make every day a mandela day?
Take the time to promote a local charity and the work they do, give a talk about crime prevention at your area or take part in other activities that create positive awareness. By creating a Mandela Day action and spreading Madiba’s philosophy of global change, you’re also doing your part to make every day a Mandela day.
All people, at all times, should have access to sufficient, safe and nutritious foods to maintain a healthy and active life. Feeding activities, whether food parcels, food gardens or feeding schemes, that provide long-term access to food security can transform world hunger.
Use your time to mentor and inspire young school children, address illiteracy or donate resources to help facilitate learning. As Madiba said, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.
Daily service to our fellow humans, in whatever shape or form, is an action each one of us can commit to. Madiba was the quintessential public servant. Let us emulate the servant leader we loved by all becoming servant leaders ourselves.
There is no greater indignity than the absence of a place to call home. The cycle of inadequate shelter and infrastructure can only be broken if people join together and make a change. This action brings people together to build homes, communities and futures.
Invite your friends and family
Madiba believed that every person has the ability to change the world for the better, no matter how big or small their contribution. In his twilight years, he encouraged all of us to carry his life’s work forward when he famously said: “It is in your hands now…”
Create an action here on the Mandela Day website, share it with the world and help inspire global change. Once you have created and completed your action, you will also have the opportunity to tell us about it in the form of a story, which will be recognised on the Mandela Day website.
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.” – Nelson Mandela
Featured Stories
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for Nelson Mandela International Day, observed on 18 July: Nelson Mandela gave 67 years of his life to the struggle for human rights and social justice. The United Nations joins the Mandela Foundation in asking people around the world to devote at least 67 minutes of their time on 18 July — Madiba’s birthday — to a community service activity. As the United Nations marks its seventieth anniversary, there is no better time to reflect on the life and work of Mr. Mandela, who embodied the highest values of the United Nations. This year, the United Nations is bestowing the first-ever Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela Prize, established by the General Assembly. This honorary award will be presented every five years to two individuals — a man and a woman — who, through their dedication, hard work and compassion, have built on Madiba’s legacy. Nelson Mandela once said: “It is in your hands to create a better world for all who live in it.” He was a leader who acted with a steadfast belief in justice and human equality. Let us all continue, each day, to draw inspiration from Nelson Mandela’s life-long example and his call to never cease working to build a better world for all.
The United Nations linked its My World Campaign to Mandela Day. Designed to secure participation by global citizens in the identifying of new development goals, it has already secured contributions from nearly 3 million people around the world. Mandela Day activations were recorded in 126 countries. Over 1 200 actions were registered on the Mandela Day website and there are more to come. Nearly half a million food parcels were distributed to needy South Africans. Over a million sanitary towels were made available to South African schoolgirls. Drawing on volunteers from Australia, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, the US and South Africa, Habitat for Humanity built another 67 houses for those in need. And we recorded over 15 000 books donated to school libraries on the day itself. The Mandela Day Library Programme should result in an additional 30 library spaces to the over 55 we have already delivered before year-end.
On 26 June 2014, over 2 000 elderly members of a rural community in Hammanskraal, North West Province, received a much-welcome winter gift – a thick blanket donated by the Al-Imdaad Foundation and personally handed over to them by Zwelivelile “Mandla” Mandela, chief of the Mvezo Traditional Council and grandson of the late Nelson Mandela. An initiative of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Al-Imdaad Foundation and the Chief himself, the blanket handover project represents Mandla Mandela's call to make every day a Mandela Day by helping those in your community in whatever way they can.
Featured News
The Nelson Mandela Foundation’s water drive, in partnership with Proudly South African, was a resounding success, with over 30-million litres of fresh water collected for donation to drought-stricken communities.
Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane joined hundreds of active citizens at the Nelson Mandela Foundation on Friday 29 January, in a drive to provide urgent relief to drought stricken communities across South Africa.