Johannesburg - 67 minutes is a call to action for citizens to spend the time rendering a service to their fellow South Africans, and a number of organisations will be doing just that in and around Joburg:
* Independent Media Gauteng is partnering with The Eyemakers optometrists and handing out 10 000 reading glasses to the elderly. The two distribution points, at the Rock of Salvation Church in Soweto and the Eersterus community in Pretoria, will see spectacles worth more than R1 million given to people in need of reading assistance.
* The Ahmed Kathrada Foundation will visit Little Rose Centre in Kliptown, Soweto, to distribute clothing, books and non-perishable food items collected by the youth during the recent Operation Winter Warm campaign.
Later in the day, the Foundation will visit Amakhaya Home in Lenasia also to distribute items collected by the youth during the recent Operation Winter Warm campaign. They will also pay a visit to the SOS Children’s Village in Lawley, near Lenasia, to distribute clothes and non-perishable food items.
* The Mvula Trust will donate food parcels and other goods to Home of Joy Day Care Centre and Preschool in Etwatwa near Springs. The crèche takes care of about 40 children from underprivileged families. Many of them are brought to the crèche without food.
* Unisa will be launching a school library at Etwatwa Secondary School. They see a school library as central to learning and a catalyst for developing a reading culture and habits in children.
* The Dis-Chem foundation supports the GreenDoor in Diepsloot near Fourways and will be donating 10 000 sanitary pads and sets of underwear. The halfway house caters for rape victims and sexually abused women and children. The foundation supplies them with 60 rape kits every month.
* Travelstart and Mango are offering free flights to worthy recipients. The competition kicks off at 10am and runs for 67 minutes. Use the #flightforchange and tell them who deserves a flight and why.
* ORT SA, an education non-profit association, is hosting a one-day work readiness course for unemployed youth with partner Absa at the San Kapano centre in Alexandra.
They are also taking volunteers to Rebonwe Primary School in Ivory Park in Midrand and Kutlwanong Primary School in Vosloorus, Ekurhuleni, to hand out food and gifts, as well as introduce their responsibility board game to the pupils.
* 67 Blankets for Mandela last week achieved the Guinness World record for the largest knitted blanket. Volunteers stitched together hundreds of blankets to create a patchwork of colour at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. The individual blankets were then handed to needy beneficiaries to celebrate Mandela Day.
* Joburg residents are each encouraged to give a minimum of 67 minutes of their time by joining Operation Clean-Up to maintain Joburg city around St Mary’s Cathedral Precinct, Rissik, Quartz , Smit and Lilian Ngoyi (Bree) streets. The event is scheduled to run from 9am until noon. The meeting place is Attwell Park on the corner of Rissik an Plein streets, Joburg CBD (next to Park Station).
* Ekurhuleni emergency management services will be handing out blankets and much-needed items at the Esda and Tsakane homes for the elderly.
* Food and Trees for Africa (FTFA) have partnered with numerous organisations and corporates for Mandela Day to plant trees with the aim of off-setting the carbon footprint of industry. These include Scan Display, who are sponsoring trees for primary schools in Soshanguve, Tshwane, and Dobsonville in Soweto.
Konica Minolta will be planting 23 shade trees at the Boo Rachwene Early Development Centre and 20 shade trees at a clinic in Riverlea, Joburg. The Public Investment Corporation will be sending out two groups of staffers to plant fruit trees.
Vodacom is using Mandela Month to roll out a number of food garden planting days at seven schools across the country.
* The team of hikers climbing for Trek4Mandela will summit Kilimanjaro on Mandela Day. The 43 participants, including two editors from the Independent Gauteng titles, have been raising funds for Caring4Girls, an organisation that distributes sanitary pads to underprivileged girls who are at risk of missing school due to the embarrassment of not having adequate sanitary protection. To donate R30, SMS girlchild to 42513.
If you have nothing planned, here are a few last-minute ideas:
* Go to Dis-Chem and donate seven packs of sanitary towels to the Independent and Dis-Chem Foundation #MillionComforts Campaign. This should cost you just under R67 and will give one teenage girl the freedom to attend school for seven months. Look for the lavender bins.
* Make up the contents for a comfort pack which costs about R100: bottle of water, deodorant, body lotion, hair grooming items, face cloth, toothbrush and toothpaste, Vaseline, pen and notepad, underwear. (For children, add a soft toy, sanitary pads and some sweets.) Put them in a plastic bag and donate it to the EPIC Foundation. Contact Alta for details: [email protected] or 082 940 6230.
* Donate a pint of blood: visit www.sanbs.org.za for a location near you.
The Star