By Rachel Mohammed
As we honor the memory of the father of the nation and late former President Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela this month, South Africa and the world have long been celebrating his birthday on July 18 marked as International Mandela Day.
On this day, South Africans contribute their time to doing good and making a difference in their community for the less fortunate, spending their 67 minutes either painting a wall or cleaning old age homes or schools that need to be revamped.
The head of Mandela Day at the Nelson Mandela Foundation Gushwell Brooks said the “67 minutes” slogan originated from an individual who made a miscalculation on the number of years the former president spent in public service.
“The 67 minutes slogan came after someone had incorrectly calculated that Madiba had given 67 years of his life to public service. However, if one goes back in the history of Nelson Mandela, the work that he has done is dedicated specifically to human advancement, it goes beyond that, and on that basis, the foundation has shied away from that and does not use the slogan 67 minutes but that is where it originates”, he said.
He further explains that the Nelson Mandela Foundation has since changed its slogan to “Every Day is a Mandela Day” because we believe in long-term and sustainable solutions and the 18th of July being Madiba’s birthday and Nelson Mandela Day is rather emblematic of a day in which we can showcase the culmination of the work that we have done and we cannot solve poverty and equity and all injustice in the world on just focusing our efforts on one particular day. We need everyone to get involved to do this work daily,” he added.
Furthermore, the Nelson Mandela Foundation has partnered with the United Nations, TedEX Johannesburg, civil society organizations, and businesses to host a series of talks aimed at Mandela Day.
“For Mandela Day the Nelson Mandela Foundation has brought a spectrum of partners including business and civil society as well as government and international community and in fact, on the day they will be partnering with the United Nations and TEDx Johannesburg. We are going to have a series of 17 talks focused on each of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as the foundation agrees that SDGs are a great mechanism for advancing humanity, human needs and the needs of the planet and environment,” he added.
Speaking to VOC News, aid organization, Ashraful Aid’s Chief Operating Officer Yusuf Nabee shared some insight in terms of what they will be doing on Mandela Day.
“Ashraful-Aid in partnership with Lions Cricket will be hosting its 4th annual Mandela Day event in embracing the spirit of Madiba and will be distributing food parcels for the needy in Gauteng and other areas,” he stated.
He further emphasized the importance of volunteering as they continue to do good to help the less fortunate during the Mandela Day campaign.
“The day is designed to give people the opportunity to volunteer and embrace the culture of volunteerism and truly believe that giving time and effort to participate in an event like this one is a reminder that we must be thankful to Allah SWT for everything that we have,” he concluded.
On Monday, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly celebrated Nelson Mandela International Day by honoring the late President Mandela’s legacy under the theme ‘It is still in our hands to combat poverty and inequity”.
Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Amina Mohammed delivered a message on behalf of UN Secretary-General António Guterres highlighting the unequal and divided world we live in with poverty and hunger being widespread.
“The richest one percent of the global population is responsible for the same quantity of planet-wrecking greenhouse gases as two-thirds of humanity. These are not natural factors these results of humanity’s choices but man-made choices. We can decide to do things differently, we can choose to eradicate poverty, end inequality to transform the international economic and financial system in the name of equity, fight racism, and combat climate change, she said.
Mohammed further elaborated on the challenges humans face today is because of the choices people make.
“What strikes me in the message of the Secretary-General is the focus of life choices and the challenges of today are because of choices made yesterday and the freedom to reverse them. Nelson Mandela’s autobiography book Long Walk to Freedom said poverty is not an accident like slavery and apartheid, but poverty can be removed by actions of human beings as it was man-made” she stated.
VOC News
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