Nelson Mandela in July, 1993

October 14, 2010: Former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela released a new book called Conversations with Myself. Published by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and based on his personal archive of letters, diaries, and reflections, the book reveals the human being behind the public figure.

Mandela spent 27 years in prison on South Africa’s Robben Island for his actions to end apartheid. During that time his mother died and his oldest son was killed in a car accident, but he was not permitted to attend their funerals. Much of the new book draws from scraps of paper and notebooks on which he recorded his thoughts during those decades of great hardship.

As spokesmen from the Nelson Mandela Foundation state in a video on the foundation’s Web site, Mandela has been quoted by so many others, this book allows readers to hear him in his own voice. The book includes notes he jotted down during meetings, troubling dreams he recorded on his prison cell desk calendar, journals he kept while on the run from the white government in the early 1960s, and recorded conversations with friends.

Conversations with Myself contains a foreword by Barack Obama; the book will appear in 22 editions worldwide and in 20 languages.

Mandela is a Long-time Supporter of SOS Children’s Villages

Nelson Mandela with a child from the SOS Children's Village in Ennerdale, South Africa

Ninety-two-year-old Nelson Mandela is a Nobel Peace Prize winner and great humanitarian. Through his presidency of South Africa from 1994 to 1999 to date, he has lent his support to improving the lives of vulnerable populations in South Africa and around the world.

One of the ways he has shown his concern for children without parental care is through his involvement with SOS Children’s Villages. SOS has been in South Africa since 1982. Mandela, together with recently retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are among the most prominent advocates of SOS Children's Villages in South Africa.

Mandela attended the opening of SOS-Capetown in 1996, and later personally spoke out in favor of building an SOS Children’s Village in Umtata, in Eastern Cape Province. That village, opened in 2001, was SOS’s sixth of eight Children’s Villages it now operates in Mandela’s homeland.

SOS raises South African AIDS orphans, providing them with loving homes, SOS mothers, education, and health care. SOS also offers a range of services to the many South African families affected by HIV/AIDS.

Join Nelson Mandela in supporting SOS. Become a SOS Global Village Builder today. For just 40 cents/day you can join a movement for a child's right to a family and make dreams come true.

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