Mandela Day: Celebrate 24k days of Public Service

For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity. Yesterday we joined the rest of the UN family by heeding the call from the Nelson Mandela Foundation to devote 67 minutes of our time to helping others, as a way to mark Nelson Mandela International Day.

In November 2009, the UN General Assembly declared 18 July “Nelson Mandela International Day” in recognition of the former South African President’s contribution to the culture of peace and freedom.

On Monday, which was Mr Mandela’s 93^rd birthday, senior officials, diplomats and staff from the UN gathered in New York’s Central Park and other locations around the world to perform public services to mark Mandela Day. Here at UNRIC we chose to take part in the 67 minutes of action by going online and helping others by donating rice through the World Food Programme’s Free Rice 2.0 tool (WFP).

Did you know that there are 24,470+ days in 67 years? That was the magic number we decided to target as part of our celebration of Mandela Day. Although it took well over 67 minutes to reach the 24k total, we finally reached our target after answering nearly 2500 questions.

Elsewhere, UN Staff in Central Park painted benches and an exhibition where visitors could learn more about Mr Mandela through a range of video and audio materials opened at HQ.

Peacekeepers also played their role in the celebrations by organizing a film screening in Cyprus, and, in Sudan’s Darfur region the UN-African Union Peacekeeping force (UNAMID) organized a local event in a girl’s school in El Fasher.