Vidal Sesay/Alfred Fornah
- Jul 18, 2017

TALKING CLIMATE CHANGE, TAKING CLIMATE ACTION ON MANDELA YOUTH SERVICE DAY

Nelson Mandela Day saw the Society 4 Climate Change Communication team up with YALI (Young African Leaders Initiative) and the Green School Club to organize a Mandela Youth Service Day at Jui community, Western Rural District, as part of our school outreach programme: Talking Climate Change - Taking Climate Action.

Todays event started with discussions about Nelson Mandela and his call to youth: “It is in your hands to make of the world a better place”; the effects of climate change on Sierra Leone and finished with symbolic planting of trees.

Talking about the success of the event Vidal explained:

"We honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela and the example he set us all by serving every day, not just Mandela Day. The more people - particularly our youth and young women - we engage directly on climate change imapacts, the better we will come together for the challenges of adaptation that lie ahead."

Eight years ago, Nelson Mandela International Day (or Mandela Day) began on July 18, 2009, on Nelson Mandela’s 91st Birthday and about a year after his 2008 speech in which he called on new leaders to relieve his generation from the burdens of leadership.

It is an annual international day, celebrated each year on July 18, in honor and recognition of the South African activist, a great leader, a mentor, a selfless advocate, a world changer and former President of South Africa - Nelson Mandela’s Birthday. The day was officially declared by the United Nations in November, 2009, with the first UN Mandela Day held in July, 2010.

Today is Mandela Day. Mandela Day serves to encourage citizens across the globe to give at least 67 minutes of their day to improving the world’s condition.

Ways to celebrate this day: