Happy Birthday Madiba

July 18, 2012 by Brown Shuga

The most loved man in the world turns 94 today and at this age personal gifts don’t mean much but 18 July has been declared Mandela Day and on this day we are encourage to follow in Madiba’s footsteps, by giving a little of our time to make a difference to the lives of those who are less fortunate.

Mandeladay.com has a list of 67 Ways To Change The World and having looked through that list, I realise that everyday is Mandela Day to me and I do a lot of “thinking of others’…

67 WAYS TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Think of others

1. 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.
2. Read to someone who can’t. Visit a local home for the blind and open up a new world for someone else.
3. Fix the potholes in your street or neighbourhood.
4. Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.
5. Find out from your local library if it has a story hour and offer to read during it.
6. Offer to take an elderly neighbour who can’t drive to do their shopping/chores.
7. Organise a litter cleanup day in your area.
8. Get a group of people to each knit a square and make a blanket for someone in need.
9. Volunteer at your police station or local faith-based organisation.
10. Donate your skills!
11. If you’re a builder, help build or improve someone’s home.
12. Help someone to get his/her business off the ground.
13. Build a website for someone who needs one, or for a cause you think needs the support.
14. Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.
15. If you’re a lawyer, do some pro bono work for a worthwhile cause or person.
16. Write to your area councillor about a problem in the area that requires attention, which you, in your personal capacity, are unable to attend to.
17. Sponsor a group of learners to go to the theatre/zoo.

Help out for good health

18. Get in touch with your local HIV organisations and find out how you can help.
19. Help out at your local hospice, as staff members often need as much support as the patients.
20. 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.
21. Talk to your friends and family about HIV.
22. Get tested for HIV and encourage your partner to do so too.
23. Take a bag full of toys to a local hospital that has a children’s ward.
24. Take younger members of your family for a walk in the park.
25. Donate some medical supplies to a local community clinic.
26. Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.
27. Bake something for a support group of your choice.
28. Start a community garden to encourage healthy eating in your community.
29. Donate a wheelchair or guide dog, to someone in need.
30. Create a food parcel and give it to someone in need.

Become an educator

31. Offer to help out at your local school.
32. Mentor a school leaver or student in your field of expertise.
33. Coach one of the extramural activities the school offers. You can also volunteer to coach an extramural activity the school doesn’t offer.
34. Offer to provide tutoring in a school subject you are good at.
35. Donate your old computer.
36. Help maintain the sports fields.
37. Fix up a classroom by replacing broken windows, doors and light bulbs.
38. Donate a bag of art supplies.
39. Teach an adult literacy class.
40. Paint classrooms and school buildings.
41. Donate your old textbooks, or any other good books, to a school library.

Help those living in poverty

42. Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.
43. Clean out your cupboard and donate the clothes you no longer wear to someone who needs them.
44. Put together food parcels for a needy family.
45. Organise a bake sale, car wash or garage sale for charity and donate the proceeds.
46. To the poorest of the poor, shoes can be a luxury. Don’t hoard them if you don’t wear them. Pass them on!
47. Volunteer at your local soup kitchen.

Care for the youth

48. Help at a local children’s home or orphanage.
49. Help the kids with their studies.
50. Organise a friendly game of soccer, or sponsor the kids to watch a game at the local stadium.
51. Coach a sports team and make new friends.
52. Donate sporting equipment to a children’s shelter.
53. Donate educational toys and books to a children’s home.
54. Paint, or repair, infrastructure at an orphanage or youth centre.
55. Mentor someone. Make time to listen to what the kids have to say and give them good advice.

Treasure the elderly

56. If you play an instrument, visit your local old-age home and spend an hour playing for the residents and staff.
57. Learn the story of someone older than you. Too often people forget that the elderly have a wealth of experience and wisdom and, more often than not, an interesting story to tell.
58. Take an elderly person grocery shopping; they will appreciate your company and assistance.
59. Take someone’s dog for a walk if they are too frail to do so themselves.
60. Mow someone’s lawn and help them to fix things around their house.

Look after your environment

61. If there are no recycling centres in your area, petition your area councillor to provide one.
62. Donate indigenous trees to beautify neighbourhoods in poorer areas.
63. Collect old newspapers from a school/community centre/hospital and take them to a recycling centre.
64. Identify open manhole covers or drains in your area and report them to the local authorities.
65. Organise the company/school/organisation that you work with to switch off all unnecessary lights and power supplies at night and on weekends.
66. Engage with people who litter and see if you can convince them of the value of clean surroundings.
67. Organise to clean up your local park, river, beach, street, town square or sports grounds with a few friends. Our children deserve to grow up in a clean and healthy environment.

What are your thoughts on Madiba Day? Is the 67 minutes thing working for you?

Babyluv -weeee maybe for their 67 minutes for tata they can be decent enough to return my money, every week she tells me she doesn’t have money, that she owes a lot of people & I am on top of her to pay back list. This morning on BBM she says she wants to relocate & start afresh. Told her hope as she enters ramadam she values so much, she enters with a clear concious. She been complaining about being sick so often & just BBMed Karma- don’t die before returning my money! *SMH*

So son is suppose to be at school now so that at 8am the sing Happy Birthday to the big man…ghaaaa I was awake till 2am so am still in bed now.

Miss Thang on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 7:38 am

Happy Youth Day Tata Mzansi Loves You

Miss Thang on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 7:39 am

ah Shit was listening to the news when they were saying Tata is the Youth’s favorite leader! Happy Birthday Madiba

crazydoll on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:23 am

Kwaaaaa @ Miss Thang. Happy birthday Tata!

Azande on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:24 am

Happy birth day Madiba we love u, im not going to wish u more yrs, im sure awusafuni nawe, Enjoy ur day tata.

Kusihlwa on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:27 am

Happy birthday Tata. Guys did you hear the Madiba song, the one with Dorothy Masuku, Sibongile Khumalo, PJ Powers and other divas. Hayi hayi hayi….iyandi finisher shame. There is just one voice that keeps going Happy Birthday Day in a deep voice, its very funny shame.

sk1 on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:30 am

Happy birthday Madiba

Hey Kimmo segateledi seng tshwara 2 times or thrice a week , ebileng lately wat i do is I lit a candle , wake up ka 12midnite an pray , ke bo thata weitsi

sk1 on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:37 am

Hehehe Kusi i like yo avatar , gudluzindoda :-0 ,

Twitter on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:40 am

Happy birthday Tata Madiba. Siyakuthanda silusapho lwase Mzantsi Afrika. Ulonwabele usuku lwakho.

@Kusi lol I also heard the song. Imnandi kodwa.

Kusihlwa on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:45 am

@ski, thanks, there was a pic of Ben 10 on the side but it wouldnt fit, it reminds me of the khethiwe and ruby situation.
@Twitter, yah it is.

kimmo on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:47 am

@sk1 ill be misreable if i was in your shoes lol

elegnamis on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:47 am

Happy Birthday to Tata and my baby sis

Mapakisha on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:48 am

Happy birthday Madiba, pity the cheesekids had to cancel our 67 mins thingy kule weekend cos bekubanda. I was so ready to go:(

nana on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 8:56 am

Happy birthday to you Legend..May God give you whatever your heart desires.

Mojito on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 9:08 am

Oh Tata enjoy your day!

snapshot on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 9:53 am

Happy birthday Tata, wishing you a great day filled with love and joy.

Im so sad that Madiba will pass on before i can meet and greet him, if he is not dead of course.

Bee on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 10:17 am

Happy birthday Tata and thank you so much for every thing you have done for us as the nation. We are indeed need more couragious(sp) people like you in this whole world.

And on the same breath guys it’s my wife’s birthday. Omg she’s turning a BIG 30. Man, to think that she was only 23 when we met and now she all grown up. Life is good! Happy birthday boo.

Eyh2Jee on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 10:33 am

And thers the another HBD song for MAdiba,a Gospel song,hehehehe,Lundi,Fikile Mouth aka Mlomo, etc…hay shem iGospel sebeyixuba beyivanga, hahaha death by Gudluz’indoda uBEN10 sele efikile,kwaaaa *encedisa u@Sk1*

sk1 on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 11:04 am

Eish Kimmo , u hv no idea misery @its best , mara wat causes that? a na ke bona boloi ….kwaaaaa!!!

Hee Kusi i cant stop giggling @the pic

MissGalaxy on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 11:31 am

Happy Birthday Tata. I hope mme Graca reads you our beautiful messages. May God Bless you Further icon ya rona!!!

Smatsatsa on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 11:45 am

Auuww Bee, A Happy birthday to your dururu
With the utmost respce I have for Madiba, I really feel like this day is being so commercialised that it’s starting to loose its significance, everyone’s trying to make money out of this.. Artists are remixing their bday versions, companies promoting their brand/products with things like “every shwarma sold today, we’ll donate this much to charity”
I’m so inundated by this Madiba day! *sigh*

sk1 on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 12:08 pm

@Smatsata i ws telling a colleague of mine exactly wat u uttered , bunch of opportunists

Can u give me yo email ad , if u dont mind i need 2ask u sumthing

Wild Island on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 12:19 pm

Sweet@Bee…
@Snap..yazi im accused of starting a conspiracy theory around the “what if” part..same ngo MJ they “did” find his remainds ko never never land ranch ele oho ppl were stil sceptical so haike asazi….when last did u see him on TV vele aaaaaaand that stlogolo of his for auctioning his burial rights*who the hell does that heee asazi..

HBD Tata…if i get that pls send R60airtime to this number am gonna screem nxa

Smatsatsa on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 12:34 pm

@sk1 it’s phmthembu@gmail.com

sk1 on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 1:09 pm

thnx

Nokxie on Wed, 18th Jul 2012 2:36 pm

Ayibo last week or so, some of you guys were talking about some journo/book author who is a scavenger on Twitter, ayi useqalile ke

Soccerbabe on Thu, 19th Jul 2012 12:06 pm

Anyone seen that open letter about How Mandela sold Blacks???

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Happy Birthday Madiba

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