This weekend on Saturday, the world will be commemorating Mandela Day.
The day has been commemorated every year since it was officially declared by the United Nations (UN) in November 2009.
People around the world are encouraged to spend 67 minutes of their time doing good for others.
67 is the number of years Nelson Mandela spent working to improve the lives of the people of this country.
Ordinary people and community based organisations usually visit schools, orphanage, old age homes and other community centres to help.
The UN has identified ten things people can do as a token of appreciation for Mandela on this day.
These things are:
- Make a new friend. Get to know someone from a different cultural background. Only through mutual understanding can we rid our communities of intolerance and xenophobia.
- Read to someone who can’t.
- Visit a local home for the blind and open up a new world for someone else.
- Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.
- Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.
- Many terminally ill people have no one to speak to. Take a little time to have a chat and bring some sunshine into their lives.
- Get tested for HIV and encourage your partner to do so too.
- Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.
- Donate a wheelchair or guide dog, to someone in need.
- Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.
The things people can do on Mandela Day are not limited to this list. People can do more than this as long as it can bring about positive change to someone’s life.
Whatever one chooses to do, at the end of the day Mandela Day is about helping those who can’t help themselves at that time.
On Mandela Day Madiba himself once said: “The world remains beset by so much human suffering, poverty and deprivation. It is in your hands to make of our world a better one for all, especially the poor, vulnerable and marginalised.”
