Today is MANDELA DAY! - July 18
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts. This year’s International Mandela Day focuses on activism. Take Action! Inspire Change!
Today is about getting people to devote sixty seven (67) minutes of their time to doing something to make a difference in the world. The significance of the sixty seven? One minute for each year that Nelson Mandela – or Madiba has given in service to the world.
Some may ask how this short period - just sixty seven minutes - can make a difference? But we have all heard of the moment that changed a life.
In sixty seven minutes you can engage a teenager who is experiencing difficulties with peers; sit with a patient in hospital and just empathise; read with a class of toddlers at pre or primary school. Sixty seven minutes can change a life.
Some seem to think that volunteering has to take place within a formal structure - and sometimes it does. One can hardly expect to walk into a kindergarden or school without making arrangements with the headteacher or the education authorities.
However, stopping to ask a child why they are out of school during school hours, and engaging him/her in conversation requires nothing more than willingness to take a chance on being told to mind your own business.
St. Kitts and Nevis has a long history of volunteerism as do most developing countries where people are the most valuable asset – an asset which is in short supply as small developing states are by virtue of their size and small populations.
This cadre of volunteers however, is usually in evidence at large organised events such as national events, music and sporting festivals, etc. But the sixty seven minute project invites us to take individual action.
We, each of us, can actually make a difference in our communities by doing something positive to create the change we want to see.
How about visiting the residents of the Cardin Home and reading to them for an hour? How about pulling weeds in the cemetery? How about going on a beach clean-up? How about collecting the plastics littering your walk route?
These are all actions we can take TODAY to make a difference in our communities. And it doesn’t have to end with just today! How about just sixty seven minutes one day each week? How could we transform our communities then!
Why not join with family members, neighbours, or work colleagues to start some action in your neighbourhood? When we think of the contribution that Madiba has given in his life, we should consider what we could do to emulate his example to change our world.
That thought should make us and go out and begin today.
