Johannesburg - Former President Nelson
Mandela's widow, Graca Machel, says Madiba’s legacy is about carrying for
others.
“The important thing is in your
own way, do something to touch the life of someone next to you. Madiba’s legacy
is not only about the big things… it is about caring for others and anyone of
us can do it,” Machel said on Monday.
She was speaking in the third
annual Trek4Mandela send-off ceremony in Johannesburg.
Trek4Mandela will see a group
of explorers driving through Botswana, Zambia and Tanzania before summiting
Mount Kilimanjaro on 18 July - Nelson Mandela
International Day.
The team will stop over at
schools en-route to discuss Madiba’s legacy and distribute sanitary towels to
young girls.
The group -- led by
Caring4Girls founder Richard Mabaso and the first black African to conquer the
"Three Poles", Sibusiso Vilane -- will include celebrities like
Tebogo “ProVerb” Thekishoa.
They will raise money for the
Caring4Girls project – which provides puberty and menstrual hygiene education
to young girls in rural areas, as well as distribute sanitary pads.
Over the past two years, the
initiative has donated 130 000 packets of sanitary pads within communities,
reaching 40 000 girls.
The target for the Trek4Mandela
challenge is to raise a minimum of 67 000 packets of sanitary pads, in line
with the 67 minutes for Mandela Day.
Mabaso said he started the
initiative after overhearing a fearful conversation between his mother and his
niece on menstrual challenges.
“I thought of how many orphaned
and vulnerable children we have in our country that do not have that
opportunity to ask,” he said.
This got him to take action and
inspire change through establishing the Trek4Mandela expedition to create
awareness on the plight of underprivileged girls in rural and poor schools
during their menstrual cycles.
Statistics indicate learners
from disadvantaged communities miss up to 50 days of schooling annually due to
not having sanitary towels and in some cases, this has led to some dropping
out.
Mabaso believes the trip
emulates Mandela’s long walk to freedom, and the determination to overcome
obstacles and reaching one’s goal.
Vilane, who is also the first
black African to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, said he chose to participate in the
initiative because he wants to help keep girls in school, while boosting their
dignity.
“I am not excited about
climbing Mount Kilimanjaro for the sake of being an adventurer. I am climbing
it because it has meaning to me, it has meaning to a girl child as it brings
self-esteem and making them proud to stand up to say, ‘I am a woman’,” Vilane
said.
Machel said she was touched by
the initiative.
“I am not sleepless about the
future of South Africa because I know that we have brilliant young people, who
do not hesitate to take action and face the challenges head on.”
About
Mandela Day
The United Nations General
Assembly declared 18 July, Madiba’s birthday, as Nelson Mandela International
Day, which is dedicated to his work and the values he lived by.
The day is also dedicated to
the service of others by actively helping to change their circumstances.
The 2014 Mandela Month
celebration is particularly symbolic, as it is the first one since former
President Mandela’s passing.
Government has called on South
Africans to embrace the opportunity to celebrate the Mandela Month by giving 67 minutes of their
time to build a cleaner and better South Africa.
In his State of the Nation
Address last month,
President Jacob Zuma called on South Africans to practice a healthier and
cleaner way of living by taking care of their environment and cleaning up the
areas where they live.
SOURCE – SAnews.gov.za
South Africa
