Doing good should go beyond Mandela Day, says Durban North organisation
The Domino Foundation is encouraging anyone who wants to make a lasting, positive impact on their wider community to contact an NPO near them.
JUST like Christmas, Mandela Day comes but once a year, and just as the world is gripped by the spirit of giving around December 25, there is, quite rightly, an outpouring of generosity and well-intentioned community investment service on and around July 18, in celebrating Madiba’s birth 106 years ago.
Also read:Â Humphrey to contribute to Mandela Day in Glenashley
Businesses, community groups and individuals give 67 minutes to mark his 67 years as a public servant. The great man said: “There can be no greater gift than that of giving one’s time and energy to helping others without expecting anything in return.”
While every gift of 67 minutes makes a difference, Mandela’s example of ongoing self-sacrifice should stir all South Africans regularly to step out of their comfort zones to make a difference in the plight of our vulnerable fellow citizens.
Karen Brokensha, community builder for The Domino Foundation, commented that the spirit of altruism should not be a 24-hour once-off wonder (or a 67-minute one).
“The needs of the underserved in our communities don’t disappear on July 19, only to reappear 364 days later. While we appreciate every minute spent in serving, every sandwich made, every rand donated, our heart is to see lives changed – the lives of our beneficiaries and the lives of the people who can give from their hearts, hands and pockets,” she said.
She went on to say that partners with shared values and volunteers are the lifeblood of many NPOs.
“Many a person who has invested in or served through the foundation find they have grown and been enormously enriched by giving freely into the lives of others who will never be able to repay.”
Brokensha did the maths that for the 525 600 minutes in a year (except for the extra 1 440 for leap years), if you divide them by the 67 minutes asked for on Mandela Day, it equals 7 844, which indicates a legacy should mean 7 844 engagements a year to live in consistent service to others. It is like when God asked Moses in the Bible, when faced with a massive challenge in front of him: “What is in your hand?”
She encouraged people to ask themselves the question Maya Angelou posed: “If it is true that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, isn’t it also true a society is only as healthy as its sickest citizen and only as wealthy as its most deprived?”
Domino’s Sizamile Mkhwanazi will be able to direct anyone looking for volunteer opportunities at hello@domino.org.za or 031 110 0730.
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