What will you be doing with your 67 minutes?

In 2009 the UN dedicated 18 July as International Nelson Mandela Day, with the intention that people around the world would set aside 67 minutes of their day to help others – one minute for each of Mandela’s 67 years of public service. As Nelson Mandela famously said: ‘It is in your hands to make our world a better one for all.’ Are you up to the challenge?

Select an initiative or community project and be part of Nelson Mandela’s legacy on 18 July. It can be just another regular day in your life, or it can be an extraordinary day! It really is up to you to decide.

Mandela’s ultimate hope was that these 67 minutes of service would inspire us to perform regular acts of community service, that we would be a people who devote time and effort to improving conditions in our communities – ‘changing the world for the better, every day.’ Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to serving others, setting an incredible example and showing us that to love is to serve.

‘What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead.’ Nelson Mandela

If you would like to donate your time to public service but don’t know where to start, try one of these suggestions from the UN Nelson Mandela International Day web page:

• 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. Visit a local home for the blind and open up a new world for someone else.
• Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.
• Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.
• Many terminally ill people have no one to speak to. Take a little time to have a chat and bring some sunshine into their lives.
• Get tested for HIV and encourage your partner to do so too.
• Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.
• Donate a wheelchair or guide dog to someone in need.
• Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.

To see all 67 suggestions for action, visit the Nelson Mandela Foundation site.

‘It is easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build.’

Nelson Mandela