last saturday we held our last sports saturday of the 2010 year, an eventful year for sport in south africa and not one that we have let pass by either.
this final sports saturday took place at our new venue the groenberg (green mountain) high school in grabouw, where we hosted around 100 children for a morning of soccer and netball competition.
the teams were made up of the two new schools project we have started, KMP (katharine murray primary) and pineview primary, who previously made up our hillside and rooidakke teams, along with our established community teams from iraq and waterwerks as well the farm team from remhoogte. the boys were split into under 13 and under 15 age groups with lisa organising the girls as she felt fit!....
all the boys had to play in bare feet as not everyone had sports shoes but we were able to provide football shirts to all teams, including bristol city, reading and coventry city, shame there were no QPR tops but they remain top of the football league championship in england so we're not really moaning.
we played on 4 pitches with referees from the HAN university helping out to keep control and after some stiff competition, the u13's was won by a team from waterwerks, the u15's by the boys from iraq and the netball by remhoogte, the school teams performed well and really enjoyed playing in their first real tournament.
after the games we were treated to a wonderful braai (BBQ) which was provided and cooked by the guys from the roundtable, who also sponsored our new 'village of hope sports outreach' tee shirts.
if you would like to sponsor a sports saturday which costs around £100 to run with drinks, food and prizes then please contact us!
Monday, November 29, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
graceland graduation
last night we had the pleasure of attending the graceland pre primary school graduation, graceland is another thembalitsha foundation project and provides education to around 60 preschool (3-6 years) farm workers children from the beautiful devon valley area just outside stellenbosch.
the evening started with the graduation of around 15 children, who were all dressed up in the full garb, see photos, and then each class performed a short song or nursery rhyme, the highlight being a class dancing in full south african soccer shirts to the song 'make the circle bigger' which was very big over here during the world cup. the parents and children then ended the evening with a full braai (BBQ) prepared by some of the students from the school of hope.
the principle of the school, elizabeth, and her team do an amazing job in preparing these disadvantaged children for their entry into the education system and it was lovely to celebrate with them the stories of hope that they are providing to their community.
Monday, November 22, 2010
the book has arrived
well after a few weeks of waiting the wonderful book entitled 'footprints in the sand' by wayne shoenfeld arrived in our post box this morning, we spent a good hour pondering over the thought provoking photos and reading the text about the work that we (village of hope and thembacare) are doing here in grabouw and then this afternoon i was able to take a couple of copies of the book out into the community to bless those who appeared in the book with us.
see photos of our security guard and care worker
the guy that provided 'security' for the team has now moved into one of the newly built government homes, his neice once spent some time with us at the village of hope and he is still fully employed as a security guard, however the thembacare worker who features throughout the book isn't doing so well. i was very embarrassed to have bought them a present, which wasn't going to sustain them through this tough period, her husband has not worked for a couple of months and they are waiting on his salary R830 for 4 weeks work which will only come through in 3 weeks time. this care worker had to be laid off from thembacare due to short funding and when i asked what they were eating she said that she had spent her last money on a cabbage and had borrowed R30 for some paraffin to cook over, she had a lot of washing in tubs on the floor of her shack but couldn't wash it as she didn't have any soap powder.....
...i came away feeling really really sorry for her, to be the star of a book and to be living like this is not the way it should be.......we really want to reemploy this amazing lady who lives with the HIV virus but with limited funds we have had to cut back.....it is shocking in a community with such a need we cannot employ enough staff cause of funding....
if you would like to find out more about the book then please visit waynes web page by following this link or have a look at the work that exeko are doing by visiting this page.
Saturday, November 20, 2010
world toilet day!
yesterday was world toilet day, no this isn't a joke as the day was set up to highlight the basic water and sanitation needs of many many people in our world.....please visit their web site for more info here.
water and sanitation is a huge problem facing thousands of people in our town of grabouw and whilst the municipality is doing some great work to provide the basics to the areas of waterworks (which is a squatter camp/informal settlement right next to the waterworks, but with only a few standpipes and toilet blocks to serve a large section of our community, slightly ironic!), rooidakke, zola and iraq, there is this real mind challenging issue with multi million pound homes, hotels and farms with 'western style' sanitation that we all take for granted, living side by side with families living in tin shacks sharing one toilet between 12 other families (at least)........yesterday i took a couple of photos showing some of the children that we work with standing outside their toilet block, along with a man collecting water from a single standpipe in rooidakke area of grabouw...
remember grabouw has a HIV infection rate of around 30%, along with a very high rate of TB, with that in mind the health and welfare of these people is paramount, with little access to clean water or toilets you can imagine the problems that this creates!
Friday, November 19, 2010
new mini/mircrobus
well at last we have the bus we are looking for, it's not a brand new toyota quantam that we were hoping for but a 10 year old vw microbus! we have been on the look out for one for quite sometime and we made the decision to trade in the old condor and put some extra money which was given to us by the YWAM team for their vehilce needs during the world cup.
so we must add a special thanks to YWAM and this now means that we can fit ALL the children in one vehicle which is fantastic, this morning i did the school run with fran, which was great....we trust that this van will serve us well as we trust God for the provision of the real deal when we can really afford it!
Thursday, November 18, 2010
christmas is coming can you help?....yes you can!
yesterday i took this wonderful photo of one of our little boys doing his homework with one of the house moms, after i took it i wondered where i could use it to promote the work that we are doing on the village of hope and thought that maybe someone will look at the blog and want to invest in the work we are doing.
christmas is coming and i know that you will be struggling to think of a suitable gift for auntie anne, or cousin john, so what better way to give that to invest in the lives of the children that we are working with who are living with hiv and aids here in south africa.
i know it's a big ask but with more money we can support more children, providing them with a loving home and a mom to do their homework with....if you would like to give to our work then please follow this link to our justgiving page...thanks
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
birthdays...time to celebrate
grabouw weather is known to have 3 seasons in one day and much can also be said about the life here at the village of hope, this week we have heard of the passing of one of the thembacare workers brothers, one of the children that attend sports outreach mum passed away and one of our house moms was held up at gun point over the weekend.....
..and as a complete contrast we also celebrated one of our boys 1st birthdays, it seems hard to celebrate when people around are mourning or facing troubles, but life goes on and it was wonderful to see this little chap, who we have had since he was 5 days old, enjoy his first birthday....please pray for him and also his family and our nation as trouble seems to be on our doorstep each and everyday.
..and as a complete contrast we also celebrated one of our boys 1st birthdays, it seems hard to celebrate when people around are mourning or facing troubles, but life goes on and it was wonderful to see this little chap, who we have had since he was 5 days old, enjoy his first birthday....please pray for him and also his family and our nation as trouble seems to be on our doorstep each and everyday.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
home visit and troubles a foot
on friday afternoon we took our 9 year old girl into khayelitsha to spend a weekend with her new foster mom, she had amazing time and the photo shows her with maz and her new mom, nicky.
things however weren't all that rosy as we entered and exited khayelithsa, as we came off the N2 into 'mew way' we were greeted by a police road block and we diverted around it, as we had only one set of instructions to the home we spent around 1 hour trying to find the place...as we arrived we found some of the other children who live in this home were waiting to go on an end of term camp....however it seems that the bus that they were waiting for was the one that was hijacked and stoned with other children who were attending the camp...see the news story here.
things are getting a little out of hand to say the least, last night an english couple, on holiday, we hijacked and the woman, 28 years old, was killed, see this link.
please continue to pray for our country and our safety as we work in these somewhat dangerous communities....i am off to khayelitsha again tomorrow so would appreciate your prayers.
Monday, November 8, 2010
October Newsletter
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
November is Spring time here in South Africa and is always a glorious time in Grabouw. The apple trees are just flowering, the roses are having their first flush (yes that’s what it’s called!), the local farms and vineyards open their doors to the public to show off their wonderful gardens, and the prospect of a summer of hot and dry weather is just around the corner (sorry to rub it in folks!).....however not everything is so rosy in the valley as many hundreds if not thousands of families struggle with unemployment, lack of adequate housing and major health and welfare issues....thanks to your support we are making a real difference in the sleepy rural town of Grabouw. Read on to find out what we have been doing this month:
Our 9 bed childrens unit has once again had 100% occupancy and with 15 children already placed back with their families in the community we are kept on our toes as we provide a loving environment to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in the home and support those families who we have successfully placed the children home to.
All this takes a great deal of time, money and self motivation and we cant explain how much we are benefiting from the arrival of Mel Kidd, who has joined us from Dallas for at least one year. Mel was part of a mission team last year and fell in love with the project and the children, she is now assisting Maz to create some much needed discipline and structures in the children’s daily lives, her arrival has also freed up Lisa to become more involved in caring for those we have already placed home.
It looks like we have successfully found a home for our eldest (9 year old) girl with a loving family in Khayelitsha, this home is run by an amazing charity called ‘Home from home’, we are hoping that this will be the first of many placements and we are also looking to work with them in the future as we seek to set up our first ‘cluster home’ in Grabouw....all exciting stuff but we will be a very sad to see her leave.
Our sports outreach has taken another exciting turn as we have started to work in two local schools providing sports clubs as after schools activities, unfortunately during the month and transition period we have lost contact with some of the children that we were serving in our communities, however the numbers are growing each week and we are seeing new faces, we now think that around 200-250 children attend our life skills-based bible clubs each week, which is great news.
Last Tuesday we were joined for the afternoon by Matt Walker, Matt came out prior to and during the FIFA World Cup, Matt a real London (pronounced Lunn dunn) boy is fantastic with the kids, unfortunately during the session that he was running he fell and twisted his ankle and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the local government run day hospital in Grabouw...which was a bit of an eye opener, but the service we received would put many western hospitals to shame...get well soon Matt!
Arron has been in Uganda for a couple of weeks with Big Shot Cricket so we have missed his input on the sports side, however Johan has been doing a great job around the farm and we have now got the irrigation system working which has allowed us to plant our first crops (we want to thank Elgin Learning Foundation for their support in this by providing much needed labour to till and prepare the land.
Tim and Daz were also able to bless one of our children’s families with a new roof!, well not quite new but after a conversation had by Tim and a local yachtsman we were given some old sails which we installed over this tin home to keep the spring rains at bay.
October was another busy month for volunteers, we hosted the wonderful mission team from Dallas, ably lead by Krissy Clarke, this is the third time this team from Trinity Church have stayed with us and we are continually blown away by their servant hearts and the way that they not only embrace The Village of Hope but also the work that Thembacare are doing in Grabouw.
Rob and Emily House, along with their children Rosie and Isaac, returned to support our work for the next two years, Rob will be heading up the International Fundraising side of the Thembalitsha Foundation, so don’t be surprised if you hear from him asking for your help in raising much needed funds for not only the Village of Hope but also the wider Thembalitsha projects that we run. Emily will be focusing her time on the new Thembalitsha website and also providing materials to help with fundraising both here in South Africa and wider. Emily is also heading up our volunteer programme so if you are interested in visiting our project then you will be hearing from Em!
We have also benefited from the time that Barbara Wood has spent with us, she has been helping out wherever the need arises, whether that be with the finances, the weekly food shop for the unit (not a job for the faint hearted) or the Friday soup run, we will be sorry to see Barbara leave to return home to sunny England next week.
Another returning volunteer is Fran Black who arrived with her ‘boyfriend’ Spencer, Fran will be staying until Christmas. Unfortunately Spencer was only over for a couple of weeks but we trust he had a good time as he visited homes with our nurses and got involved in the sports outreach. Fran is a diamond and we enjoy her just being around.
During the month we were blessed with our first donation that came through the sales of the wonderful Wholehearted Album, if you haven’t purchased it yet then please visit their web site at www.wholehearted.co.za or visit itunes or cdbaby for more info. The CD also includes a bonus DVD with a video of one of the songs which we shot in our local township and an interview with Tim, well worth the money!
We were also visited by Jo and Josh who came over from England to bring much needed supplies, Jo found us via the Stuff your rucksack, see link here http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com/charity.php?id=118
A Cracking Quiz Night for World AIDS Day
When: 01 December • 19:00 - 22:30
Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchill Avenue, Southcourt, Aylesbury
For those of you who don't already know, 1st December is World AIDS Day. As you can imagine it is a key date in our diary as a charity and we thought it only right to mark the occasion!
So bring you friends along, join us for a fun-filled quiz evening and find out how we are working for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
There will be a bar and a raffle too....what more could you ask for on a gloomy winter's Wednesday?!
Tickets are £5 and include a free drink (£15 for a family ticket).
So roll up, roll up!!!!
Buy your tickets or find out more information from the lovely Ellie Carman (07912 888298) or the lovely Jess Stratford (07738 831507)
We hope to see you all there!
PS If Aylesbury if a tad too far for you to travel then why not host your own quiz night on World AIDS Day or another date? - We have a ready made package for you to make it nice and easy for you to organise. Email us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information or inspiration!
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on Volunteering for the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!
November is Spring time here in South Africa and is always a glorious time in Grabouw. The apple trees are just flowering, the roses are having their first flush (yes that’s what it’s called!), the local farms and vineyards open their doors to the public to show off their wonderful gardens, and the prospect of a summer of hot and dry weather is just around the corner (sorry to rub it in folks!).....however not everything is so rosy in the valley as many hundreds if not thousands of families struggle with unemployment, lack of adequate housing and major health and welfare issues....thanks to your support we are making a real difference in the sleepy rural town of Grabouw. Read on to find out what we have been doing this month:
- Children's Unit
- Sports Outreach & Community Work
- Other News & Volunteers
- Events
- How You Can Help
- Volunteers
Our 9 bed childrens unit has once again had 100% occupancy and with 15 children already placed back with their families in the community we are kept on our toes as we provide a loving environment to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in the home and support those families who we have successfully placed the children home to.
All this takes a great deal of time, money and self motivation and we cant explain how much we are benefiting from the arrival of Mel Kidd, who has joined us from Dallas for at least one year. Mel was part of a mission team last year and fell in love with the project and the children, she is now assisting Maz to create some much needed discipline and structures in the children’s daily lives, her arrival has also freed up Lisa to become more involved in caring for those we have already placed home.
It looks like we have successfully found a home for our eldest (9 year old) girl with a loving family in Khayelitsha, this home is run by an amazing charity called ‘Home from home’, we are hoping that this will be the first of many placements and we are also looking to work with them in the future as we seek to set up our first ‘cluster home’ in Grabouw....all exciting stuff but we will be a very sad to see her leave.
SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK
Our sports outreach has taken another exciting turn as we have started to work in two local schools providing sports clubs as after schools activities, unfortunately during the month and transition period we have lost contact with some of the children that we were serving in our communities, however the numbers are growing each week and we are seeing new faces, we now think that around 200-250 children attend our life skills-based bible clubs each week, which is great news.
Last Tuesday we were joined for the afternoon by Matt Walker, Matt came out prior to and during the FIFA World Cup, Matt a real London (pronounced Lunn dunn) boy is fantastic with the kids, unfortunately during the session that he was running he fell and twisted his ankle and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the local government run day hospital in Grabouw...which was a bit of an eye opener, but the service we received would put many western hospitals to shame...get well soon Matt!
Arron has been in Uganda for a couple of weeks with Big Shot Cricket so we have missed his input on the sports side, however Johan has been doing a great job around the farm and we have now got the irrigation system working which has allowed us to plant our first crops (we want to thank Elgin Learning Foundation for their support in this by providing much needed labour to till and prepare the land.
Tim and Daz were also able to bless one of our children’s families with a new roof!, well not quite new but after a conversation had by Tim and a local yachtsman we were given some old sails which we installed over this tin home to keep the spring rains at bay.
October was another busy month for volunteers, we hosted the wonderful mission team from Dallas, ably lead by Krissy Clarke, this is the third time this team from Trinity Church have stayed with us and we are continually blown away by their servant hearts and the way that they not only embrace The Village of Hope but also the work that Thembacare are doing in Grabouw.
Rob and Emily House, along with their children Rosie and Isaac, returned to support our work for the next two years, Rob will be heading up the International Fundraising side of the Thembalitsha Foundation, so don’t be surprised if you hear from him asking for your help in raising much needed funds for not only the Village of Hope but also the wider Thembalitsha projects that we run. Emily will be focusing her time on the new Thembalitsha website and also providing materials to help with fundraising both here in South Africa and wider. Emily is also heading up our volunteer programme so if you are interested in visiting our project then you will be hearing from Em!
We have also benefited from the time that Barbara Wood has spent with us, she has been helping out wherever the need arises, whether that be with the finances, the weekly food shop for the unit (not a job for the faint hearted) or the Friday soup run, we will be sorry to see Barbara leave to return home to sunny England next week.
Another returning volunteer is Fran Black who arrived with her ‘boyfriend’ Spencer, Fran will be staying until Christmas. Unfortunately Spencer was only over for a couple of weeks but we trust he had a good time as he visited homes with our nurses and got involved in the sports outreach. Fran is a diamond and we enjoy her just being around.
During the month we were blessed with our first donation that came through the sales of the wonderful Wholehearted Album, if you haven’t purchased it yet then please visit their web site at www.wholehearted.co.za or visit itunes or cdbaby for more info. The CD also includes a bonus DVD with a video of one of the songs which we shot in our local township and an interview with Tim, well worth the money!
We were also visited by Jo and Josh who came over from England to bring much needed supplies, Jo found us via the Stuff your rucksack, see link here http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com/charity.php?id=118
A Cracking Quiz Night for World AIDS Day
When: 01 December • 19:00 - 22:30
Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchill Avenue, Southcourt, Aylesbury
For those of you who don't already know, 1st December is World AIDS Day. As you can imagine it is a key date in our diary as a charity and we thought it only right to mark the occasion!
So bring you friends along, join us for a fun-filled quiz evening and find out how we are working for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
There will be a bar and a raffle too....what more could you ask for on a gloomy winter's Wednesday?!
Tickets are £5 and include a free drink (£15 for a family ticket).
So roll up, roll up!!!!
Buy your tickets or find out more information from the lovely Ellie Carman (07912 888298) or the lovely Jess Stratford (07738 831507)
We hope to see you all there!
PS If Aylesbury if a tad too far for you to travel then why not host your own quiz night on World AIDS Day or another date? - We have a ready made package for you to make it nice and easy for you to organise. Email us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information or inspiration!
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on Volunteering for the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!
Friday, November 5, 2010
grass roots soccer (football)
today myself, daz and our dutch sports management student (bart) visited an amazing project in khayelitsha built by fifa but run by grass roots soccer. the project has an astroturf 5 a side pitch and a classroom/support room, toilets and offices, all set against a backdrop of tin shacks right in the middle of one of the largest townships in africa.
whilst we were there the pitch was being used by a class of 5-6 year olds from a local school. it was wonderful to see sport and especially soccer bring hope to a much needy community. the facility seemed to be a real hub and maybe to add on health and welfare care facilities at the same venue would be a real win.
now we would love to see this style of facility rolled out to some of the open spaces in grabouw, ok the investment might be huge but the long term benefits to the community are beyond measure....can we make this happen?....i have faith but only God knows!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
homes for sail
last month i met up with a guy who sails boats for a living (there must be an official term for that, perhaps rob could help me out with that one)...anyway i was chatting about the work we do in the community and the home visit we had made to one of our children who we have placed back with his mother....when lisa visited the mother showed her a large hole in the thin black sheet which covered her small shack....anyway as i was chatting to mike (the boat man) he said that he could get hold of some old sails...well that he did and yesterday me and daz went and fitted the first of the sails onto that house.
the first photo shows the mother and child outside their home (as you can see we only just finished it before the rain came, which was a blessing) and the second shows the father of another family that we work with who i blessed with the second sail....hopefully mike will be able to provide many more in the near future and we can assist with some much needed roofing in our local community. they say that one mans rubbish is another mans gold and this is very true in this case.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
matt out
today we were visited by matt walker, an old friend and no relation, matt came out to visit us prior to and during the world cup 2010 and is an amazing football coach from england.....unfortunately whilst we were running our sports outreach at the KMP school in grabouw today matt twisted his left ankle and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the day hospital..the service was brilliant and matt was logged onto the system, x-ray'ed and plastered within an hour.
shame for matt who is a great sport, we wish him well as he returns to england on saturday..
Monday, November 1, 2010
wholehearted(ly) behind village of hope
we posted before about the amazing album, wholehearted by the wholehearted band but we just wanted to highlight that we have received our first R5K from the sale of their album, which can be purchased various different ways, either via itunes or via cdbaby where you can either download or order the physical cd, which comes with a bonus dvd with the video we shot in rooidakker squatter camp, along with a short interview video of me!...
go on get yourself an amazing worship album and support the work at the village of hope at the same time!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)