Reflective note on International Mandela Day July 18

Background        
18 July is a birthday of the late former President Nelson R. Mandela, founder of Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and its sister organisations. Different organisations, individuals and groups tended to mark the day in one form or another within their own means.

The United Nation Declaration of July 18 as International Mandela Day on November 2009, on the year of Mr. Mandela 91st birthday, helped to release global energy and movement for good and to generally help those in less fortunate circumstances. This is in honour of Mr. Mandela’s 67 years of service to the human struggle for freedom.
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To join the world community, the Fund has since marked the day by giving added attention to various causes that fall within its programme work and carried out by implementing partners.
Added attention to these causes comes in the form of placing them on the World Wide Web for interested parties to be familiar with what each project does and the associated needs to carrying out their good work.

What Mandela Day Means           
Mandela Day is based on the idea that if every individual dedicates a short amount of time to making the world a better place, there is immense potential for collective good to flourish. Mandela Day is a call to action for every individual, group, corporate, to take responsibility for making the world a better place, one step at a time, in response to areas of need within their communities and guided by means at their disposal.

As the Fund we encourage individuals to find initiatives within their various communities to do their 67 Minutes of service.

​Mandela Day is as much an energiser to the Children’s Fund. The joy of being allowed to be children, to play, sing, dance, dream and be lost in the wonder of the innocence of childhood that should be delivered from homelessness, poverty, hunger, harm, danger, vulnerability, neglect and diseases. Any assistance given and received by the Fund or its partners counts to make everyone who shares the vision of the Fund a fellow traveller and commits to the belief that Every Child Counts.