Nelson Mandela International Day was launched by a unanimous decision of the UN General Assembly in 2009 in recognition of Nelson Mandela’s birthday on (18 July).
“It was inspired by a call Nelson Mandela made a year earlier, for the next generation to take on the burden of leadership in addressing the world’s social injustices when he said that “it is in your hands now”. 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.” See here for more information.
We’ve shared with you the spectacular cooking experience of the 18th of July at Spier for our annual event – but we have not yet told you what our other 100 dedicated guests got up to on the day.
110% Green Annual Event guests had an option between activities at the Sustainability Institute, Animal Welfare Society Stellenbosch and Spier.
At the Sustainability Institute (SI) guests were split into two groups. One group went off to get their hands dirty gardening in the SI’s beautiful organic garden. The other headed off to learn about the SI’s integrative living model – so learn about the tested technologies and the sustainability village design. Afterwards, the second group joined the first to get their hands a little dirty in the soil too.
At Animal Welfare Society Stellenbosch guests walked and fed dogs, cleaned cages, and helped out generally.
Our partner and host for the annual event, Spier, hosted two sixty seven minute activities on their premises. Two groups siphoned off from the main venue – the first group when the Spier Trepreneurs. Here, guests work the food waste at Spier into compost for growing trees. For the second group, guests were taken to Spier’s recycling depot where they assisted in sorting and recycling waste from Spier. Spier recycles over 95% of all waste it uses. For more on Spier’s innovative sustainability policy, see here.
While all of our guests partook in their 67 minutes for Mandela Day, others involved in the event did theirs too. Culinary students from Silwood Kitchen helped to prepare vegetables for the cook-off, and also helped us in dishing up the servings of soup that were later distributed to the landfill.
Additionally, Spier employees kindly sung for the annual event guests as a part of their 67 minute activities and in honour of Mandela Day.