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Where To Donate Your Time, Skills and Items This Mandela Day

How will you be donating your 67 minutes this Mandela Day?

And have you considered looking beyond the 67 minutes, to make your donation about more than your time? Perhaps you could have a good winter clear-out, and donate clothes or other items to those less fortunate in Cape Town. Or maybe you have a skill you could share with an organisation, whether just for an hour’s consultation or – for that extra feel-good factor – on a regular basis.

However you choose to donate this Mandela Day, we want to make it as easy as possible. If you’d prefer to donate cash, please note that each of the superb organisations below urgently need funds, too. 

Donate Your Time

Help out at a home for children affected by Aids

Volunteer at Etafeni, a multi-purpose centre for children affected by AIDS and their caregivers in Nyanga. They need assistance with reading and playing, food garden assistance, food collection and more. See their volunteer page for more info.

Roll up your sleeves at feeding schemes and packing drives 

Join a feeding scheme such as Ladles of Love and FoodForwardSA which describe themselves as “about more than providing meals. It’s about dignity, respect, and creating the kind of world we all want to live in.” 

You can also assist with packing care packages at organisations such as For Good. Their ‘Bless a Baby’ initiative allows groups of 6 or 12 to help them prepare and pack bags for newborn babies in disadvantaged areas. 

Plant a tree or a sustainable garden 

Plant an indigenous tree with Greenpop or get your hands dirty at Soil for Life, helping communities start and maintain their own food gardens, and assist them in sustainable living practices and nutrition.

Clean up a beach

Get some fresh air and exercise with family and friends while you help the beach cleanup with the Two Oceans Aquarium’s ‘Trash Bash’. 

Give some animals some love

Give stray cats and dogs some love and attention at Tears or other animal shelters, or assist SANCCOB with the rehabilitation and release of ill, injured, abandoned and oiled seabirds. 

Help to prepare nutritious meals for elderly people

Cook, dish, and serve alongside the kitchen team at Nazareth House Cape Town, a care home for elderly people in Vredehoek.

GreatGirls Mandela Day 2024

Donate Your Skills

Use your field of speciality 

Contribute using skills from your specialised field at Just Grace, an NPO in Langa with a range of community-based programmes aiming to reduce poverty, improve quality education, and grow equal opportunities. Volunteer as a tutor, mentor, social worker, computer trainer, counsellor, artist, sports coach, admin assistant, copywriter and more.

Mentor young people  

Help young women entering the workforce with mock interviews and more at Greatgirls, a non-profit project run by a diverse group of women in Cape Town, that aims to bridge the gap between high-school education and full-time employment for disadvantaged girls. Note that this is a two-month commitment. 

Donate your items

Vintage with Love accepts gently worn clothes and accessories from people in and around Cape Town and Joburg, and re-sells them at stores in both cities. The profits go to literacy charities such as Realema Teacher Intern Programme, Community Assisting Schools, Thandulwazi Maths and Science Academy and the Click Foundation. 

Paedspal, a non-profit focusing on palliative care for children, calls for donations of toiletries to create care packs. They urgently need toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, small shampoos, roll-ons, facecloths, sanitary towels, Vaseline and hand cream.

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