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!
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