march 2011 sports saturday...

on saturday we hosted our first 'sports saturday' of 2011 which we feel was our most successful event so far, we have learnt a lot of lessons over the past couple of years, including the work we did during the world cup and we ensured we had larger pitches which encouraged the children to use their football skills and a computer to work out the schedule of play, the weather was also absolutely gorgeous, maybe slightly too hot but no wind which was a blessing.

the event was organised by the village of hope sports outreach team, with the help of our three wonderful sports students from the HAN university in holland (djuri, talitha and jasper), who certainly benefited from the support their fellow students gave them.

the day started with the collection of the children around the informal and formal settlements of grabouw, the 65 seater bus to left waterwerks informal settlement at 8.30am and then ventured round to the rest of the areas (hillside, rooidakke and iraq) to collect the children to who arrived in fine spirits at the elgin country club at 9.15am. all of this went to plan and we were met by the children of remhoogte farm (commonly known at remwater by the dutch students!).

as we made our way from the bus we were greeted by the willing team of volunteers from both the HAN university and also the students from the ukuqala team, (stuttgart university), who had been busy setting up the football and netball pitches ready for the games to start at 10.00am.

as we sorted the 90 children into their teams, under 12's and under 16's boys football and 3 netball teams, they were also introduced to their 'managers' for the day (made up of the university students and our sports mentors from our weekly clubs) and given their kits, and after a short talk and prayer the action started.

the standard of football was amazing, the children have developed so much since we start

ed working with them and every team was very evenly matched, their team spirit and team work was something to behold and the overall behaviour of these children is something that our team can be very proud of. some of the poorest and most needy children in our town w

ould put some of the riches and most privileged children (and adults) to shame.....we are so proud of them.

for the record we had 5 teams enter the under 12's tournament, which was won by waterwerks on goal difference from iraq, unfortunately remhoogte didn't win a game but had a bonus of playing against the lovely young ladies from HAN university as their prize!...

..the under 16's tournament was once again a hard fought contest, the 6 teams played some of the best football that we have seen since starting with these children over 3 years ago. a special mention must go to hillside who beat one of the waterwerks teams and held their own in their other games against much stronger and larger opposition. not for the first time arron's rooidakke team won the prize.

and the prize was for the under 12's and under 16's to play a 10 minute game against the german and dutch students, which was a real sight to behold, both children's sides managed to sneak a win which made them very happy.

the netball was also a hard fought competition, to see the girls from very different areas, different races and tongues come together to play sport was wonderful to see, this competition was won by the slightly worrying team called 'the bad girls', who narrowly beat 'frans stars' (that's one for fran black an ex volunteer who started to work with the team last year) to the title.

by 1pm we had presented the prizes to the teams, the best player awards received a new football top, under 12's choose a barcelona kit and the two boys who won the under 16's choose a liverpool shirt and a chelsea top (as a queens park rangers support it slightly guiles me to write that name on the blog, but we are called to love our neighbours and even our enemies as ourselves so i didn't really have a choice!)...each child had a warm cup of soup (not really appropriate for the weather but for them perhaps the only nutritional meal they wound receive that day) which was kindly donated by the rose an

d bull restaurant (who provide us soup each and every friday for one of the nutrition centers in rooidakke).

once the children had been dropped home, the german students were challenged to a football match by the well prepared dutch students, who must have been eyeing this fixture for some weeks as they turned out in their 'orange' baffana baffana tops!.......i (tim) was picked to play for holland, it must have been my silky cruyff skills that sold that one, i was joined by shane (our american volunteer) and arron turned out for the german team (say no more)!.....

.....you wanna know the result....well lets say that history once again repeated itself with the english ref (rob house) awarding a hotly disputed penalty to the german team in the last minute of extra time.....you can guess what happened next......no chris waddle or garreth southgate to miss that one..........sorry holland

world TB (tuberculosis) day

today we are celebrating world TB day, TB (tuberculosis) is a constant threat to those living in dire poverty and with extended health issues such as HIV. please visit the Stop TB site here to find out more about this disease.

our town of grabouw has a huge problem with people infected by TB and our thembacare facility are doing all they can to combat the spread of this curable disease. unfortunately many of the people we are working with default on their medication which can cause further problems as the TB becomes resistant to the drugs, please remember those living with TB today and pray for the work that we and our sister project thembacare are doing.

The map shows the 22 nations who have 80% of the people living with TB today.

ukuqala on the back page

this weeks back page of the elgin grabouwer covers the story of the ukuqala team here at the village of hope, there are a couple of lovely photographs which accompany some text which you can view by clicking onto the image.

the team are certainly creating a stir here in grabouw and the guys from solar zone, also a german company, along with a representative from the german embassy have also made a visit to see how the team are getting on in south africa!

kids monkey around!

yesterday was a public holiday to celebrate human rights day, not one that we are familiar with in england but i understand that we remember the sharpeville massacre which took place on 21st march 1960.

with the children being out of school for the day, maz, mel, eveleen and two of our house moms took our children down to monkey town in strand, where they had a great time with the animals, enjoyed a picnic at the playground which included a real car for them to play in and then they visited the beach at gordon's bay for an ice cream.

as you can see from the photos the children had a wonderful time and the weather was perfect.

roof structure topping out

on saturday evening we had a short party with the ukuqala team to celebrate the completion of the roof structure on the new building that they are busy with at the village of hope.

it seems that it is a german tradition for the main carpenter, and his mate, to give a speech from the top of the new structure, complete with a small tree which is installed a top of the building.

the carpenter then says the traditional blessing, read as follows, during which he, and his mate, downs a bottle of wine and smashes the glass, thrown from on top of the roof, on the foundations below.

Now the building has been raised here,
Although not huge, but also not small,
The work may praise his master,The builders' soll'n be praised.

According to tradition, I cross to the glass
And'll raise the voice for them.
For every one bites the dust,
Drum let them all live today!
Who often wet the end of the welding
Who was harmless stone and mortar,
Who bricks probably said,
Who dragged bars, cones suggested
Who shoveled and motor-sawed,
Flex and excavators for hours
Located on the site here, moving
applies to our praise!
Usually it is customary
On such happy days
To drink to the client also
And his wife, no question.

Good luck and healing and God's blessing
The accommodation, which thrives hereWhere Voluntiers soon writhingWhere modern rooms still Zimmerleut!

How to keep the Almighty God
The house and the inhabitants thereof:
From disease, fire and Wassersnot
Possible 'he spared all times.

The glass shatter in the ground,
consecrated this house was at this very hour!

once again it was a wonderful evening, we thank God for these guys who are blessing us so much.

blog by jenny

it's always great to welcome volunteers onto our village of hope project, especially when they have were visit members of a youth group that I ran for over 16 years!.....last year we welcomed jenny jiggins, yes that's right her brother has just had that long hair permed!, (see that post here), jenny has her own blog and it's great to see the post that she has written about her time her with us in south africa and especially the photos she took whilst out with us in the community where we work...have a look at her blog here!...hope you don't mind me using one of your photos jen!

school visit!

this morning we have had the pleasure of welcoming the children who attend the local special needs school in grabouw, run by another christian couple. this the school that our 10 year old boy (who is now back at school, praise God) goes to and it was wonderful to see him with his class mates who enjoyed playing on our jungle gym and having a snack with some of the children from our unit.

the photo shows the children saying their prayers before their snack!

who says that prayer doesn't work....

on saturday 26th febuary 2011 we had our first village of hope day of prayer, which we felt was a great success, we were able to cover the whole 24 hours with people praying for us from all around the world, which was amazing.

we were so encouraged to know that people had set aside time to raise us (the VoH team), the project and the people we work with, along with some wider issues on funding and support, up in prayer and we have really felt the benefit in the following ways.

a) amazing provision of unexpected funding which will enable us to come closer to covering our monthly costs and plan for future development.

b) increased opportunities to apply for additional regular monthly income.

c) break through in our children's health, development and social needs.

d) encouragement to expect our boundaries to be increased, to test God and see that he IS GOD and HE will provide for the increase of the project and those that we seek to serve.

these have all been a great encouragement to us and we would just ask for you to continue to lift up the village of hope as we see God move in our project and the lives of the children that live on both our project and those in the local community.

the house begins to grow (literally!)

the ukuqala house is beginning to take shape, long gone are the foundation holes, layers of wire beneath the concrete, or poles standing like lone statues, now the walls are coming alive......quite literally the walls are sprouting green shoots, which will give the structure a slightly 'telly tubby look' once all the walls are constructed.

the guys are doing a great job, working all hours that God sends, not only are the walls taking shape but the central brick core is nearly complete and the roof trusses are being installed, along with the 'round' windows, which have been created from old washing machine doors.

some of the team have also been out with us into the community this week to help run our sports outreach, they used their silky german football skills to bamboozle the children which i think everyone really enjoyed.

photos show the 'green' house and also the guys out in the community with the children that we work with.

new photo of children's and volunteer unit

we are so proud of the facility that we have created at the village of hope, the children's unit provides a home to 9 children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB, since opening in april 2009 we have placed 18 children back into the community and our volunteer accommodation has hosted over 200 amazing volunteers who have helped us create this wonderful space and supported our work in the community of grabouw.

for those of you that haven't made the visit to the village of hope we thought that you would like to see a panoramic photo to show you the main accommodation block, (children's unit to the left and the volunteers to the right with the play area including swings and race track in front) and for those who have been instrumental in the set up and running of this project we thought that you would like to see the unit in all it's late summer glory!

we want to thank everyone who has been involved in this work and hope that you will enjoy the photo and if you would like more info on how you can support our work, whether that be via prayer, volunteering or raising funds then please contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

boys boys and more boys!

we are so glad to update you with the wonderful news that our 10 year old boy, who has been suffering from another lung infection, has returned home to the village of hope after over 2 weeks in the red cross children's hospital in cape town.

whilst he was in hospital he has been treated with more specific antibiotics which we hope will have cured the most recent infection, however his little body has suffered so much in his short life and we need you to continue to pray for his complete healing as we have already had to place him on oxygen since his return!

we are also please to let you know that we have also been able to provide a home for another boy, this time a 16 month old baby who's mother is suffering from a complicated bout of TB, hopefully his stay with us will be short as he does have a loving family in the community, however once again your prayers would be appreciated to ensure the speedy recovery of his mom who will be going into hospital in cape town to receive some more intense treatment.

we now have 6 boys and 2 girls staying with us and the number of boys placed back into the community over the last two years far outweighs the girls!

sports outreach

every time i come back from one of our sports outreach afternoons i just want to tell more and more people about the wonderful children that we work with, they are just so cool, joyful and fun to be with, but many of them come to our clubs with stories to awful to tell and that is really hard to think about as i sit here not 500 yards from their tin shack homes, that have no running water or electricity or basic sanitation whilst i type away on my internet wifi connected laptop with all the trappings of a western style life, a tap that produces cold water, a toilet that flushes, coke in the fridge, shoes on my feet, a light switch (that works) at the flick of a finger.....

....keeping it all in context i have to say that the new dutch students, from the HAN university, are a real help to us as we seek to input basic life, health and bible skills into these wonderful children's lives, to share the love of Jesus with them in a real practical way, it is a real privilege to spend time with these kids. it's not only the sport that brings us together, they impact into our lives in an incredible way too, to share the smiles, stories, hugs, tears, love and ultimately life with them is just amazing....

as we work with the older kids the younger ones spend their time sitting, chatting and playing in the back of my bakkie (pickup), it is too wonderful yet heart wrenching for words, never did i ever think that i would be working with people so embracing yet so sick, ill and needy...... have a look at the photos and see the life that explodes from the faces of the poorest and most needy children i have ever met!...wanna get involved, then please contact me, YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

the first straw!

yesterday the ukuqala team from stuttgart started to create the 'cob walls', this is mix of straw, clay and water and will provide the main outside walls of the new building.

the 'heart' of the structure is constructed from 'standard' bricks, with a heavy duty timber frame, the smaller windows will be made from old washing machine doors, this really is an ecco home!..the team have a wealth of talent with different types of skills, carpenters and brick layers, however most of the team are architect students and this is the first construction site that they have ever worked on.

please follow their progress via their web site here and facebook here

what would YOU do for charity!

we have been blown away by the extent that some people will go to raise funds to provide our project with the finances that we require to support our children who are living with HIV here in grabouw.

no one is less crazy than our friend ben jiggins, brother of jenny who volunteered at the village of hope last year, i (tim) have know ben for many many years and i'm not sure if i can ever remember him having a hair cut in all that time. however ben decided to put his golden locks on the line and used them to fund raise, via justgiving, for us.

have a look at these wonderful photos which show the before, during and after photos of ben's perm!, i love the photo of him sitting in the middle of the ladies just wondering what on earth he is doing!.....ben what you have raised will almost pay for our 10 house moms salaries for a whole month.....and should you wish to add to the amount he has raised then please visit his justgiving page here.

we also want to thank nasreen who has just set up an new justgiving page, nasreen is running the asics 10k for us later in the year...see the just giving page here.

stuggart team visit thembacare grabouw

it has been another busy day at the village of hope, let lone the 'normal' day to day stuff that we are involved with, taking our kids to school, doing hospital visits, praying for our children etc, we have also had the chance to meet up with an organisation called 'rice bowls' who support projects like the village of hope with finances to provide nutritional meals...more of that on another post.

we also took some of the students from stuttgart university on our weekly soup run, where we deliver soup, made at the local rose and bull restaurant, to a soup kitchen in rooidakke, the students also visited the squatter camp of iraq and met some of the children that we work with on our sports based life skills programme.

on our tour of grabouw we visited our sister project, thembacare grabouw, who provided the only over night palliative care for our town of around 60,000, the 7 beds are constantly being used by people suffering from the effects of AIDS and our home based care team support over 450 people who are HIV+ in our town and surrounding farms.

5 of the students are pictured with sister thandi who runs that amazing unit.

please visit the ukuqala blog here for more info and photos from their trip.

full team from stuttgart arrive

over the weekend and during the early part of this week we have welcomed the new arrivals from the ukuqula team from stuttgart. some of them flew direct to cape town, others had arrived in south africa a couple of weeks ago and had traveled down to grabouw on a road trip.

and

now the hard work starts.

fortunately for us johan, our maintenance man and his wife, joyce, moved out of the single bed accommodation that they have lived in on the village of hope for the last three years, to a new home in grabouw, which has enabled the team to set up their HQ

in that space.

all the foundations are in place, see last post, and the straw and clay which will provide the 'cob wall' construction have arrived, the team are now busy designing the windows, doors and internal furniture which will make up this new build.

please follow their progress on this blog and also their own university blog here.