Mandela Day Dignity Bags
Nobody plans to be admitted to hospital. It happens on an ordinary Tuesday, after an accident, a collapse, a diagnosis that couldn't wait. And so people arrive in our public hospitals the way emergencies deliver them: with nothing. No soap. No toothbrush. No towel. The clothes they came in, and that's all.
Our teams have walked the wards of South Africa's public hospitals since 1997, and we have learned something about those first days of admission. Long before anyone asks for counselling, they need to feel human again. A wash. Clean teeth. A towel of their own. Small things, until you don't have them.
This Mandela Day, we're doing something about it — and we'd love you to be part of it.
Mandela Day asks each of us for 67 minutes in service of others, one for every year Madiba gave to public life. We're asking for R67 instead: one rand for every one of those years. R67 covers the essentials in one bag. Our team will give the 67 minutes; we're asking you for the rand-a-year.
We believe you should see exactly what your donation buys, so our campaign page publishes the full cost of a bag, item by item, at the bulk prices we've negotiated — from the R16.32 bar of soap down to the shampoo we buy in 5-litre containers and decant by hand to keep it at R6.30 a bottle. The total comes to R86.07 per bag, and our full costing is open for anyone to inspect.
There's something else worth knowing about how this campaign works: every donation makes every bag cheaper. Because we buy in full wholesale cases, the more we raise, the further each case stretches — a bag costs R118 to fill at 100 bags, but only R86 at the full 499. Your R67 doesn't just add a bag to the pile. It brings the price of every other bag down with it.
Four ways to be part of it:
1. Donate R67
2. Give your 67 minutes
3. Donate goods
4. Share our drive
Time: 09:00 - 12:00
Venue: Tshwane District Hospital, Pretoria
Date: 12 June 2026
Time: 09:00 - 12:00
Venue: Tygerberg Hospital, Cape Town