Yesterday was Mandela Day and South Africans rallied together to spend 67 minutes doing good. Media companies were no exception. Media24 made more than 10 000 sandwiches. RamsayMedia assembled over 200 comfort packs for child rape victims. And Jacobs Kruning created a portrait of Mandela out of 2700 cups of coffee, and donated R1000 a minute for the first 67 minutes spent on making it.
Thousands of sandwiches, 24 charities, 67 minutes for Madiba
Staff at Media24 offices around South Africa joined hands – and butter knives – to make over 10 000 sandwiches for 67 minutes to donate to 24 charities. Wearing aprons and plastic gloves, the teams were joined by Prof Jakes Gerwel, Media24 chairman and chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation and Mandela Rhodes Foundation, and celebrity chef David Grier who set the example by giving 67 minutes of their time to spread bread at the Naspers Centre in Cape Town.
They quickly had the help of 12 teams of Media24 internal staff, including Die Burger, Beeld, Sarie, Fair Lady, Kuier, On the Dot, TV Plus, Move, building management, corporate finance, people management and Media24 IT, who gave up their lunch time to “jam” at their offices countrywide.
“We were looking for a simple, but impressive project which could really make a difference in people’s lives”, said Adrie Jurgensen, Media24 Group CSI co-ordinator, “and adapted FoodBank’s concept of a ‘jamming session’ as a team building and outreach project for staff. So our Jamming for Madiba project was born and the buy-in and support we have received was fantastic.”
The goal was to make 6 700 sandwiches within 67 minutes benefiting 24 charities. In the end over 10 000 were made.
In the Western Cape the Cape Town Multi Service Centre in Salt River was the main recipient of the sandwiches made in Cape Town. Secondary beneficiaries included the Kleine Groepe play school in Elsiesrivier, Clark Estate Primary, the elderly in Elsies River, Kabouter Drome play school in Bonteheuwel, Klipfontein Primary in Bonteheuwel a senior citizen group and a shelter in Salt River.
Donors including Sasko, PioneerFoods, Supreme Poultry, Woolworths, Black Cat peanut butter, Red Hot Events and Indibano helped to make this initiative possible.
The sandwiches made at Media Park in Johannesburg were distributed to the Bumbanani childhood pre-school in George Coch informal settlement, the Denver Community Creche, Falcon Private school, MES feeding scheme and Tswelopele Frail Care in Hillbrow.
The sandwiches made at Media House in Durban went to the Sibusisiwe Community Project, which prepare meals three times a week to feed over 300 individual families in the community of Umlazi and the Vukani Community Project which serves elderly, physically and mentally disabled members of the community.
Volunteers from Media24 at the Ton Vosloo Media Centre in Port Elizabeth made sandwiches for distribution to the Coega Door of Hope childrens’ home, Sinethemba childrens home, Sheekom shelter for women and children, Malabar home for the aged and the Maranatha Street Workers Trust.
“Today shelters, preschools, day centres, homes for the frail and aged, HIV/Aids clinics and community centres were fed, but our biggest success will be to convince and show each individual in South Africa how they can make a meaningful difference every day with something as simple as a sandwich”, said Jurgensen after the massive team effort.
Rape victims the focus of RamsayMedia’s 67 minutes
RamsayMedia’s Johannesburg and Cape Town staff downed tools last Friday to make an early start on their Mandela Day project. They assembled 200 comfort packs for young rape victims. The brightly coloured packs were handed over to representatives of the SAPS Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Units and Matla a Bana: a voice against child abuse – an NGO that supports young rape victims through the ordeal of reporting the crime to police and undergoing a medical examination.
RamsayMedia has adopted Matla a Bana as its annual Mandela Day initiative, making a small contribution to help the ordeal of children as young as four a little as they go through the traumatic reporting process. Each pack contains comfort items (a teddy bear, colouring book and pencils) and emergency goods (food, cloth, toothpaste and brush, soap, panties, body spray and sanitary towels).
Last year RamsayMedia donated 150 packs and the team was challenged to aid more children this time around. Financial contributions came from the staff, the company and the Norton Ramsay Foundation (a trust established by the previous chairman), while Ackermans, Easywear and Hospitality Suite were quick to provide facecloths, soap and underwear to the worthy cause.
Staff enthusiastically made their way down the assembly line, filling the bags before writing a personal message on each one. These were handed over at the end of the day, ready for distribution on Mandela’s birthday.
Receiving the packs, Monique Strydom, national manager of Matla A Bana, said experience showed they were a real comfort to the young girls and made it easier for them to open up to police about what they had gone through.
Matla A Bana was founded nine years ago by Monique and her husband, Callie. The couple was taken hostage in the Philippines in 2000, an experience that changed their lives and set them on the path of helping those in need.
Portrait on Mandela – and R1000 for each minute creating it
Jacobs Kronüng premium coffee brought Mr Mandela to life at Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton by creating an impressive 2700-cup mosaic artwork of the world’s favourite statesman. The creation, which was overseen by renowned South African artist James Delaney, was built solely from cups of Jacobs Kronüng coffee.
In response to the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s international call for people to contribute 67 minutes of their time on Madiba’s birthday towards a charitable cause, Jacobs committed to donate R1 000 per minute for the first 67 minutes spent creating this art piece.
Stuart Knott, Jacobs’ senior brand manager at Kraft Foods, says that the Jacobs team wanted to find a way to pay tribute to Madiba ahead of Mandela Day (18 July) in their own way.
“It’s the chance to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, in our own unique way and in doing so giving back to the community,” he says. “In the spirit of Mandela Day, we spent at least 67 minutes constructing the artwork and donated R67, 000 to a good cause. We hope that our unique gesture adds something to the magic of this international event,” he said.
In addition to the creation of the artwork, the Jacobs team also joined the Nelson Mandela Square team in donating coffee along with non-perishable foodstuffs collected by the centre’s patrons to the Ithlokomeleng Old Age Home in Alexandra on Mandela Day.
“We hope that the work our team put into our artwork will inspire people to give of their time on Mandela Day to improve someone else’s life. 67 minutes is not a lot of time – but you’ll be amazed at the difference it’ll make in someone’s life,” Knott said.
