Number one gold producer in the country, Gold Fields Ghana joined the world to mark Mandela International Day Tuesday as employees of the company undertook voluntary activities in communities of its operations. The Mandela International Day was instituted in 2009 by the United Nations to honour the legacy of Nelson Mandela and his contributions to democracy, social justice and reconciliation. The day encourages individuals around the world to devote 67 minutes to help others by volunteering in any community service. The 67 minutes is based on people devoting one minute of their time for each year that Mandela devoted to public service. Gold Fields Ghana employees at the corporate office in Accra marked the day with a mentorship session at the Senior Correctional Centre in Accra. Employees engaged and interacted with the boys at the centre who were between the ages of 13 and 18 years and serving sentences for various offences. Head of Sustainable Development of Gold Fields West Africa Region, Dr. Gwendolyn Wellmann, explaining the reason for the mentorship programme stated that “Gold Fields Ghana believes in the objective of Mandela Day, which inspires people to hold hands, take action and take responsibility for changing the world into a better place”. She added that beyond the celebration of Mandela Day, staff at the Accra office will continue on a monthly basis to mentor the boys at the facility. Employees sat in groups with the young boys to discuss the boys’ aspirations and give them guidance towards achieving them. They also played board games with them. One of Ghana’s top hiplife artistes and a friend of Gold Fields Ghana, Okyeame Kwame shared his life with the boys and encouraged them to move beyond their obstacles and take advantage of opportunities available to them to become better persons. The Officer –In-Charge at the centre expressed appreciation for Gold Field’s presence which he believed will impact the boys positively. At Tarkwa mine, employees marked the day with a clean-up exercise at the Tarkwa Government Hospital’s male ward. The Officer-in-Charge of sanitation at the hospital, Mr Tetteh, expressed sincere gratitude to the Tarkwa Gold Mine team for the thorough clean up exercise. He mentioned that the hospital will appreciate more of such exercises from Gold Fields as well as other organizations. The team at the Damang mine cleaned up the Subri Methodist School and painted the community library. The Acting General Manager of the mine, Mr. Augustine Asubonteng explained that the objectivesof Mandela Day were in line with the company’s policy to undertake at least one major employee community volunteerism project each quarter. This, he said, could be in the form of teaching in schools, educating community members and students, and clean-up exercises. After painting the community library, the employees also donated books worth GHC 2,000.00 to boost the knowledge of students and pupils in the area. The Community Affairs Manager at the Mine, Mr. Yaw Britwum Opoku, explaining the background to the project stated that following a study to assess the impact of Gold Fields Ghana Foundation projects in stakeholder communities, it was revealed that the Subri Community Library, which was constructed by the Foundation, was not utilised. This was because books donated by an NGO a few years ago was not what the school needed. The company therefore obtained a list of required books from the school authority and supplied some of these as part of Mandela Day. The management and staff at the mine, who participated in the exercise, interacted with the school children and sensitised them on the need to take their education seriously. The Assemblywoman for the Subri Electoral Area, Agnes Boamponsah on behalf of the Chiefs and people of Subri, thanked the company for its assistance to the community and hoped that the mine will continue to assist in their development. In the spirit of Mandela International Day, which is in line with Gold Fields’ vision to be “the global leader in sustainable gold mining”, Gold Fields Ghana continues to identify and embark on community development projects so as to assist in improving the quality of life within Ghana.