Mandela Day is about giving back and honouring a legacy. It’s an oath to pledge your time to make the world a better place than it was before you give 67 minutes of your time to make a difference. To honour the gift that the father of our great nation gave us, we need to remember that we should strive to make every day a Mandela Day.

This Mandela Day Masicorp was inspired to effect change in the lives of children who attend our ECD centres. We want to make the transition from pre-school to primary school smooth and give parents less to worry about by giving a child a pencil case filled with supplies when they graduate at the end of this year and move on to Gr 1. The idea was simple, we asked people to attend one of our FREE one-hour sewing sessions where they could come and sew a pencil case.

People were given the option to come and sew on Saturday the 16^th of July or Monday the 18^th of July 2022 (Mandela Day) with various time slots to choose from. We were impressed with the interest shown by all levels of sewers who worked seams and stitched their way through to sew a pencil case (including a zip) in an hour. The event also generated local support from loyal Friends of Masicorp. Our Pizza Place and Flame Grill in Valyland Centre gave people who attended morning slots free pancakes and free pizza for those who attended the afternoon slots. Thank you to Luno who recently did a stationery drive and donated a heap of stationery that will help us fill the pencil cases. All the material and zippers were donated by Global Fabrics in Fish Hoek and The Denim Bank also gave us extra material that will carry the initiative well into next year.

Every year, 100 children graduate from our ECD programmes. That is a target of 100 pencil cases, including the stationery. We currently have over 50 pencil cases sewn. We could not have achieved this without the help from our partners – Evangeline Ministries who allowed us the use of their room and sewing machines and The Sewing Café who allowed us to use their space – thank you.

You can make every day a Mandela Day by helping us reach our goal. Donate a pencil case with stationery supplies to a child going to ‘big school’ here.