Mandela Day at The Hope Centre

July 18^th was Mandela Day here in South Africa. Though it is not a national holiday, every year the whole country celebrates the birthday of the great man and former president. Nelson Mandela was 67 when he became president and this year he particularly requested that, having given 67 years of his life towards freedom and human rights, everyone give 67 minutes to improve the lives of those less fortunate people that live within our own communities. I think that this is a fantastic idea and one that could stand being repeated in a lot of other countries.

Certainly this sentiment was appreciated by the local navy base in Simons Town as we at Hope Centre in Westlake discovered. We had been told that we would be having some people in to do a few things but we did not expect a busload of naval personnel armed with paint, wood varnish, sand paper, sweets, chips, candy floss and a clown.

The kids had a fantastic couple of hours having their faces painted, being fed soup and candy floss and any number of other things and generally being entertained while their Educare was being overhauled in true naval fashion (quick, tidy and extremely efficient).  I was delighted to be able to talk to the organiser of the event and hear that he fully intended this to be a regular occurrence and that the navy was hoping to “adopt” the centre. The impact this could have on these kids, who have been chosen to attend the centre as they cannot afford the minimal charges for other Educares, would be huge.

Surely this is exactly what Madiba was hoping for when he asked for each of us to give our 67 minutes. 49m people giving up one hour each is about 6000 years worth of time, but if each person continues that work, rather than just giving that one hour per year, then how much could we achieve together?!

Nick Herrick – Fish Hoek

Mandela Day at The Hope Centre