South Africa (AP):

Nelson Mandela's fans celebrated the anti-apartheid icon's 91st birthday Saturday by emulating him with good deeds, reading to the blind, distributing blankets to the homeless or refurbishing homes for AIDS orphans.

Mandela has called on people to spend time doing good Saturday, the first Mandela Day, which his charity foundations hope will be an annual event.

In South Africa, people are collecting clothing for poor children, painting schools, planting trees near Mandela's boyhood home in eastern South Africa, and renovating a building in downtown Johannesburg for people left homeless by a fire.

Mandela stepped down after serving one term as president - the first black South African to hold the post. Since 1999, he has devoted himself to such causes as fighting AIDS and poverty and championing the rights of children.

Mandela Day concert

At a Mandela Day concert in New York on Saturday, Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, Aretha Franklin and others are to perform for the benefit of Mandela's AIDS foundation.

In Johannesburg, nurse Thandiwe Gwinza went straight from night shift at a hospital to volunteer at a soup kitchen Saturday.

"This morning what I have done for 67 minutes, I have helped the community making soup," she said. "I have made soup for the people and I have given them my old clothes."

Mandela Day organisers encouraged people to devote at least a minute for each of the 67 years Mandela campaigned against apartheid to community service

The regular volunteers at a Johannesburg animal shelter called CLAW sang 'Happy Birthday' for Mandela before getting to work Saturday. Children from poor communities volunteer to care for and walk the dogs at CLAW's shelter, and adults donate time to help the children with their schoolwork.

A start

"I think volunteering 67 minutes should be a start, but it should really be more of a way of life," said Cora Bailey, who runs CLAW. "That's the only way we are going to go forward."

Many of the projects celebrating Mandela Day in South Africa underlined how much work remains to be done in a country proud of ending apartheid peacefully, but plagued by poverty, stubborn inequalities, and AIDS - some 5.2 million South Africans were living with HIV last year - more than in any other country in the world.er president Nelson Mandela (centre) arrives with South Africa's President Jacob Zuma (right) as Mandela celebrates his 91st birthday in Johannesburg.