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nderprivileged girls in South Jakarta are being introduced to the spirit of Nelson Mandela, especially in the respect for life.

“The spirit of Mandela is about protecting the rights of marginalized people,” said Wiwi, one of the caretakers at the Putra Utama Foster Home (PSAA) in Tebet, South Jakarta.

“The United Nations and the South African Embassy are giving service to the girls and introducing them to the spirit of Mandela.”

Wiwi was speaking on the sidelines of an event held by the UN Information Center (UNIC) Jakarta and the South African Embassy to commemorate Nelson Mandela International Day on Wednesday.

The UN established Mandela Day in November 2009 to honor the South African antiapartheid icon who was born on July 18, 1918.

This year’s event marked Mandela’s centennial birthday and was observed around the world.

Some 80 girls are currently living in the Tebet foster home, most of them teenagers, Wiwi said.

The caretakers in the home said they felt happy and thankful for the event.

One of the girls told The Jakarta Post that she had not known about Mandela previously.

“I am amazed after learning about Nelson Mandela. He defended justice,” said Silpi Yanti, a high school student.

Silpi, who wants to get a law degree, felt inspired by Mandela.

“We should always defend justice for people because it is the right thing to do,” she said.

Meanwhile, South African Ambassador to Indonesia Hilton Fisher said Mandela tried to help others, gave freedom and justice to all and loved peace during his lifetime.

“We celebrated the principle of humanity, sharing with others, and today we remember [how] Nelson Mandela spent 67 years of his life,” he said.

“This [Mandela Day] is how we honor him.”

Meanwhile, UNIC Jakarta acting director Eshila Maravanyika said both UNIC and the embassy gave 67 minutes of their time to the people, as a symbol of the 67 years Mandela gave to the world while imprisoned.

In 2015, Mandela Day was celebrated at a prison in Jakarta to address how to make the treatment of prisoners more humane.

“It was also a reminder of the 27 years Mandela spent in prison,” said Maravinyaka.

She said this year the embassy and the UNIC cooked, cleaned and planted seeds, such as beans, chili and others, for the foster girls.

“If you have been inspired by what we have done here maybe you would [continue] the movement tomorrow,” she told reporters.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama hosted a youth leadership project in Johannesburg, South Africa, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu led emotional tributes to Mandela, AFP reported.

Obama told 200 young people attending the course he set up that Mandela had been a key inspiration in his life.

“Most people around the world think of Mandela as an older man, with hair like mine,” he joked.

“What people of course don’t recall is that he started as a very young man — your age — trying to liberate his country. He then inspired me.”

Obama on Tuesday delivered the centerpiece address of the celebrations to a crowd of 15,000 at a cricket stadium, recalling the “wave of hope that washed through hearts all around the world” when Mandela was released from prison in 1990.

“Through his sacrifice and unwavering leadership and, perhaps most of all, through his moral example, Mandela [...] came to embody the universal aspirations of dispossessed people,” Obama said.

Tutu, 86, recalled fond memories of his fellow campaigner against white-minority rule and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner.

“The most extraordinary thing about Nelson Mandela was his ordinariness. He was just a particularly fine example of humanity,” Tutu said in a video message.

“The principles on which he led his life are universal principles of love, fairness and respect of others built on understanding of the vulnerabilities that we all share.”

— The writer is an intern at The Jakarta Post