A Man walks past a mural of Nelson Mandela. The world celebrates Mandela Day on Saturday as part of an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela. Picture: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency(ANA) A Man walks past a mural of Nelson Mandela. The world celebrates Mandela Day on Saturday as part of an annual international day in honour of Nelson Mandela. Picture: Brendan Magaar/African News Agency(ANA)
Cape Town - With the lockdown restrictions firmly in place, charity will definitely begin at home for your 67 minutes of kindness this Mandela Day.
While it’s not possible to gather in large groups, even for acts of kindness, Mandela Day events are still taking place, virtually and in accordance with physical distancing and hygiene requirements.
Through its call to action, the official Mandela Day team has asked South Africans to focus their charitable efforts around the challenges of the Covid-19 outbreak, poverty, food and nutrition and the most vulnerable in their communities.
“We call on you to be an active citizen in your community, individually or as part of one of the millions of groups getting together to start initiatives around delivering food parcels, making masks and protective gear, teaching online or making donations towards these efforts,”reads the Mandela Day statement.
Crowdfunding websites like BackaBuddy are a great place to start if you’re looking to donate money to a worthy cause.
“Help our doctors fight Coronavirus” from The Gift of The Givers is one of BackaBuddy’s initiatives. This disaster relief foundation encourages citizens to “support the doctors, nurses and medical staff that work in the ICUs and high care units across medical facilities in South Africa. Help buy the equipment and supplies needed for them to do the vital work they do.”
Tinned food is also always a big need for charities and last year the Global Teachers Institute managed to build an incredible mosaic commemorating Madiba’s life with more than 30000 donated cans of food. They’re doing the same thing this year and you can make your donation via their website and enjoy a live concert which will feature musical performances. Comedians are also doing their bit, albeit from a virtual stage.
You can laugh along with Marc Lottering, Alan Committee, Anne Hirsch, Kagiso KG Mokgadi, Mel Jones and Nik Rabinowitz during their comedy show at 5pm today. Proceeds of the ticket sales will goes to Cotlands. Tickets are R100 and available from Quicket.
Man’s best four-legged friends should also not be forgotten.
One of the ways to help a worthwhile animal cause is to build a kennel and donate it to the Mdzananda Animal Clinic.
If you need some help with the kennel construction you can email marcelle@mdzananda.co.za, and an instruction will be forwarded to you.
The pandemic has hit South Africans hard and that is why this year the charitable aims of Mandela Day are even more
important.