes, shoes and toys to the Nepal community, whilst interacting and dancing with the children. It was a show of not just a mountaineer being there to scale a mountain but to also give back to the community.
In 2021, her foundation collected 6,200 bras and they were displayed at Constitutional Hills. With the support and of her social warriors, they handed in a memorandum to the Department of Public Safety. People from al walks of life closed their businesses and took off work to come and serve on the day.
Yeung climbed Island Peak in 2022 to echo the campaign #EmpowerHer with the 6200 bras that were collected. Her aim is to collect 8848 bras which is the height of Mount Everest but due to her ankle injury she sustained in her climb to the True Summit of Manaslu, she has reduced the long hikes and running. Everest is proposed for 2025, but Yeung is scheduled to climb Ama Dablam which is 6,812m in the Himalayas in October this year. The climb will allow Yeung to focus on her technical aspects ahead of Everest in 2025.
Being a Brand South Africa Ambassador has enabled Yeung to use her voice for a cause that resonates with a lot of people not just in South Africa but around the world.
“It is my absolute honour to be part of the Play Your Part Ambassador program and to see other Ambassadors do fantastic work. It encourages me to keep going,” she said.
With still so much work to be done to achieve her goals and even though she received funding from Brand SA to purchase 200 bras, Yeung appeals to the public, media, and corporates to join the movement to raise awareness of GBV by registering to become a social warrior or to make a donation towards the educational centre. All the information can be found at www.impilofoundation.org
“Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands up for all women.”
– Maya Angelou
Photo Caption: Angela Yeung, Brand SA’s Play Your Part Ambassador, made history as the first South African woman to summit the True Summit of Manaslu in 2023, driven by a passion for social justice and empowering youth. All Photos: Supplied
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