Every year South Africans are asked to donate 67 minutes of their precious time to assist with positive change in our country.
The significance of 67 minutes refers to every year of Nelson Mandela’s life spent in public service, between 1942 and 2009, when the Nelson Mandela Foundation first introduced Mandela Day. There is no shortage of options for you to maximize your 67 minutes (and more, if you so please) with our handy Mandela Day Guide.
Help feed 2-million with Follow the Sun
With food inflation reaching nearly 10% by the end of the first quarter of 2016, a full shopping basket is a luxury for many people. According to Statistics South Africa as many as 16% of South Africans had inadequate access to food while for 6% access was severely inadequate.
In response to this challenge, Sun International is partnering with the local division of the international organisation Stop Hunger Now, to pack and distribute 2-million nutritious meals locally and 10-million across the world to mark International Mandela Day.
The meal packing campaign, entitled Follow the Sun, will take place until Wednesday, July 20, at five Sun International properties, namely Sun City, GrandWest in Cape Town, The Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth, Carnival City in Johannesburg and Sibaya in KwaZulu Natal.
Volunteers can lend a helping hand at the various Sun International and other properties nationally, where they can assist with packing dried goods such as Soya, Rice, 23 Vitamins and Minerals and a Soup Mix to be delivered to hungry children around South Africa.
Sun International will enter 15 teams of 20 at each of its five properties. Each team member will spend 67 minutes commemorating Nelson Mandela by packing products into meal boxes, which will ultimately feed a child for an entire year.
Mrs Graça Machel is Chief Patron of Stop Hunger Now Southern Africa.
Visit www.stophungernow.org for more information.
Inspire HOPE through the Chaeli Campaign
The Chaeli Campaign, a non-profit organisation that offers support to children living with disabilities, will be at the Blue Route Mall in Tokai from 10am to 5pm for their Mandela Day Challenge. For R67, shoppers can make and purchase HOPE (Helping Other People Every Day) bracelets – all the charms, beads and twine will be provided. Volunteers will get to make two pieces of jewellery: one to keep for themselves and one to pay-it-forward to someone else who might appreciate the gesture. You could also sponsor a stationery kit to the value of R150.
For more information, send an email to info@chaelicampaign.co.za; or call 0861 242354.
16 Tokai Road, Tokai
Be a hero in aid of Animal Rescue
This haven for our furry friends is inviting the public (especially schools and organisations) to fill 67 black bags with old clothing, linen, curtains, pet accessories and other items for its Mandela Day project. Everything collected will then be sold to raise funds for the Mobile Animal Sterilisation Unit, which seeks to spay and neuter animals in rural communities. Bags can be dropped off at the organisation in Ottery anytime during the week (it is closed on weekends) for the whole month of July.
The Animal Rescue Organisation aims to offer support and care to pets in Cape Town’s more impoverished areas by providing veterinary treatment at mobile clinics and by finding homes for abandoned cats, dogs, rabbits and other creatures.
Send an email to karen@animalrescue.org.za for more details; or call 021 396 5511.
5 Olieboom Road, Schaapkraal, Ottery
Khayelitsha pets need some love
Join Mdzananda Animal Clinic, the only permanent veterinary service offered in Khayelitsha, for 67 minutes of reconstructing wooden pallets into dog kennels for their four-legged charges on Monday, July 18 (if you are coming as part of a corporate or workgroup) and on Saturday, July 16 (if you are coming as an individual). Volunteers are asked to donate either R67 or R167 (whichever they can afford) to cover the cost of the doggie houses and to bring a hammer, measuring tape, paint brushes and any additional materials, like wood and nails, to assist in the building.
If you intend on participating, RSVP via email to marcelle@mdzananda.co.za; or call 082 200 9962. Volunteers are also welcome to bring along books, which will be sold to raise funds for the clinic’s projects.
21297 Govan Mbeki Road, Khayelitsha
Volunteer to brighten up the day for the aged
Donate your time or some much-needed goods to the Douglas Murray Home, which is located in the suburb of Retreat in the Cape Flats and provides care for 80 elderly and frail men and women. People can donate dry and perishable goods, personal products or money, and they can also spend some time with the residents. The folks at the home could also use some assistance with grooming and cleaning the residents, meal preparation and maintenance around the home and in the garden.
Although walk-ins are welcome, volunteers can book for the specific time that they want to visit the home by emailing: info@douglasmurray.co.za; or calling 021 712 2146.
Gordon Searle Street, Retreat
Christmas in July for the Friends of the Valkenberg Trust
This non-profit organisation works with staff at the Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in Observatory to help comfort patients during their stay at the facility and support them on the road to recovery after they are discharged. The trust is hosting a Christmas in July celebration to bring some fun to the 480 patients this winter and invite locals to donate Christmas trees, lights, tinsel and other decorations on Monday, July 18. In addition, the trust is looking for volunteers to coordinate collections of several other kinds of goods, including clothing, unwanted household items and DVDs. These goods will be sold in the hospital’s second-hand shop, and profits will go toward the hospital’s efforts. So, why not ask friends and folks in your neighbourhood, office or school to do a bit of food shopping and spring cleaning and see what they have – then organise a quick excursion to deliver the items?
Visit friendsofvalkenberg.co.za for more information and email events@friendsofvalkenberg.co.za for specifics; or call 021 447 2092.
Valkenberg Hospital, Observatory Road, Observatory
Serve soup to the homeless
Spend your 67 minutes helping Ladles of Love hand out warm soup and bread to the homeless at Mandela Rhodes Place. If you’re not able to stay and serve the soup, you could always donate money or winter clothing items to help keep the city’s homeless residents well-fed and warm.
The distribution will take place at 1pm on Monday, July 18, but donations can be made at any time to the organisation’s bank account.
Visit their Facebook page or Send an email to danny@doppio.co.za for more information.
Pack meals and hampers
FoodBank South Africa will be hosting a meal and hamper packing event for corporate volunteers at its Cape Town warehouse from 9am to 3pm on Monday, July 18. Your team will have 67 minutes to pack as many meals as possible. FoodBank asks that volunteers donate money toward the cost of rescuing donated food and delivering hampers rather than donating food. If you’re not able to attend the event, feel free to hold a food drive in your office or at home and drop off the collection at their warehouse.
For more information, call 021 531 5670; or email Ashleigh@foodbanksa.org.
Cape Town Market, 110 Gunners Circle, Epping 1
Classical music to honour Madiba’s legacy
The National Youth Orchestra will be performing in Cape Town this weekend.
The first concert, on Saturday, July 16, at 7pm at the Hugo Lambrechts Auditorium in Parow, will be presented in association with Fine Music Radio, as part of their drive to sponsor 67 radios for beneficiaries of the Cape Town Society for the Blind. Proceeds will go towards the National Youth Orchestra’s bursary fund, and radios sponsored by Fine Music Radio listeners and Pick n Pay will be handed over on the night. (Tickets, available online from Tixsa, range from R100 to R120.0
Their programme includes Mahler’s glorious Fifth Symphony and Benjamin Britten’s seldom-heard Double Concerto for Violin and Viola, written when the composer was just eighteen. The orchestra will be conducted by Ewa Strusiñska, a finalist and laureate at the prestigious Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition, and principal conductor and music director of the Szczecin Philharmonic Orchestra in Poland.
For more information, call 083 272 2117; send an email to team@sanyo.org.za; or visit www.sanyo.org.za.
Help build Africa’s largest mosaic to help feed minds and bodies
Canal Walk Shopping Centre and LEAP Science and Maths Schools – a network of no-fee independent schools – are partnering to build a massive canned food mosaic of the Mandela Day logo on Monday, July 18.
Using 6700 kilograms of food cans participants will build a massive mosaic spanning 8 X 16 metres in the form of the iconic Mandela Day logo. It will be a huge undertaking needing many hands, lots of energy and 17000 cans of food. There will be four time slots where volunteer teams will spend 67 minutes per session constructing the mosaic using the donated food cans.
To maintain the excitement and motivate teams the LEAP mass choir will perform live music and dancing in honour of Nelson Mandela, and share more about the social development projects LEAP learners and teachers are engaged in.
LEAP and CWSC have collaborated to raise funds for the LEAP network of schools and promote awareness around its work in education development. Companies are invited to lend their time, their labour force and their funds to support the cause. After the mosaic is built all the cans will be redistributed to community outreach projects that LEAP schools support. These projects are in Langa, Gugulethu, Crossroads and Delft.
Help keep children dry this winter
The winter storms in the Mother City are becoming more harsh every year and as a result plenty of children in disadvantaged communities are forced to stay away from school because they don’t have rainproof clothing to keep them dry and warm. The Community Chest of the Western Cape has launched their Winter Readiness campaign in order to put an end to this absenteeism by providing over 2000 preschoolers with raincoats and Wellington boots this winter.
The kit costs R350 per child and the organisation would like to raise R750000 to purchase as many as possible.
Make a donation to their bank account (contact the organisers for their banking details) or drop off Wellingtons, raincoats and other warm clothing at the Community Chest offices. Contact info@comchest.org.za for more info, or call 021 424 3344.
82 Bree Street, Cape Town CBD
The post Be the change you want to see in the world this Mandela Day appeared first on 48hours.co.za.