Happy 90th Birthday Nelson Mandela!
Ok, so this is a belated birthday post, but here is a video from our small celebration and card signing in Kyiv on the 18th. The event was held by the Eastern European Development Institute, the Nigerian Community of Kyiv and the African Center. Special guest speakers included the Ambassador of South Africa and Mr. Stanislaw Cieniuch, the first Ambassador of Poland to South Africa.
Of course, this pales in comparison to the crowd of over 40,000 that came out for the celebration in Hyde Park. 46,664 to be exact.
46664 is an African response to the global HIV AIDS epidemic that invites the whole world to take the fight in hand. It’s our aim to raise awareness overall and educate the younger generations in particular. By gaining global backing for the cause, we will also raise funds to directly assist the many HIV AIDS projects we support. We intend to do this by using our international ambassadors to spread our messages of hope, our calls to action, our pleas for compassion and our requests for assistance and support for those living with HIV AIDS.
46664 (we say four, double six, six four) was Nelson Mandela’s prison number when he was imprisoned on Robben Island, off Cape Town in South Africa. He was jailed in 1964 for 27 years for leading the liberation movement against apartheid and for his impassioned stance on the rights of everyone to live in freedom. He was prisoner number 466, imprisoned in 1964. The Robben Island prisoners were never referred to by their names, but rather by their numbers and year of imprisonment - hence 46664 was Nelson Mandela’s number…
It was for precisely this reason that Mr. Mandela decided to use this powerful, symbolic number in the fight against HIV AIDS. Through this simple, poignant means he has demonstrated and communicated to the world that people must never be reduced to simple numbers - we are human beings, all equal, and those infected and living with HIV AIDS have the same right to live and to be treated as equals…
It is continually imperative for us at 46664 to make an impact on a global scale in order to draw attention to the HIV AIDS issue; so far we have had success thanks to a worldwide audience of over 1 billion people either viewing or listening to our concerts on TV, radio and the internet…
We will continue to produce these unique concerts combining international, local and African artists joining together symbolically onstage to demonstrate their support for Mr. Mandela’s 46664 campaign. We will also be staging significant sporting and other entertainment events worldwide. Nevertheless a major part of our effort now will involve promoting community outreach campaigns that will encourage people to participate in discussions, educational activities, volunteer work and prevention, care and treatment support programmes. To do this we often partner with governments, NGOs and the private sector.
Happy 90th Birthday, Nelson Mandela.