Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela!

Our former South African president Nelson Mandela turns 92 today, just one week after the successful hosting of the FIFA Soccer World Cup.

But this year the world will celebrate with him on

“Nelson Mandela International Day”,

which the United Nations decided would be observed every year on his birthday to recognise his struggle for peace and freedom.

In honour of his 67 years of service  to his country and his people, the Mandela Foundation is asking people around the world to give 67 minutes of their time to volunteer work – one minute for every year that he spent in the struggle for equality.

What can we do?

• Donate blood (only if you’re over 18).  Monday is World Blood Donar Day.
• Volunteer at rural schools; give books, stationary, posters, paint out the classrooms, donate tea and coffee for the staff, garden or decorate at the entrance.
• Fix and build playground equipment in poor community schools and parks.
• Make meals for the needy.
• Donate groceries to the needy.
• Visit the needy at caravan parks and give clothes and food.
• Visit hospital wards; especially the children’s wards, oncology wards and bless the nurses too.
• Visit the aged in old age homes.  Encourage the staff who serve the elderly.
• Visit and encourage staff and children in orphanages.
• Join with other communities and play soccer/games in a community park.
• Offer your services to your local municipal library or clinics.
• Plant a vegetable bed in a needy community; donate seeds, seedlings, garden tools and fertilizer.
• Visit the lonely in your own neighbourhood.
• Bake cakes and biscuits to give to the needy.
• Serve those who serve – the cleaners, refuse removal staff.
• Thank your local police and emergency workers.  Bring them cake!

Watch this short video of Nelson Mandela International Day.

Read his autobiography The Long Road To Freedom.

For an excellent, rich,  literature-based South African History eduction curriculum I highly recommend Footprints On Our Land.  (We used this curriculum for all 3 of our children. See my review here.)

As Nelson Mandela encourages,

we must use our lives to make the world a better place.

What will you do?