Mandela Day 2025: The Real Currency of Kindness

67 Minutes with Bloomable

Many would say the best things in life are free. At Bloomable, we take a kinder view: kindness is currency.

Time, effort, energy and devotion are the real price tags on the privileges we enjoy. The same costs Nelson Mandela relentlessly paid to secure our freedom.

Mandela Day invites us to spend that currency generously. Here’s how 67 minutes can spark something much bigger than just an hour of giving.

A Day of Action, Not Just Reflection

Every 18 July, South Africans (and friends worldwide) mark Nelson Mandela’s birthday by giving 67 minutes of service: one symbolic minute for each year Madiba devoted to public life.

It’s a meaningful tradition, and a gentle push. A reminder to go beyond the hashtag and actually live out Mandela’s values of equality, dignity, and compassion. But here’s the thing: goodness doesn’t work on a timer.

One kind gesture can turn someone’s whole day around and, sometimes, even the way they see the world. Kindness has a way of spreading further than we realise.  A moment multiplied into many. One ripple into a wave. You don’t need a big platform to make a big difference. Start small. Start local. Start where you are. That’s what we do at Bloomable.

We help people connect through gifts that truly mean something. Every time you order through us, you’re not just sending flowers. You’re uplifting a local florist or artisan. You’re helping someone put food on the table, grow their dream, or support their child’s future. One meaningful moment at a time is all it takes to keep the wheel of care turning.

Why Kindness Is a Form of Currency

Kindness never comes out of thin air. It is always a choice. Choosing to be kind, over and over, costs something. Mandela proved that truth in the most difficult way possible. Freedom didn’t cost him rands; it cost almost three decades behind bars, missed milestones with family, and an unbreakable stand for justice.

Our sacrifices look different today, but the principle is the same. Giving up a Saturday morning to volunteer, sharing a skill with a small business, or sitting with a friend who needs a shoulder still takes effort and compassion. You won’t see that kind of cost in a spreadsheet, because they live in the small, real things:  a handwritten note, a home-cooked meal, or a bouquet on someone’s toughest day.

Madiba did not wait for change to come. Instead, he led it with the first step. 

We can follow in his footsteps, investing our own kind of currency in a brighter world, one intentional act at a time.

Give Freely, Know the Value

You don’t need to lead a movement to make a difference. Everyday activism starts small, and meaningful giving takes many shapes:

• Cooking a meal for a neighbour

• Mentoring a young person

• Donating flowers or a gift to a charity or community home

• Sharing your professional skills with a grassroots NGO

• Supporting local over convenience

• Volunteering at an old age home

• Sending a Bloomable arrangement with a love-note of encouragement

• Speaking up when it’s uncomfortable

• Choosing hope, even when it’s hard

You don’t have to change the whole world, just follow our lead and move with heart. That’s what it means to give generously. That’s what we call gifting with purpose.

Spreading Joy in Bloom: Our Mandela Day Activation

This Mandela Day, we’re taking kindness to the streets. Bloomable has partnered with the wonderful team at Nice Café to hand out flowers for 67 minutes of joy. It’s our small way of turning intention into action and making the world a little brighter, one bloom at a time.

🗓 Thursday, 18 July 2025
⏰ 07:00 - 08:07
📍 Nice Café, Cape Town

If you’re around, come say hi and grab a flower. You’re welcome to keep it as a personal reminder of compassion or pass it on and join a living chain of kindness, paying forward the spirit of Madiba.

Let’s show how a small act of joy can spread from one person to another, turning an ordinary street corner into something warm and full of heart. Let’s make 67 minutes really mean something, together.

A Moment of Kindness Can Last a Lifetime 

Mandela wasn’t after a moment, because he was building a movement from countless small choices. Giving freely plants seeds that can bloom long after July 18 has passed.

If you’d like to get involved, but you’re unsure how, explore these powerful suggestions from the Nelson Mandela Foundation for some inspiration. Or, lend your hands (and heart) through organisations like Ladles of Love, who are creating meals and moments of dignity every day.

How different would our communities look a year from now if every act of generosity today became a habit tomorrow?

What Will You Spend Today?

If kindness is capital, how will you invest yours? A skill? A lift? A thought? Whatever it is, spend it boldly.

You can also choose to donate a Bloomable bouquet to a charity or community home in a delivery area, and we’ll make sure it gets to where it’s needed most. 

Flowers have a lovely way of uplifting spirits, soothing hearts, and sparking joy, and you never know how deeply that simple act of kindness might brighten someone’s day.

Support local makers and send a meaningful gift to honour Madiba’s legacy with a small act of kindness that ripples outward.

We’re building more than a brand. We're building a community through each delivery, each smile, and each bloom.

Happy Madiba Day, South Africa. Let’s keep blooming.