Great ideas for Mandela Day?

Mandela Day, also known as Nelson Mandela International Day, will be held on July 18 and aims to inspire individuals to take action to help change the world for the better.
Individuals and organisations are free to participate in Mandela Day are urged to adhere to the ethical framework of “service to one’s fellow human”. Nelson Mandela followed three rules throughout his life, which he did at great personal sacrifice: 1. Free yourself, 2. Free others, and 3. Serve everyday – it was not just his mantra, it was his way of life.
The objective of the Mandela Day campaign is a call to action for individuals – for people everywhere – to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as the late Mr Mandela did for more than 67 years. Start by devoting 67 minutes to community service on Mandela Day, on July 18 each year, and then make every day your Mandela Day by doing some good for others.
Here are some ideas from the www.mandeladay.com web site of what you can do to contribute to the campaign:
- Make a new friend. Get to know someone from a different cultural background. Only through mutual understanding can we rid our communities of intolerance and xenophobia.
- Read to someone who can’t.
- Fix the potholes in your street or neighbourhood.
- Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.
- Find out from your local library if it has a story hour and offer to read during it.
- Offer to take an elderly neighbour who can’t drive to do their shopping/chores.
- Organise a litter cleanup day in your area.
- Get a group of people to each knit a square and make a blanket for someone in need.
- Volunteer at your police station or local faith-based organisation.
- Donate your skills!
-  If you’re a builder, help build or improve someone’s home.
- Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.
- Write to your area councillor about a problem in the area that requires attention, which you, in your personal capacity, are unable to attend to.
- Get in touch with your local HIV organisations and find out how you can help.
- Get tested for HIV and encourage your partner to do so too.
- Take a bag full of toys to a local hospital that has a children’s ward.
- Take younger members of your family for a walk in the park.
- Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.
- Bake something for a support group of your choice.
- Create a food parcel and give it to someone in need.
- Donate your old computer.
- Help maintain the sports fields.
- Fix up a classroom by replacing broken windows, doors and light bulbs.
- Teach an adult literacy class.
- Paint classrooms and school buildings.
- Donate your old textbooks, or any other good books, to a school library.
- Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.
- Clean out your cupboard and donate the clothes you no longer wear to someone who needs them.
- Organise a friendly game of soccer, or sponsor the kids to watch a game at the local stadium.
- Donate sporting equipment to a children’s shelter.
- Donate educational toys and books to a children’s home.
- Paint, or repair, infrastructure at an orphanage or youth centre.
- If you play an instrument, visit your local old-age home and spend an hour playing for the residents and staff.
- Learn the story of someone older than you. Too often people forget that the elderly have a wealth of experience and wisdom and, more often than not, an interesting story to tell.
- Take an elderly person grocery shopping; they will appreciate your company and assistance.
- Take someone’s dog for a walk if they are too frail to do so themselves.
- Mow someone’s lawn and help them to fix things around their house.
- If there are no recycling centres in your area, petition your area councillor to provide one.
- Donate indigenous trees to beautify neighbourhoods in poorer areas.
- Collect old newspapers from a school/community centre/hospital and take them to a recycling centre.
- Identify open manhole covers or drains in your area and report them to the local authorities.
- Organise to clean up your local park, river, beach, street, town square or sports grounds with a few friends. Our children deserve to grow up in a clean and healthy environment.