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!
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!
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!
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