Lifestyle

Make a difference this Mandela Day 2017

What is it about?

Nelson Mandela Day on the 18th of July is a day celebrated internationally in honour of former South African president, philanthropist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela’s birthday. It falls on the late icon’s birthday and has become an official day of charity work, volunteering and community service. The impetus behind it is that it takes a little bit of effort from everyone to make a big impact on the lives of others.

 

Why 67 minutes?

The call to action is to dedicate at least 67 minutes of your day to doing good, which is directly influenced by Mandela himself as he devoted 67 years of his life to the service of humanity.

The Mandela Day campaign sums it up best: “The message behind Mandela Day is simple – everyone has the ability and the responsibility to change the world for the better.”

 

Ideas of things to do:

The day makes it easy to pick something close to your heart and do some good deeds. Here are some ideas of what you can do:

 

Community Work:

It’s not always easy reaching into your pockets to donate money to causes, but thankfully you have other options. The majority of these charities could use a few extra hands to fix or build something, or simply fill in for carers to give them some time off. Places that could use this type of help can be:

     Hospitals

     Hospices

     Old age homes

     Orphanages

     Charities/shelters

     Local schools

 

Environment:

If taking care of the environment is something that’s important to you, you could spend your 67 minutes doing something for it. Options here are plenty and could include you joining a group of fellow eco-warriors to do a clean-up anywhere from a beach to a park. Something else that is always an awesome idea is planting trees To combine a few causes into one offer your tree-planting services to a school or charity home, to help beautify their environments and dog something amazing for the earth.

 

Animals:

Get your furry friends’ tails wagging by spending time at a shelter, and either socialising with some of the animal or helping the caretakers with some tasks. Or take the leap and adopt a pawesome buddy if you’ve got the space, finances and capacity to do so. Alternatively, you can simply donate some food and necessities to a shelter to ensure animals without homes are well looked after.

 

Kids:

For little ones at under-resourced schools, simple basics like pens and pencils can make a major difference for their school career. You could put together stationery packages or simply donate a few class essentials to a school in need and in the process make the children’s lives much easier.

Safety homes and orphanages and the like often have many mouths to feed, so it’s always a great idea to donate food to such initiatives. Besides non-perishable foods, you could consider spending some time with the kids and the carers, in fact many people throw little parties to bring some fun and excitement to the homes.

 

Things to remember:

     Do what you can, every little bit helps.

     You don’t have to limit your charity work to one day a year

     Contact your charity of choice and find out the specifics of what they need

     If you’re unable to volunteer, financial contributions are always helpful

 

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