In the spirit of International Nelson Mandela Day, take action and inspire change. If you don’t know how, read here for some ideas from the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
- 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.
- Fix the potholes in your street or neighbourhood.
- Help out at the local animal shelter. Dogs without homes still need a walk and a bit of love.
- Find out from your local library if it has a story hour and offer to read during it.
- Get a group of people to each knit a square and make a blanket for someone in need.
- Volunteer at your police station or local faith-based organisation.
- Donate your skills!
- If you’re a builder, painter or handyman, help build, improve or repair someone’s home, the local school/nursery school, orphanage or clinic.
- Help someone to get his/her business off the ground.
- Build a Website for someone who needs one, or for a cause you think needs the support.
- Help someone get a job. Put together and print a CV for them, or help them with their interview skills.
- Mentor a school leaver or student in your field of expertise.
- 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.
- Sponsor a group of learners to go to the theatre/zoo.
- Coach one of the extramural activities the school offers. You can also volunteer to coach an extramural activity the school doesn’t offer.
- Offer to provide tutoring in a school subject you are good at.
- Teach an adult literacy class.
- Get in touch with your local HIV organisations and find out how you can help.
- Help out at your local hospice, as staff members often need as much support as the patients.
- 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.
- Take someone you know, who can’t afford it, to get their eyes tested or their teeth checked.
- Buy a few blankets, or grab the ones you no longer need from home and give them to someone in need.
- Clean out your cupboard and donate the clothes and shoes you no longer wear to someone who needs them.
- Organise a bake sale, car wash or garage sale for charity and donate the proceeds.
- Volunteer at your local soup kitchen.
- If you play an musical instrument, visit your local old-age home and spend an hour playing for the residents and staff.
- 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.
- Take an elderly person grocery shopping; they will appreciate your company and assistance.
- 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.
Source:
http://www.nelsonmandela.org/mandeladay/67_ways.html