spreading christmas cheer

the christmas period has continued to be a busy time for the team at the village of hope, and we have also been so overwhelmed by the presents and parties that our 9 children have been blessed with during this time. it was however somewhat of a problem giving our children hundereds of gifts whilst the large majority of the children that we also work with in the community receive nothing, therefore we decided to not only bless some local creches, in elgin timbers and iraq with some of the toys that we had received but also thought that it would be nice for all the children in our town to see and experience father christmas paying them a visit.

therefore with the wonderful arty skills of emily house we converted our trailer into a sleigh which we drove around the townships and squatter camps, complete with a 'real norwegian' santa claus (our wonderful volunter trondor, who had an amazing time on the sleigh)....see newspaper article (right) for an image.

christmas was and is indeed a time of giving, it was wonderful to be able to bring some light into what is a very poor and needy town.

still no phonelines

communication is proving a little difficult from the village of hope at the minute as we are still without phonelines, stolen twice in the last two weeks....we trust that you enjoyed the december newsletter, as previous post and we look forward to resuming normal updates and service as soon as we can....

village of hope christmas newsletter

News from the Village - Christmas 2009.

Summer is coming, witchdoctors, and kids returning home.

Well we thought that October was a tough month but I think that November has topped it. That said we are still pushing forward and making a real difference in the lives of the children that live with us on the Village of Hope and those we seek to serve in our community. I can't say too much but please pray for us as we come up against local opposition, including witchdoctors, as we work in what is a very poor and needy area of the world.

As I sit writing this, World AIDS day is upon us (December 1st) and whilst we are working in a community where around 34% of our population is infected with HIV there are still many thousands of people who don't even know their status. It is our aim to encourage people to get tested because once their status has been confirmed we can work effectively on a programme which will stabilise their health and provide them with a hope for the future.

Unit News

This month we have some wonderful news to share, one of our little three year old boys has been placed back out with his family! Whilst saying goodbye is the hardest part of our job we are delighted that the Grandmother proved to us that she was a very capable carer and we trust God that she will continue to provide the boy with his ARV (anti-retro-viral) treatment. This will ensure that he remains healthy for the rest of his life....please pray for them as they return to their family home in the Eastern Cape.

Not all our children are so blessed though. The circumstances of some of our children cause us to think about the deeper things of life. Our newest child is less than two weeks old. He was born prematurely to a mother so sick with AIDS that she is blind. The hospital discharged the mother the day he was born to live in a tin shack with his family who thought that feeding the baby sugar water would help him! The difficulty is that there is little help for thousands of families in our town and this kind of story is all too familiar to us. We are now caring for this boy at the Village of Hope until he is stabilised and we will continue to work with his family as we seek to provide them with the skills required to care for such a needy child.

We might also have to take back the eight year old girl who had been placed home as her mother has already passed away and the remainder of the family are making this child’s life quite terrible. Please pray that we make the right decisions as we seek to work with this family.

Community News

During November the weather decided to brighten and it has been hot and sunny. Great weather helps as we run our sports outreach programme in the poorest areas of our town (although last monday was so hot that we had to cancel the clubs!). It is amazing to see the children develop week after week, whether in our soccer and netball outreach or at our bible clubs. The kids we serve are wonderful, so well behaved and eager for the attention we are able to give them as we seek to instill in them some basic life skills.

Arron and Sandra have been running the Wednesday afternoon Kidz Club in the 'Yellow Church' whilst Reagan has been 'having a break'. Daz, and Trondor, one of our long term volunteers, have set up a new soccer club in Waterworks squatter camp, which seems to be taking off very well despite the glass in the sand pitch!

On the last weekend of November we were able to assist with the planning and running of a Community Day. This was the idea of some of the Dutch students who are on a university placement in Grabouw. Many of them have been involved with the Village of Hope projects, either as Social Workers, Sports Outreach Workers or Physio Therapists. The day had three themes, Health, Culture and Sports, with the main aim being to get people tested for HIV. Unfortunately, this didn’t really happen because all the children who attended weren't accompanied by their parents. Aside from that, the day went really well and everyone seemed to have had a wonderful time.

Farm News.

During November we had a locally based German company come and install four solar panels on each of the buildings. These are linked in to our existing water heaters and because of the wonderful hot and sunny weather we have been having we are currently being supplied with 'free' hot water. The idea and donation for this came from a UK based Trust and we thank them for their support as we seek to reduce our costs here on the Village of Hope.

There is still no news on the irrigation system, which is key to us expanding the work that we do on the land. However we have placed a proposal for funding with a local agricultural college as we seek to work together in using the land to provide food for our children's unit as well as providing a place where students and local people can learn new farming skills.

Volunteers

Rob, Emily, Rosie and Isaac seem to be settling in well to the Village of Hope team. It has been useful for us to have Rob around as he is also a member of the ThembalitshaUK board and we have had some good meetings bouncing ideas around and overcoming some challenges we have experienced over the last month.

Jess and Fran make a great team and they were joined by Giles Joiner for a week. They have been working on an 11am-midday slot with the children each day which they and the children are really enjoying. Our volunteers are also key for our children's outreach and Fran has been helping Tim in Iraq setting up a new netball club and Jess, as well as having her hair coloured, has been helping Arron and Sandra with the Wednesday Kidz club!

IMPORTANT INFO

2010 is already full until end of July, we currently have only a couple of weeks in April that are not filled with volunteers, if you are planning a trip please contact us BEFORE making any final plans!

lack of communication

since last monday, during a board meeting via skype to the UK, we have been without phonelines, and therefore internet on the village of hope....this has been somewhat frustrating and has meant that we have had to travel to thembacare to do any internet business......we are trusting that the phonelines, which were stolen, will be reinstalled sometime today!

world cup fever....the world waits

i see that the rich and famous, including mr beckham has turned up in cape town this week and it would seem that the world has it's eyes set on cape town, not for the last time in the next year, as the world cup draw is made tonight.....we know that all of this razzmatazz pales into insignificance as we work amongst the poor of this nation...tonight we wait with baited breath to hear who will be playing who in south africa 2010....

dutch help...

as highlighted before, see community day post, we have been partnering with some dutch students who are over in grabouw on internships, we have been blessed with social workers, who have been drawing up some of our files and case studies, physio therapists, who have been working on the motor skills of our children, and sports students who have been helping with some of our soccer outreach in the community.

yesterday the students delivered their final presentations to their tutors and we were invited along to give feed back and to hear about how they had got on during their time with us, me and maz felt like proud parents as the students shared of their stories about the wonderful time they had had on placement at the village of hope.

we are hoping to cement further relations with the HAN university, to ensure that we continue to receive their students and provide them with an amazing placement.

knowing your status!

today i can justifiably speak about HIV and Jesus without too much complaint.....the 1st of december marks two important dates in the village of hope calendar.

firstly we think of Jesus as we celebrate the first day of advent, the time where we prepare ourselves to remember his first coming as a baby born to a virgin in a stable in a poor occupied nation in the middle east.

secondly we think of those infected by the virus, HIV, which can lead to full blown AIDS, we live in a town where the known infection rate is over 30% and with children who already know their status...however many thousands of people are living with this virus without full knowledge of why they are feeling sick. today we will match through our streets to encourage people come to be tested at the various places around our town where they can find out their status and make a start on the road to stabilised health.....

...they say knowledge is powerful, it certainly is with HIV as the treatments now available to many can make a real impact into the health of those infected.

as we look around us, read our newspapers or listen to the news, we may claim that we live in a dying world, a world where our natural resources are being drained at an alarming rate, where violence and lawlessness rule our streets and schools, where governments think that having more nuclear weapons will bring peace....however my belief is that this world is heading towards restoration, the bible says that nature groans with expectation of this event (romans 8) we therefore look forward to Jesus second coming with great excitement, when, as i believe, Jesus will restore the earth to it's perfect created state, when all men will live in harmony with each other, their will be no more death or disease and peace will reign forever.......

today some of us are sick with a virus that we can see in the physical, others of us are sick with a virus that only affects our soul....its important to know your status and from that point you can make a choice, either to take the medication that will stabilise the problem and lead to new life or if you chose not then it may lead to your destruction.