the village of hope seeks to help children infected or affected by hiv, aids and tb in two different ways: we have a 9 bed children's unit to support those infected by hiv and aids and we also run a community-based sports and lifeskills outreach in the informal settlements and squatter camps each afternoon.

this blog has been set up to allow the key members of the team at the village of hope to share their thoughts, photos and experiences as we work in the community of grabouw in south africa

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

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.

1 comment:

  1. only just caught up with this - what a great idea. good work guys!

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