Get inspired by Nelson Mandela’s fighter spirit

Chennai

It is more than a celebration of Madiba’s life and legacy. It is a global movement to honour his life’s work and act to change the world for the better. Here are more details about the special day.

Mandela Day is the initiative of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and its sister organisations, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the Mandela Rhodes Foundation supported by the United Nations through the creation of Nelson Mandela International  Day

Every year on 18 July — the day Nelson Mandela was born — the UN joins a call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to devote 67 minutes of time to helping others, as a way to mark Nelson Mandela International Day.

For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa.

In December 2015, the General Assembly decided to extend the scope of Nelson Mandela International Day to also be utilised in order to promote humane conditions of imprisonment, to raise awareness about prisoners being a continuous part of society and to value the work of prison staff as a social service of particular importance.