Support lasting change this Mandela Day

Support lasting change this Mandela Day Ursula
Written by: Dale Hes

Let us all take action and inspire change by starting our own Mandela Day initiative or supporting planned events in our communities. Go on, make every day a Mandela Day.

What will you be doing for Mandela Day? This question should be on everyone’s lips this month!

What is Mandela Day?

Each year, on 18 July, Mandela Day calls on all of us to do our part to make the world a better place. More importantly, this global initiative celebrating the life, ideals and humanitarian actions of Tata Mandela encourages us to build sustainable actions that will leave lasting impacts.

As the Nelson Mandela Foundation states: “Nelson Mandela saw himself first and foremost as a servant of South Africa’s people, to whom he felt he owed a duty, and who he led by example. In the spirit of Madiba and his vision to spread social justice and freedom for all, this is your chance to become part of a continuous global movement for good.”

What is happening this Mandela Day?

This year’s Mandela Day is taking place under the theme #ACTIONAGAINSTPOVERTY.

This is the 10th year that the event will be celebrated and it signals a new strategy that encourages people to get involved in supporting education, literacy, food and nutrition, sanitation, shelter and active citizenship. The strategy acknowledges that true change cannot happen in just one day – we must all come together in a collaborative effort to create change every day.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and his Cabinet are calling on all South Africans to use the month to uphold the legacy of Madiba by taking collective action against poverty.

Various government, community and NGO initiatives will take place. These will focus on the 10 Nelson Mandela Day Goals for 2019 – 2020 and South Africans are encouraged to support these initiatives.

Mandela Day Goals

2019 – 2020

  • Goal 1 – Provision of quality education for children.
  • Goal 2 – All children in ECD centres to have access to learning resources for development.
  • Goal 3 – Reduce hunger in families through the provision of nutritious meals.
  • Goal 4 – Eliminate malnutrition and stunting among young children.
  • Goal 5 – Provide safe shelter for families.
  • Goal 6 – Eliminate homelessness.
  • Goal 7 – Ensure safe school sanitation.
  • Goal 8 – Enable access to safe sanitation to all communities.
  • Goal 9 – Dedicate more resources to supporting poverty eradication efforts.
  • Goal 10 – Increase resources allocated to the provision of ECD in disadvantaged communities.
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