December Newsletter

Hello everyone!

So we enter the last month of what has been a very exciting year not only for Village of Hope but for the whole of South Africa. The Football World Cup truly was a great success…

However, this success does nothing to detract from the terrific damage that HIV and AIDS continues to do to the country. Today (December 1^st) is World AIDS Day, so please continue to think and pray for us as we seek to make a difference to those infected or affected with this disease in Grabouw.

Tonight we are holding a fundraising quiz night in Aylesbury. Please come and join us if you live nearby. We are even hoping to rope in the Village of Hope Team via Skype! – It should make for an entertaining evening. Please see Events for more details

Of course, we have also been thinking about you with the run up to Christmas and know that some of you are struggling to find suitable gifts for your relatives and friends. So, to help you with your stressful predicament we have produced some fantastic Thembalitsha Gift Cards. They start from as little as £10 and truly are the gift that keeps on giving! Simple and stress free, email us here to get yours sorted! – No need to thank us! - and before you know it you could be providing food, nappies and more for the children at the Village of Hope.

November has been as hectic as always. We are still trying to wait patiently for a the courts to get organised so our 9-year-old girl can move to her new foster/cluster home in time for Christmas. In the meantime we have put on our last Soccer Saturday of the year where our smart new Village of Hope t-shirts made their debut. Please read-on for a full run-down of our recent happenings.

Menu

• Children’s Unit
• Sports Outreach & Community Work
• Christmas
• Other News
• Events
• How You Can Help
• Volunteers

CHILDREN’S UNIT

Well the children’s unit has been busy again, with 9 children you can hardly expect little else!, Many of our children have been suffering with some sort of cold, or flu, or other ailment that has kept them from a full month at school, and with 9 children in the unit the staff are often at their wits end to keep order and their sanity. That said, the summer sun has enabled the children to have a lot of outside play time with the new ‘race track’ proving to be a real hit.

Assi’s health continues to give us concern, however we are still praising God for his miraculous recovery from his extend hospitalisation and we must not forget that this is one very sick little boy. Assi continues to steal the show and captures the hearts of all the Mom’s, volunteers and day visitors, he certainly brightens up each day in his own special way.

Unfortunately we are still waiting for the social workers to have the courts grant foster care to our 9 year old girl, who will be going to live with her new Mom at a foster/cluster home in Khayelitsha. Both Tim and Maz took her on a recent weekend home visit, the day before the untimely murder of the Swedish honeymooner, our journey was also a bit of an adventure as we had to divert around some very ugly protesters who were stoning a bus full of children and ‘white’ charity workers!

SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK

We have had some real highs and some real lows as we venture into the new season with our sports outreach in the local primary schools, whilst the numbers have been lower than we had hoped, which is a low point, we are seeing the same ‘new’ children returning week after week to engage with our soccer and netball clubs (that’s a high point!) We have however lost touch with some of our longer standing relationships and that is a real pity. As with anything new it takes time to settle and establish and we are still hopeful of encouraging more and more children to attend these clubs which we run each and every afternoon.

Daz organised a successful sports Saturday on the 27^th November, we welcomed many new children from the new schools outreach and a great morning was had by all, help was provided by the members of our ‘Sports outreach team’ and the HAN university students fully kitted out in our new light blue tee shirts. On the playing field the Waterwerks team were successful in the Under 13 football competition and Iraq once again triumphed in the Under 15 tournament, however Arron’s Rooidakke team, who have been successful in the past are now amalgamated with the KMP and Pineview schools outreach so they were unable to defend their past success under that banner. The netball/girls sports competition was won by the Remhoogte farm team, so honours were evenly distributed.

After the sports we were blessed with a Braai provided by the local Roundtablers, we thank them for their continued support and the sponsorship of the tee shirts which certainly give an air of authority!

Tim has been meeting up with one of the Dutch volunteers and the local municipality to explore the possibility of installing an astro turf in the Rooidakke community, we have visited two projects in Khayelitsha which were set up to run during and post World Cup 2010 and with the contacts we have made we are confident that we can create something special for the children of Grabouw.

OTHER NEWS AND VOLUNTEERS

Transport:-

We have replaced our 7 seater Toyota Condor with a 8/9 seater VW Microbus, whilst the seating isn’t much of an increase it does now mean that all of our children and a couple of staff can travel safety in one vehicle...we are still praying for a nice new Toyota Quantum but God knows and has a plan when this will arrive!

Food Garden:-

Our food garden, which has been set up with the help and support of ELF (Elgin Learning Foundation), is growing very nicely and we are hopeful of a successful first harvest of cabbage, spinach, potatoes and lettuce.

Staff:-

Unfortunately Johan had a nasty accident which resulted in him having stitches in his left leg and foot. For those of you who know Johan you may not be totally surprised…needless to say we will be reviewing health and safety on the farm.

Volunteers:-

Well this has been quite a quiet month! We are continually blessed by the help and support of our longer term volunteers, Daz and Lisa and Rob and Emily. They have been joined by Mel Kidd, who is with us till at least July. Our only short termer at the moment is Fran Black who has been a little under the weather over the last week and we wish her a speedy recovery. This coming month sees the arrival of Tim’s Mum and Dad, two older sons: Chris (and his wife Claire, and Alfie), and Josh, who is arriving with Dan Williams. Jess Stratford is returning for the umpteenth time (which is great) and Fran’s sister Kate is joining us for Christmas so a busy time is ahead of us!

Christmas Presents:-

We thought it wouldn’t hurt to mention it twice. If you need help finding a gift for that awkward relative or friend then look no further than a Thembalitsha Gift Card. They start from as little as £10 and truly are the gift that keeps on giving! Simple and stress free, email us here to get yours sorted! and before you know it you could be providing food, nappies and more for the children at the Village of Hope.

EVENTS

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!

HOW YOU CAN HELP

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

VOLUNTEERS

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!