This is how Mrs Machel and the Graça Machel Trust celebrated Mandela’s Centenary
The Graça Machel Trust joined South Africa and the rest of the world to celebrate the year that marked Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday. Below are some highlights of the celebrations.
The #MadibaInYou Campaign
We started the celebration by launching a campaign we called #MadibaInYou. It was aimed at celebrating Mandela’s legacy through finding and profiling young people who are doing their best in changing their community and contributing to advance the justice, equality, and social enterprise. Our message was clear, you too can be part of the Mandela legacy.
Congratulations to the 100 Mandela Scholars!
The Graça Machel Trust partnered with the Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) and the Africa Leadership University (ALU) to launch the Mandela Centennial Scholarship Programme. The scholarships were announced on the 18th July, 2018 for the first 100 pan-African scholars for the first recipients. The scholars came from 30 countries and there was a fair distribution between men and women. This scholarship celebrated what Nelson Mandela stood for as a leader by nurturing the next generation of influential Africans.
The Mandela Rhodes Foundation launched a scholarship program in honour of Nelson Mandela. Mrs. Graça Machel acknowledged the milestone and Mandela’s wish to use his legacy to make a long-term difference in the areas of higher education and leadership development. Speaking at the Mandela Rhodes 100 in Cape Town on 14th July, 2018, Mrs. Machel said,
“To be an exceptional leader you need to transform yourself first and become loyal to that transformation. You don’t allow yourself to move from the value system which you have committed yourself to in your transformation. Always remember that it’s now about you but the community that you come from,” Mrs. Machel
Mrs. Machel took part in an all women panel discussion organised by the Obama Foundation’s African Leadership Forum titled: Leadership in the Face of Adversity. She shared the stage with Hon. Minister Bogolo Kenewendo, Thulisile Madonsela and Nozipho Mbanjwa at.
The Forum welcomed 200 emerging leaders from 44 different countries to collaborate and exchange ideas. Her message to the girls was clear:
“Just believe it is your time. It is your time to redesign systems, redesign the institutions, and redesign the agenda of where we need to go.” – Mrs. Graça Machel,
On 17th July, 2018, Mrs. Graça Machel in her capacity as a co-founder of The Elders and a global advocate for equality and women’s rights opened the “100 Sparks of Hope Peace Park” to mark 100 years of Mandela birth and she urged for peace, justice, health and equality. At the event, school- children from Johannesburg and Soweto were given 100 symbolic plants from Sparks of Hope to represent the future of Mandela’s legacy. In her opening remark, Mrs. Machel said
“You Sparks of Hope give us great confidence that, despite the challenges we face, you are fearless, courageous and determined. This park honours you and your organisations, but it also serves as a reminder of Madiba’s words: ‘to be free is to enhance the freedom of others.”
Mrs. Machel was also joined by Richard Bronson and the Elders Mary Robinson and Koffi Annan.
The Nelson Mandela Foundation in collaboration with the Motsepe Foundation held its 16th Nelson Mandela lecture at the Wanderers Stadium with President Obama delivering the keynote address.
Mrs. Machel urged everyone to find the Mandela in ourselves. She said:
“To honour Madiba’s legacy is to search and find in every one of us those values and strengths that enable us to go beyond ourselves; to embrace the bigger causes, to take risks, to make sacrifices for what is right and to be in service to others so that every single human being lives with dignity and in freedom.”
Mrs Machel was a speaker alongside President Cyril Ramaphosa, Chairman of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Njabulo Ndebelo, CEO of Nelson Mandela Foundation Sello Hatang and Founder of the Motsepe Foundation Patrice Motsepe.
Elders marked Nelson Mandela’s birthday with a symbolic walk through Johannesburg with other activists advocating for peace, justice, healthcare and equality for all. Mrs. Machel gave a keynote address and celebrated all the 100 Sparks of Hope and other supporters of the Walk Together campaign for bringing about aa better world.
The Graça Machel Trust together with the Mandela Institute for Development Studies celebrated the Mandela centenary by hosting the first ever inaugural African Youth Networks Summit that took place between 20th and 21st July, 2018 at Freedom Park in Pretoria. The event brought together over two hundred representatives of youth networks, youth leaders, government, corporate and development partners from across Africa to connect young people to each other, identify successful and scalable youth initiatives and develop a platform for the cross-pollination of ideas to drive a continental youth agenda forward.
In her closing remark, Mrs. Machel said “You cannot feel that you are connected to other African youth if you don’t have a space in which you can engage with them, despite the importance of social media, there has to be a space where you can humanize the message”
The Trust supports and mobilises civil society networks on issues of ending child marriage, ending violence against children, ending female genital mutilation and promoting children’s rights, to carry out advocacy and action across Africa. Special focus is placed on Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia where child marriage continues to be a problem largely driven by poverty, gender inequality, harmful traditional practices, conflict, low levels of literacy, limited opportunities for girls and weak or non-existent protective and preventive legal frameworks.
Education is a fundamental right for all children, which is also a vehicle for social, economic and political transformation in communities, countries and the African continent at large. Recent studies indicate a lack of progress in some of the critical commitments aimed at improving education quality, access, retention and achievement, particularly for girls. In most African countries, girls may face barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education. By implementing multi-dimensional approaches to education which includes core education, personal development, life skills and economic competencies, the Trust partners with funding partners, governments, civil societies and the private sector to improve education access.
The Nutrition and Reproductive, Maternal, New-born, Child and Adolescent Health and Nutrition, (RMNCAH+N) of the Children’s Rights and Development Programme aims at promoting the Global Strategy for women, children and adolescents’ health within the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) agenda. The strategy emphasises on the importance of effective country leadership as a common factor across countries making progress in improving the health of women, children and adolescents.
Through its Early Childhood Development (ECD) plan, The Trust will seek to put into action the new science and evidence Report that was presented by Lancet Series on Good and early development – the right of every child. This will be achieved by mobilising like-minded partners to contribute in the new science and evidence to reach all young children with ECD. The Trust’s goal is to be a catalyst for doing things differently, in particular, to rid fragmentation and lack of coordination across ECD sectors. In response to evidence showing the importance of political will in turning the tide against the current poor access and quality of ECD. Even before conception, starting with a mother’s health and social economic conditions, the early years of a child’s life form a fundamental foundation that determines whether a child will survive and thrive optimally.