The ideology behind Nelson Mandela International Day is one of change. On 18 July each year, people across the globe pledge action and take responsibility for making the world a better place, one small step at a time, just as Nelson Mandela did.
On Mr Mandela’s birthday each year, organised groups and individuals perform a variety of selfless acts for 67 minutes in recognition of his lifelong contribution to growing a democratic South Africa.
Here at Flow it was no different: a sister initiative to the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, Mandela Day was marked by the birth of an all-new website to honour the day and its associated events, www.mandeladay.com.
The site bears the international event’s orange, white and black livery and offers users a broad background into Mandela Day and daily updates regarding the day’s associated activities (such as the Bikers for Mandela Day project).
Here users can (with the third party intervention of forgood.co.za) register a planned activity, track their progress, and view other activities to be launched on the day.
Site developer Dimitri Kouvdis helped build www.mandeladay.com and tracked unprecedented traffic to the site throughout July.
“It was an amazing experience to work on mandeladay.com knowing that I was expecting to receive huge traffic on Mandela Day. It was an honour to do something for the South African community and our national icon, Nelson Mandela,” Dimitri said.
Along with Dimi, Matt van Onselen from the writing studio helped draft the original skeleton of the site and started the project “from scratch”.
“It was interesting to see the site develop as the countdown to July 18 began,” he said.
Writestars Bianca Bothma and Mildred Thabane were both involved in the Bikers for Mandela Day activities on the website.
Bianca sourced and uploaded daily reports to the site as the Bikers for Mandela Day made their way across Southern Africa on a week-long trip designed to spread awareness about Mandela Day and do good in the many rural communities through which they rode.
“It was fun to travel vicariously through the bikers’ blogs and watch them travel around our beautiful country,” said Bianca. “Hopefully next year I can join them from the road and not from the office.”
Mildred spent her second day at Flow with Kate Rau covering the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory at the Bikers for Mandela Day launch.
Not one to shy away from new projects, Mildred jumped right in and handled the event with class. “To see such high-profile people giving 10 days of their lives to help the needy was so humbling. It made me proud to be a part of a team that is sending this message to the world,” she said.
All in all, Flow is excited, humbled and proud to have successfully delivered on such a wonderful project.
Join the change revolution on www.mandeladay.com!