The South African Embassy in Manila, in partnership with Project PEARLS, will celebrate the 2023 Nelson Mandela International Day on July 18 in Helping Land, one of Project PEARLS’ adopted communities in Tondo, Manila for outreach programs.
The highlight of the celebration is the distribution of food items to the needy residents of Helping Land.
Project PEARLS is a non-governmental organization working with poor and destitute communities, particularly women and children.
Once again, the Embassy aligned the activities of its partnership with Project PEARLS with the work of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.
From 2009, the Nelson Mandela International Day has continued to inspire and mobilize individuals, governments, civil society, and corporate entities to make the world a better place for all. This year’s theme is “the legacy lives on through you.”
In November 2009, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) paid tribute to the late South African President Nelson Mandela by adopting a resolution to make the international community aware of his humanitarian work, as well as the need to continue his legacy.
The resolution declared the birthday of South Africa’s first democratically elected president, July 18, the Nelson Mandela International Day. It was also on that day that Madiba called on the people of the world to honor him by helping their communities, particularly the needy and most vulnerable.
The Mandela Day Campaign message encourages people to devote 67 minutes of their time to support a chosen charity or serve in their local community. The 67 minutes symbolically represent the number of years the late President fought for human rights and the abolition of apartheid.
Mandela Day is a call to action for individuals—for people everywhere—to take responsibility for changing the world into a better place, one small step at a time, just as Nelson Mandela did.
This years’s celebration by the South African Embassy in Manila is supported by International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI), Shoe Mart, Federated Distributors Inc., Liwayway Marketing Corporation, and FlyAce Corporation; including Mr. Ralph Lim Joseph, Consul William Chen and some members of the Diplomatic Corps.
