soccer balls supa quick!

front page news, along with worries about
the water shortage in cape town!

over the last few years we have been blessed with a constant supply of soccer balls, we have received them from various different sources, FNB (first national bank), BP (petrol station) and various donations from volunteers, this has meant that we have never been in desperate need. however with around 150 children benefiting from our sports outreach programme each week we do tend to need a huge amount of balls, especially if we are doing drills where each child has their own ball. with that and the fact that we do like to bless our most regular kids with a ball that they can play with on the days we aren't in their area, so our 'stocks' tend to deplete very quickly.

at the back end of last month we were discussing whether we needed to set aside some of our cash to go and purchase some balls from the local sports shop to restock our bags but as i was buying some tyres from the local supa quick in grabouw i got chatting with the manager there about how they could help us as we seek to support those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, he quickly got on to the area manager and within a few weeks had called to say that they had some balls to donate to us.

last monday willie and his family made a visit to the village of hope project to hand out the balls, which we will use in the local community in our training sessions and he also handed out some goody bags to the kids who live with us in the children's unit, the story made the front page of the elgin grabouwer, which you can view by clicking on the image.

thanks willie and the supaquick grabouw team.

precious 11 year old boy returns to village of hope

arron carries in the oxygen machine as our
11 year old boy returns to the village of hope

for those of you who have been following the story of the village of hope since the beginning or if you have ever visited our project you will know of our wonderful 11 year old boy who seems to capture every ones heart. his story is one that could be made into a movie, he has complex medical condition (which has been documented in an up and coming book about paediatric palliative care) and since arriving at the village of hope in may 2009 from our thembacare unit in athlone he has been in and out of the red cross children's hospital in cape town with various problems.

yesterday myself (tim) and maz had a 2 hour meeting with the various paediatric, infectious diseases and pulmonary doctors at the red cross hospital who are still very concerned about his condition but were happy to allow us to take him 'home' for his ongoing palliative care. he still needs to be given oxygen 24/7 but we feel that we can maintain his medical needs and are so happy that he is back with us.

he said his sad goodbye's to the wonderful team at athlone and jumped into the car to make the hour long journey up the mountain to grabouw. he never stopped talking and can even say 'grabouw', as we arrived we could hear the other children singing his name and he was greeted by all the house moms and the 9 other children who stay with us. it was an emotional return, the other children were waving from the unit window and as soon as he entered the door they came up to him and gave him big hugs and kisses.

we are so glad to have him home and would ask you all to join us in our prayers as we seek to provide a loving home for him and the rest of the children we look after.

first day at school (for our 4 year old)

its a long way on your own!

this time last year we were able to providing a home to two brothers who had been staying at our thembacare unit in cape town, there was hope that these two could have been reunited quickly with their sister, who is staying at another care home, however as with many of our children's cases these things don't happen as quickly as we would like. their mother is now very very sick and it looks like we might be responsible for these two precious boys for a lot longer than we first thought.

as we didn't expect to have them for so long we held back from placing the oldest one at the local preschool as we didn't want to take up a space that could be used by another child who would be in greater need, however with the change of events maz felt that it would be best (not only for the 4 year old boy who is getting extremely bored by having to stay at home at the village of hope all morning with all the babies when the other older children are at school, but also for our house moms as they were finding hard to keep him from crawling up the walls!) that he was found a place at the school.

well yesterday he had his first day, tyler our longer term volunteer took him to school, and although he looked so grown up with his new school bag and flask full of juice once he knew that he was going to be staying the little guy was totally overwhelmed and burst into tears....shame.

however on his return at lunch time he was full of beans and was excited to tell people about his first morning at school.

fence and post stolen again

what was left of our security fencing!

have you ever heard the term 'don't bite the hand that feeds you', well that's exactly how we were left feeling over the weekend as we once again found that our fence and posts had been stolen from the southern edge of our property.

the people we serve have desperate lives, which drive them to seek out anything that they can sell for food, drink or drugs to take their mind off the existence that makes up their lives...however what is very hard for us is that it seems like we give with one hand and they bite the other.

i am sure that this is nothing vindictive, but the money that we will now have to spend on replacing the fence, which we installed to provide us and the children we look after with some protection, could have been spent on staff wages, kit for our sports outreach clubs or food for the children!...it's a tough call and a tough world...

mom's plea as home burns down

we have had a sms (text message) from a mom of one of our 'discharged' children to say that her tin shack burnt down and she is now staying with neighbours. the winter weather, wind and rain has returned to grabouw and people are struggling just to keep warm.

this mom lost everything in the fire, clothes, food, bedding etc, these people have such tough lives anyway without this kind of thing bringing more pain and misery to their lives. we (voh) will be helping out where we can with a small food parcel and some new (second hand) clothing but this type of event is a daily burden that we face....please stand with us as we seek the best way to help those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

arron and tyler start the plastering

arron and tyler getting plastered.

after a succesful test patch we are now confident that the lime, sand and straw plaster mix is ready to be applied to the inside of the new house built by the team from stuttgart university earlier this year.

arron and tyler are now busy getting their hands dirty and applying the mix onto the straw walls. this might take some time, but we hope that once this is completed we will be able to re install the kitchen and then start moving rob and emily (our long term volunteers) into their new home. thus freeing up space in the short term volunteers accommodation.

mid-cities team enjoy their week long trip

the team at the top of sir lowry's pass

last saturday morning we were joined by 7 young ladies from the mid-cities church in midland, texas, joined us at the village of hope for a week long stay, during the week they were able to bless our community in many different ways, on wednesday afternoon they lead the service at thembacare, grabouw, and gave out goodie bags to our staff, they also helped out with a sports outreach in iraq squatter camp, played with our wonderful babies and children in the unit and completed some much needed maintenance around the 'farm'.

for some of them it was their second visit to work with thembalitsha and for others it was their first time, we were once again sad to say our goodbyes as they made their long trip home, but we hope to see them again in the very near future.

July News

The roles were reversed this month as Tim and Maz took over from Rob and Em who, along with their two children, made a 4-week trip back to England. Mel, Arron and Johan also maintained the balance of the Village of Hope and we were joined by two longer term volunteers from USA, Britton and Tyler as well as two mission teams. The first team were from Jesmond, Newcastle, England who stayed with us for just under 3 weeks or other team, made up of 7 ladies were from the Mid Cities church in Texas. Yes it has been a very busy time!


Children’s Unit
We still await the return of our wonderful 11 year old boy from his short but much needed stay at Thembacare Athlone. Unfortunately even that team couldn’t prevent him from needing to return to the Red Cross children’s hospital in Cape Town where he had another relapse. His prognosis isn’t great but we really want to make his time special if he is to pass on and we are making all the plans we can to ensure he enjoys his stay with us back ‘home’ at the Village of Hope.


The little girl who was hospitalised with TB meningitis is back with us. She is a real pickle, eats for England, South Africa and the world, given half the chance, but has a beautiful personality which endears her to all who meet her.


Some of our House Mom’s have been on a St John’s First Aid course, which has lasted 3 weeks!, We are very grateful to our volunteers who stepped into the breach on many an occasion. It seems that they really enjoyed it despite the hard work and  the children certainly made the most of the extra attention!


The rest of our children have been enjoying their 3-week holiday time in the unusually warm winter weather. It was 27 degrees here on Sunday with beaches crowded. Tim was on weekend duty so didn’t get the chance to enjoy it. Although the sun is shining the ground is still wet and playing out can be somewhat of a messy time....for the kids and moms!

We were sad to say goodbye to Eveline, our student from the HAN University in Holland who has been on a social work placement with us for 10 months. We celebrated with her on her last night which was a very tearful event for everyone. Thanks for the presents Eveline!


However with one goodbye there always seems to be another hello, and we have had the pleasure of welcoming Katrin, from Switzerland, who will be working with us for the next 6 months, she is really fitting in well and it seems like she has been around for ages already.


Sports Outreach and Community Work
We also sad our goodbye’s to our Sports Management students, from the same university in Holland, who have been helping to extend and underpin our sports outreach over the last 5 months. We will really miss Djuri, Jasper and Talitha. They have made a huge difference during their stay, especially with our younger sports mentors who were are working with wherer they have encouraged them to step up and run the sessions. Thanks guys.


The end of June/beginning of July sees another long holiday season here in Grabouw so we have made the most of the break to take some time out from our weekly schedules. However we always seem to be busy in the community. We have continued to meet once a week at the Iraq Squatter camp, where we were able to bless some of our regular children with some warm winter clothes which were donated by the local Round Table.


And we continue to put the advert out for our need of second hand soccer boots, sizes 2 – 7 (UK), which will enable us to keep a stock for when we play what we hope will be more regular games against other clubs in the local area. If you have access to an old pair and live within kicking distance of Grabouw/Cape Town then we would love to hear from you.


Other News
The Straw House:
Tyler has been busy mixing up the lime based substance which will clad the outside of the new house, we have had one test area which worked very well, however the image of the whole house, both inside and out needing to be plastered with this mix (twice) seems a little daunting. 


Volunteers:
We celebrated, maybe a little too hard, the 4th of July with our American volunteers, we really did have a party to remember. The fireworks went up and down well, if not with our neighbours, we are sorry guys and now understand that it’s illegal in SA to set them off!


Becca and Rebecca have returned back to Bath we want to thank them for their selfless help. As we said in the intro we have welcomed Joe from Newcastle with his team and we hope that they enjoyed their time with us. Britton continues to work closely with Thembacare but has also undertaken a survey for our which we hope to publish at some time, it’s great to be able to give a task to someone knowing that it will be done to a good standard.


Alternative Gifts:
Thanks to all who brought our Gifts of Hope through Ebay on Father’s Day. The trial seemed to be successful and we are looking to put something more permanent in place for the future. We will keep you posted as we get it up and running. In the meantime, if you are looking for a gift for someone then do email us for more information and we can sort you out!

Events
Huge congratulations to Andy Gilbert and ex-volunteer Harry Hogarth who survived their sponsored cycle from Calais to Lausanne. Through their effort they managed to raise £2000!


Also, Claire Gomulak, Liz Eades, Jess Stratford, Brady Roberts, Dayna Roberts, Sophie Child ran the London 10k Run for us and their blood sweat and tears raised £1500
Thank you so much to all!


If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.


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


Volunteering
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 (http://www.thembalitshauk.org.uk/). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

new boy is placed at the village of hope

today we had the opportunity to offer a short term home for a 9 month old boy who is in need of our help due to some unfortunate family circumstances.

it's always good to know that we can offer new hope (thembalitsha means 'new hope' in the xhosa languague) to a child, whether they stay with us for a short 3 month placement or over a longer period, however it's hard to understand the social, medical and cultural issues that the family are facing that mean that we have to provide this home.

we ask you to pray for the family as they seek to get their lives back on track to provide this baby boy with a stable home for his most important years.

new village of hope accommodation video

we were so blessed to have the team from stuttgart university come not only to build but to fund and design the new accommodation here at the village of hope. the team kept a record of the progress of the building and have produced a short one minute 30 second video to show how the house literally came up out of the ground.

please visit a link to the video by clicking here, you will see our little jack russel, bruno, makes a brief appearance as well....i miss that little dog so much!

making hay (sorry firewood) whilst the sun shines!

doh...now we've blocked the road we
 need to let tim's bakkie out!

it might be winter here but we are enjoying some very warm weather at the moment, however when the sun sets it's getting really cold, hence the need to cut some of our tall pine trees to create so much needed firewood.

arron, tyler and johan have been busy felling some of our older pine trees, please pray for them as they do so!

village of hope goes wimax with telkom...an end to cable theft?!

red circles don't really exist but show line of sight from
village of hope to hanskop mountain top transmitter

over the last three years we have suffered cable theft of our telephone lines on too many occasions, as you can imagine for a unit that cares for children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB this severely limits our ability to  communicate with the wider health and social services...this is compounded by the fact that most of the organisations that we work with still operate on a phone and fax method of communication so email via a cell phone (mobile phone) isn't even an option.

we also try to provide our volunteers with access to the internet, where contact with 'home' is vital to their sanity, therefore there was great rejoicing last week when telkom confirmed that we were being considered for connection to their wimax (wireless phoneline) technology. all we need to confirm was that we were in line of sight of one of their transmitters and we would be linked up.....as anyone who has visited the village of hope knows the mountain range that surround our town has a famous land mark, hanskop, which hosts a large mix of transmitters, towers and radar, and thankfully as the photo shows we are about as close to that mountain as anyone could be....

once all that was confirmed all that was required to save us ever worrying about the cables being stolen again was an engineer to come and put up a 'satelite' style dish on top of the baby unit and hey presto, telephone and internet connection without wires!!!!......

4th of july at the village of hope

mel, tyler and britton celebrate
the 4th of july with our children

this morning we were greeted by a rendition of 'the star spangled banner' by two of our three volunteers from the USA who are celebrating some sort of independence day?!, they have been busy making crowns and flags with the children and can be seen here with some of the house moms on what must be a very special day for them.

later we are going to be having a 'braaibbq' (yes that is a word) with hot dogs and hamburgers (all the way from hamburg, which is in germany!), along with lots of scary fireworks which i am sure the children will love, we hope!.

to all our american volunteers (i mean those from north america, not including canada), where ever you are in the world, we just want you to know that we are thinking about you today...no really we are!

saying goodbye again...

elelien and maz sharing stories in the baby unit
 with our house moms and other volunteers

we are totally blessed to have so many wonderful volunteers and students who come to serve us at the village of hope project, however as with most good things time catches up with us and departure dates arrive all too soon.

last night we had a good bye braai for one of our dutch students, evelien, who has been with us for the last 10 months as she studies 'social work' at the HAN university. evelien has become a firm favorite not only with the children in our unit but with those we have placed back into the community, she has also made some real ties with our house moms and key members of our team.

she also shares my keen interest in formula one and has been an ever present companion at the local bar where i watch most of the races. we will all miss evelien so much but wish her all the best for her future studies and hope that one day she will return to visit us again.