Mandela Day drives uplift SA
Citizens help feed the hungry amid Covid-19 pandemic
NELSON Mandela International Day was celebrated yesterday with a range of activities, from feeding the hungry to a clothing and blanket drive, to a Mandela Jive Challenge that encouraged the nation to show off their moves.
Mandela Day this year came in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, but that did not stop citizens from spreading hope and love through generous donations.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation together with the South African government used the opportunity to promote the #Actionagainstpoverty campaign.
The foundation’s aim is to take action against hunger and poverty through the #Each1feed1 campaign. They have asked locals and people around the world to join the foundation’s campaign to bring relief to those experiencing food insecurity as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The official Mandela Day website has called on individuals to be active citizens in their communities, 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 the efforts of Mandela Day.
To celebrate the 11th International Mandela Day, DJ Jazzy D joined hands with Jacaranda FM’S Good Morning Angels on
– together raising enough funds to feed 40000 people in desperate need.
Teams of volunteers at soup kitchens across the country got cracking yesterday preparing meals. Volunteers in Austerville, Brighton Beach and Wentworth in Durban prepared meals from 4am. Kwazulu-natal Premier Sihle Zikalala joined the Nelson Mandela Foundation in handing over sanitation facilities to schools in Pietermaritzburg.
NGOS such as The Association for the Aged (Tafta), who care for about 5500 senior citizens, started an initiative involving “care kits”.
Nirupa Kasserchun, fund-raising manager at Tafta, said the idea of the kits stemmed from wanting to alleviate distress and the need to promote the well-being of the elderly in their care.
“Each kit was carefully designed with the aim of meeting a specific care need, like the self-care kit which is designed to promote and allow for adequate hygiene practices for the elderly,” said Kasserchun.
There are seven kits, with the minimum price of a care kit being around R200. Donors are encouraged to buy within their budgets. Upon arrival, the care kits’ contents would undergo a sanitation process at Tafta’s head office before being delivered to the elderly.
A social media challenge encouraged South Africans to show off their moves. Tiktok Africa is attempting to awake the creative spirit in its users with the #Madibajivechallenge. The idea stemmed from the famous “Madiba Jive”, a dance move popularised by Mandela.
Boniswa Sidwaba, content operations manager for Tiktok Africa, said the #Madibajivechallenge calls on the nation to come together and celebrate Nelson Mandela by posting a video on Tiktok with the Mandela Day sticker and hashtag #Madibajivechallenge.
“In addition to showing off their dance moves, users are asked to encourage one another to do their 67 minutes of good however they can – it’s simply about impacting someone else’s life positively,” she said.
Another initiative titled the “Mandela Day Project” is a countrywide volunteer and donation-based project run by The Care For Love Foundation. Dineshren Naidoo, a volunteer of the project, said they would be continuing with the project until the end of the month in honour of Madiba.
“We have teams in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and all over Durban working together to collect clothing, blankets, toys and basically whatever is good enough to share. Anybody can get involved. We are following government regulations and maintaining social distancing while still engaging with different communities,” he said.