Buy a Bangle, Change a Life.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela

For close to three years we’ve dedicated many hours to the 46664 Bangle project – and we’ve done our best to keep promoting the good work of this inspiring initiative in support of the 46664 campaign of the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

It requires consistent focus for a Blog to be interesting and useful, and we’re no longer able to maintain a regular blog feed for the 46664 Bangle on this particular web site.

This blog is rich with content on Madiba, 46664, the 46664 Bangle, news from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and many humanitarian and HIV AIDS-related stories and updates. Feel free to browse our archives and enjoy the wealth of information!

We’re active on Facebook and Twitter – please do join our conversations there and talk to others about this great initiative; encouraging others to buy a 46664 Bangle.

Also … remember Nelson Mandela Day – not only on July 18, which is Nelson Mandela’s birthday – but consider what you can do every day, in honor of Madiba's service to humanity and his legacy of social justice.

Thank you for your continued support!

Nelson Mandela Foundation Recommends Book As Compelling Read

Head of the Nelson Mandela Foundation’s Memory Programme, Verne Harris, spoke recently on the subject “Madiba, Memory and the Work of Justice” at the 18th Alan Paton Lecture.

Harris has also recommended Hugh Lewin’s new book, Stones against the Mirror: Friendship in the Time of the South African Struggle, one of several new autobiographies and biographies about the South African struggle.

Lewin’s book is described as, "exemplary... offers a sustained reflection on memory and evidence, and confronts the inevitable fictional fashioning which informs any and every work of narrating the past."

Source: The Nelson Mandela Foundation

@NelsonMandela = New Twitter Identity

Is Madiba tweeting? Well, not quite, but the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is happy to announce that they have secured "@NelsonMandela" as their official Twitter identity.

The Twitter account had been registered by an online consultant in the UK, who was happy to hand over the name to the centre. More details here.

Watch out for more social media activity from the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory, through their official Facebook, YouTube and Flickr profiles - all excellent places to keep up to date with information about Living the Legacy of Nelson Mandela.

Zenani Mandela Scholarship Focuses on Road Safety

Photo courtesy of the Nelson Mandela Foundation

The Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship was launched this week to focus on road safety, in memory of Nelson Mandela's great-granddaughter, who was tragically killed in a car crash last year.

Launching the Zenani Mandela Road Safety Scholarship, Zoleka Mandela said, “A crash robbed me of my daughter, a beautiful, bright 13-year-old who was full of energy and hope for the future.

“I will never recover from this, nor will my family. Parents and families should not have to be put through tragedies like this. All too often they are. My heart is already broken, but what makes this even worse is that so often road accidents are preventable.

“We must all support the United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety – our children’s lives are at stake."

Public to Help Identify Nelson Mandela Photos

Photo courtesy of the Nelson Mandela Foundation

The Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory is appealing to the public to assist in finding missing information to accompany many photographs in their collection.

Over the years, they’ve received many photographs taken of Nelson Mandela and now they need details of those occasions so that they can archive them accurately.

“We are asking the public to help build this resource which will be richer when we have more information. It is also so that the public can feel they are part of this,” said communications manager, Sello Hatang.

Recognize yourself in any of these photographs? Contact the Nelson Mandela Centre of Memory at nmf@nelsonmandela.org and help complete the picture.

Nelson Mandela Foundation Publishes Case Studies

At first, the Nelson Mandela Foundation created an einvornment for discussing the issue of HIV AIDS, and the social and cultural implications of combating this disease in South Africa. The discussions allowed people to come together and openly discuss their fears, the prejudices they encountered, and their thoughts on what steps to take to prevent HIV AIDS in their communities.

It wasn’t long before the Nelson Mandela Foundation recognized that these structured conversations were also an excellent way of approaching the topic of xenophobia, and addressing the violence that broke out in South African townships in 2008. Trained facilitators conducted community conversations to “get to the root causes of the attacks” and these social cohesion dialogs soon became a platform for reconciliation and healing.

Read more about the newly-published social cohesion booklet and download case studies on the day to day struggles of foreigners in South Africa and how to heal communities.

Source: The Nelson Mandela Foundation

New 46664 Clothing to Raise Funds and Promote Mandela's Humanitarian Legacy

The Nelson Mandela Fundation plans to launch a clothing range in August to raise funds and promote Mandela's humanitarian legacy. Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO and 46664 board member, Achmat Dangor, said it could no longer depend on philanthropy to fund awareness-raising and projects like Nelson Mandela Day.

"46664 needs reliable and sustainable income streams, something we believe the 46664 apparel can significantly contribute to," he said.

"There's resistance to commercialisation of Mandela," he continued, however, "We will not use Madiba's image or name in any of our merchandise... we will use his legacy, what he stands for...we do not need to use his face," Dangor said. The only logos or slogans featured would be the number '46664' and the image of an outstretched hand - reminding pepole of the 46664 saying,"It's In Our Hands".

Like the 46664 Bangle project (the bracelet engraved with Nelson Mandela's hand and his prisoner number), when you buy 46664 clothing you are investing in a process that will help spread the legacy of Nelson Mandela by supporting the long-term sustainability of 46664. As Achmat Dangor says, “You will also be empowering young people in communities out there and creating a platform for global change.”

Source: The Nelson Mandela Foundation and the 46664 Campaign.

Revealed: 2005 Photo of Barack Obama Meeting Nelson Mandela

Image courtesy of The Sunday Times

A picture of Nelson Mandela's only meeting with US President Barack Obama now sits on the South African icon's desk, alongside a photo of Muhammad Ali.

Published in February 2011 for the first time, the photograph shows Obama, then a little-known junior Senator, having his one and only meeting with Nelson Mandela, in a hotel room in Washington, DC, in May 2005.

Even the Nelson Mandela Foundation admitted they had “no idea” the two men had ever met – until Obama sent the photograph to Mandela as a gift last year, inscribed with the words, “An inspiration to us all”.

Verne Harris, Mandela's chief archivist, said: "There is no archival record of that meeting that we've been able to locate, apart from this photograph," he said. "The meeting was not part of the schedule, but someone said, 'Madiba, look, you have to meet Senator Obama. He said, 'Great I'm happy to do that.'

11 February ~ Nelson Mandela's Release from Prison and Egypt's Freedom

11th February turned out to be a grand day for democracy, indeed. Not only was it the 21-year anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, but today was also a day for celebration in Egypt as the 30-year rule of President Hosni Mubarak came to an end.


An Egyption army officer read out a statement acknowledging, "There is no legitimacy other than that of the people".


As crowds cheered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, chanting, "Egypt is free!" , thousands in South Africa also remembered their first taste of freedom in 1990, when Nelson Mandela walked out of Victor Verster prison, a free man.


Read the speech Nelson Mandela delivered on that day, and find out more about how he started his first day of freedom on 12th February, 1990.


We celebrate with Egypt and wish them a peaceful and happy transition to free and fair, democratic elections.

AIDS2031 Book Launched at Nelson Mandela Foundation

A publication initiated by the aids2031 consortium, AIDS: Taking a Long-Term View, is launched at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

The book’s key message is that the fight against AIDS is a generations-long challenge that requires a new emphasis on long-term planning, financial backing, political commitment and leadership.

Initiated by UNAIDS in 2007, aids2031 is a consortium of partners who have come together to assess lessons learned about the AIDS response, as well as consider the implications of the changing world around AIDS, in order to chart options for the long-term response.

Sharply reducing the number of new infections and AIDS deaths by 2031 requires new ways of thinking about AIDS and responding to the challenges that the pandemic poses.

The 46664 Bangle project raises awareness of social issues such as HIV AIDS prevention, and every sale of the official 46664 Bangle provides income for people in need.

Source: The Nelson Mandela Foundation

Madiba Is Well – International Concern About Nelson Mandela

The news of Nelson Mandela being admitted to hospital this week was met with worldwide concern, and none more so than in South Africa, where the apartheid icon continues to unite the country through his legacy of humble leadership and reconciliation.

As media swarmed around Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, President Jacob Zuma called on journalists to “balance the quest for stories with acting within the bounds of human decency and ensuring the respect for human dignity.”

Surgeon General Vejaynand Ramlakan said in this video interview that Nelson Mandela was “in high spirits. Medically, at present, there is no need to panic.” Ramlakan told reporters, “His amazing positive attitude allows him to cope with the difficulties of old age, with the greatest of grace”.

The 46664 Bangle team in the US wishes Madiba well and tends to agree with Sizwe Mbatha, 28, a bank consultant in South Africa, who said, “Yes, he is a world icon but he is also a human being and he deserves his privacy. We should all just let him rest now."

See official statement on the Nelson Mandela Foundation web site.

Nelson Mandela Foundation on Xenophobia

Xenophobia - a word most people had never heard of, let alone knew how to pronounce, until 2008 when South Africa experienced a violent outbreak of xenophobic behavior.

Soon, it became the ugly buzzword used to describe the intolerance of migrant workers and illegal immigrants - the "hatred or fear of foreigners or strangers or of their politics or culture". Attacks on these foreigners highlighted the underlying social issues causing thousands of people to leave their country in search of a better life in South Africa, as well as the response from struggling communities who see the influx of foreigners as a threat to their own income and job opportunities.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation recently facilitated a series of dialogues in an effort to build social cohesion and understanding between South Africans and foreign nationals. The Foundation has just released a book capturing this two-year-long process, its achievements and challenges.

Read more about key principles such as community ownership, inclusivity, mutual respect and fundamental human rights.

Ricky Gervais in Support of 46664 Campaign

Ricky Gervais and 46664 - It's In Our Hands

Funny man, Ricky Gervais, (hosting the Golden Globes tonight – January 16th) gets serious in this video, in support of the Nelson Mandela Foundation 46664. He mentions AIDS statistics
One in four people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with HIV AIDS.

HIV AIDS has killed more people in the last decade than all the wars and disasters of the past fifty years.

And finishes with the 46664 slogan, “It’s In Our Hands” - it’s in our hands to make a difference.