http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/general/mandela_day_gains_momentum.html
Support is growing for turning Nelson Mandela's birthday into an annual "Mandela Day" of community service, the Nelson Mandela Foundation said on Monday. "The call... to celebrate Mr Mandela's birthday on 18 July as Mandela Day, is gaining momentum," Foundation CEO Achmat Dangor said in a statement.
Mandela Day is not meant to be a public holiday but an annual event where people around the world are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time to do something which makes a difference to the world around them.
A series of events will be staged across South Africa, in New York and in other cities across the world to celebrate the day. "Mandela Day is a global call to action on all people to follow in Mr Mandela's footsteps by doing good in their own communities. This is in recognition of his decades of sacrifice for humanity," Dangor said.
Some of the programmes planned to take place on Mandela's 91st birthday in South Africa include a community discussion in Khayelitsha about xenophobia. Foundation staff members would be giving of their time to various causes on the day.
The Nelson Mandela Institute for Rural Development and Education with the University of Fort Hare would be working with volunteers to clean up the town of Alice and the Jabavu High School located there. "Afterwards they will celebrate Mr Mandela's life with poetry and song at a jamboree on campus." In Cape Town the Mandela Rhodes Foundation will participate in workshops promoting ubuntu in the workplace.
Earlier this month, the ANC said its parliamentary caucus and youth league would work together to make Mandela Day a reality. "We committed ourselves... that on the 18th of July we should commemorate Mandela Day through community work programmes organised and executed through our constituency offices," ANC Chief Whip Mathole Motshekga said at the time.
Ahead of the launch of his day, Mandela met with a group of South African and American students at the beginning of this month. The students developed a charter applying Mandela's ideals to their day-to-day lives which would be passed on to their communities and peers.
"Mandela has said: ‘It is time for new hands to lift the burdens’ of the world. He has also said that he wished that ‘South Africans never give up on the belief in goodness’. If each one of us becomes involved together we could help create an international global movement for good," Dangor said.
This story, entitled Mandela Day gains momentum, was written by Sapa and distributed by South Africa - the Good News July 2, 2009.
13 November 2009
by Bongani Nkosi, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com
The UN has declared 18 July Nelson Mandela International Day in recognition of the former South African president’s commitment to human rights, conflict resolution and reconciliation. Starting in 2010, the day will be observed each year on 18 July – Mandela’s birthday – and people across the world will be urged to dedicate 67 minutes of their time to uplift society in some way.
UN General Assembly paid tribute to Mandela in its 64th session in New York on 10 November, adopting a draft resolution put forward by South African ambassador to the UN, Baso Sangqu. The resolution seeks to make the international community aware of Mandela’s humanitarian work. It also recognises Mandela's “leading role in and support for Africa's struggle for liberation and unity, and his outstanding contribution to the creation of a non-racial, non-sexist democratic South Africa”.
The UN invited all member states, its organisations and other international organisations, as well as civil society, including non-governmental organisations and individuals, “to observe Nelson Mandela International Day in an appropriate manner”.
The idea of Mandela Day was first introduced by South African president Jacob Zuma in 2009. It became a nationwide campaign to get the public involved in charitable activities, also for 67 minutes on 18 July – the day Mandela turned 91. The number of minutes was significant because it represented the 67 years since the former president first started fighting for human rights and the abolition of apartheid.
Read more here. For more about Nelson Mandela's work, see the Mandela Foundation website. The Nelson Mandela Foundation welcomed the UN declaration, noting that the unanimous adoption with the support of all UN member states and co-sponsorship of over 165 members represented "the overwhelming support of the entire international community in honouring Mr. Mandela".
The Foundation said it hoped this signalled "the beginning of greater involvement by the global community in this movement for good. Mandela Day serves as a catalyst for each and every person to realize that they have the ability to change the world through action, the Foundation said. "It is not about creating institutions with huge infrastructure, but a global movement for good which recognizes that positive change begins with small actions. These actions can range from a vision for creating peace and reconciliation to sharing food with a neighbour in need."
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