October News

Once again we find another month flew by here at the Village of Hope, Maz’s sister, Viv, and brother in law, Mark, have been visiting the project on a sort of ‘holiday’ so Tim and Maz have enjoyed a few days away in the Cederberg mountains with them, which they tell us was beautiful....maybe because of the lack of mobile reception!?

This month our headline news must be the final completion of the house that was built by the team from Stuttgart earlier this year. Rob and Emily are thrilled to finally be in. We are also pleased to announce the appointment of a Nursing Sister to assist with the medical side of the children who live with us. Sister Portia will be shared between us and Thembacare Grabouw, where she will oversee our Home Based Palliative Care Team. She comes highly recommended and we are already seeing the benefits of having a professional nurse around the place.

The wider Thembalitsha Foundation held their ‘staff party’ at the Erinvale Golf Club, in Somerset West, and all of our staff were able to attend that. We enjoyed a hearty brunch and were entertained by some of the project managers who performed a variety of songs and skits...Tim and Maz ‘performed’ a version of ABBA’s ‘I have a dream’ with Maz in full 70’s regalia and Tim dressed up as an Angel, prancing round with his halo and wings!.....say no more.

Children’s Unit
Our little ones continue to challenge and amaze us. This month one of our little girls was readmitted to Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, with suspected Hepatitis, brought on by her immune system being suppressed with the HIV that she suffers from. Maz was trying to register one of our other little girls into a local crèche and found out that she didn’t even have a birth certificate. These things are sent to try us but we take each day as it comes and amazing things seem to happen. We thank God for these little miracles because without Him I am sure we would all give up!
The children enjoyed a week off from school, their spring break. This is always a taxing time for our House Moms who work a 12 hour shift (7am – 7pm) however we were blessed by having some help from our volunteers from the USA who tried to make their lives a little easier by entertaining the children in various ways.

Mark and Viv didn’t sit in the sun all the time, we did keep them busy with a few tasks. Viv helped out in the unit when the team enjoyed their staff party and we were blessed when Mark and his faithful assistant, Viv, turned his hand to the construction of a wooden sand pit, complete with a wishing well style roof to protect the children (and the sand) from the sun...Thanks guys it’s already a hit with the kids.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
During the spring holidays we took a day out to run another ‘Sports Saturday’ which is always a bit of a challenging day for us to organise but to see the smiles on the children’s faces always makes it worthwhile, especially as we held it on a Monday (!) which meant that they had a full day of activities on what can become a bit of a boring time away from school. The event was held at the Elgin Country Club, quite a contrast to the areas and living conditions that these children are used to, but it is so good to be able to bless them with those things that we so often take for granted. Over 130 children joined us for the event, in which we bring together all the different teams/areas that we work with on a weekly basis, we had 11 soccer teams and 6 netball sides and the children played so well in all the tournaments. For the record Hillside boys won the Under 14 soccer, a first for that area which they were so happy about, Iraq won the Under 16 tournament with some stiff completion from our newly found club from Site View. Rooidakke girls won the Netball tournament but were given a good run for their money from Hillside.

We were also able to take a team of under 14 boys to a soccer event held at Santos Football Club in Cape Town, this was part of the South African Police Force campaign ‘sport against crime’. We had a team made up of children from all around Grabouw, each of the teams/clubs /areas that we work with were represented. Whilst it was great to see the children from different colours and cultures come together to represent our town, it was sad to see other teams ignore the under 14 age limit, which meant that our boys lost all 3 of their games. It’s a hard lesson to learn but having good ethics and being truthful often means that you don’t win.......life skill 1...!

Our Dutch students, Wieke and Stephan are proving to be a real blessing and we thank God that he bought them to us at just the right time. They are helping to document the life skills, bible and health awareness programme which we run every afternoon in the community and this will be an amazing resource to pass on to our mentors when they return to Holland in January. They and the other HAN students helped out at the sports day which we were truly thankful for.



Other News
The Straw House:
As we mentioned in our headline news Rob and Emily have moved into the new long term volunteer accommodation, it has taken a little longer than we thought it would but with some designated funding that we received to complete the building we have finally managed to get them into their new home.

Volunteers:
We were blessed with the week-long visit from two of our long term friends from America, Helen and Jen. They joined us here at the Village of Hope and also blessed our Care Workers at Thembacare Grabouw with their fun and sense of humour. We have also been joined by Simon, a young man from England who will be with us until the middle of December....welcome to the team Simon.


Events and other stuff!
Prayer Day:
Our day of prayer this month was very well supported. Thank you each and every one of you who gave up some of your Saturday to lift up our project in prayer. It really means a lot to us to know that we are being supported in this way. If any of you have any feedback from your prayer time please do let us know.

Tim and Maz on Tour:
Tim and Maz are going to be in the UK (and Germany and Holland!) throughout November and some of December. They are going to be touring the country speaking at churches, small groups and schools. If you want to try and see them along the way then check out their tour dates under this blog post: tim and maz on tour to find out when they are going to be near you.

Wholehearted:
The South African worship band, Wholehearted, will be accompanying Tim and Maz for a week in December. They have an amazing ministry and if you have the opportunity to get to one of the gigs (listed in Tim and Maz’s tour dates) then don’t miss it.

World AIDS Day - December 1st:
This is a significant day for our project. Wholehearted will be doing a special gig at Vale of Aylesbury Vineyard Church for us. If you can get there please do. Also, if you are interested in raising funds for us on that day, why not suggest to your local school that they Wear Red for World AIDS Day and each student can choose to donate £1/£2 to be out of uniform? Quite a simple idea but it could be very effective. If you would like any help with fundraising materials please get in touch.

Christmas:
Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in Thembalitsha’s hat! We will have alternative gifts available to buy on ebay by the end of this week. These gifts are ideal for hard-to-buy-for relatives this Christmas and start from £5. If you can’t wait to purchase email us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk to find out more, if not, keep your eyes on the blog and on facebook for more information.

Thank You:
Finally we just want to say a big thank you to High Cross Church in Camberley (again) for raising more money for us from their quiz night. High Cross Church have chosen us as their charity to support for the next three years and we are really noticing their impact. You guys are amazing!


How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - 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. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• 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 under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

Tim and Maz on Tour

I know you've all been counting down the days until you can see Tim and Maz again....
Well, I am pleased to tell you that it's only two more sleeps until they set foot on UK soil! Whilst they are busy trying to make sure they have handed everything over before they leave (and we are busy panicking about what to do when they do!) I thought I would let you know their tour details so that you can find out when you can see them. I have not put the full information on here (such as all the addresses etc) but if would like further details then please email me: office@thembalitshauk.org.uk and I will be happy to fill you in. Please try and see them if you can. They would love to see you and also have some amazing new stories to share from the project.


Here goes:


Sun Oct 30
AM Vale of Aylesbury Vineyard Church

Sun Nov 6 10:00am – 12:00am
AM Holy Trinity Church, Ashby De La Zouch
PM Loughborough

Mon Nov 7
AM Banbury

Thu Nov 10 
PM Student Alpha, Loughborough

Fri Nov 11
PM Huddersfield

Sun Nov 13 
Durham TBC

Mon Nov 14 
AM Whitchurch School

Fri Nov 18
PM Long Crendon

Sun Nov 20
AM Winslow Vineyard Church

Mon Nov 21 – Sat Nov 26 
Germany/Holland, visiting universities and ex volunteers, attending Dutch fundraising event

Wed 31 Nov
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, TBC

Thu Dec 1 
PM World AIDS Day Event and Gig with Wholehearted, Aylesbury Vineyard

Fri Dec 2
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, Every Nation, Hammersmith

Sat Dec 3
PM Gig and talk with Wholehearted, TBC

Sun Dec 4
AM Every Nation, Hammersmith
PM Every Nation, Hammersmith

new wholehearted video shoot

set up day 1 in waterworks

as part of our fundraising drive for the work that thembalitsha is doing in grabouw, via thembacare and village of hope, and the wider foundation with the other 5 projects in the western cape, we are once again partnering with the amazing south african band from somerset west called 'wholehearted', these guys filmed a music video with us last year (see youtube link here) and they have been visiting us and the communities that we work in to shoot a new video for a song that will be used to tell the story of the day to day lives of thousands of people in our town and other such towns like grabouw throughout south africa.

red ballons on some homes used to tell part of the story

yesterday afternoon and all day today we have been filming in the waterworks informal settlement, using everyday people to tell their everyday stories, we also shot part of the film with the soccer club that we run in the iraq informal settlement and also had help from the careworkers and house moms at thembacare and the village of hope.

soccer outreach with the kids in iraq

we were blessed to have the support of the whole community where we were filming and they were very keen in appearing in a film that will be used to support the work that we are doing to bring healthcare and education to literally hundreds of people like them, be they family, friends or neighbours.

as soon as the dvd is released we will be posting it on youtube for you to view but as you can see we have posted a few photos showing the filming and the team who are sold out to make a difference in the very lives of the people who appear in the dvd.

jesmond team put video on youtube

this afternoon andy greenshields place a video montage that he had put together of the trip he made with the rest of the team from jesmond/newcastle to the village of hope earlier this year. if you wanna have a look at what mission teams get up to when they come to serve the community via our thembalitsha projects here in grabouw then please follow this link to andy's youtube post.

thanks andy and its great to have a record of what you did for us and our community.

sport against crime

a rare corner for grabouw, the boys in blue!

as part of our community outreach i (tim) sit on the grabouw community police forum and on saturday we (the village of hope sports outreach team, our local mentors and our two dutch students from the HAN university) along with the local grabouw police station took a team of fifteen under 14 boys to play in a soccer tourament in cape town. around 16 police stations took part in this event from all over the cape metro and overberg region, the event was all part of the poilce campaign 'sport against crime' and was sponsored by shoprite and coke.

the boys looking a little
dejected after their defeat.

the tournament took place at the santos football club in lansdowne and the well manicured pitches were a little different to those that we are used to practice on in grabouw, in fact it was the first time some of the boys had put a real pair of boots on.

our team of 15 boys were chosen from the 5 different areas that we work in each afternoon, hillside, site view, waterworks, iraq and remhoogte farm in elgin, it was great to see the boys from the different areas come together to play as a team and practice some of the soccer and life skills that we have been working on within our weekly programme. unfortunately we didn't win the tournament but we did have a good time and we hope that next year the other teams will play by the under 14 rule which should enable us to win a few games!

as a prize from us each of the boys was able to keep the chelsea shirts that were donated to us by our good friend matt walker (no relation) which they were very pleased with...thanks matt.

vineyard workers!

contrary to popular belief our intrepid assistant pastors from the vale of aylesbury vineyard (not the wine type!), aka mark and viv knight, aren't just sitting around and or sightseeing in our wonderful spring weather, no they have been very busy building a much needed sand pit for our children to enjoy this summer. we might post some further photos of the finished item but here is mark giving it the final coat (in his coat as today the weather broke!)....thanks guys, come back soon.

a new volunteer arrives

simon helping with our tea time!

we are so pleased to welcome our new volunteer, simon, onto the village of hope team, he will be with us for a couple of months and come over to us via his good friend and one of our ex-volunteers, harry who was with us in 2010 and did a crazy bike ride fundraiser for us earlier this year.

simon has hit the floor running and was found this evening helping out in our children's unit at tea time, we hope that he continues to bond well with the children and look forward to him getting involved with our sports outreach in the community.

staff party

the village of hope team, less me, looking fine and dandy!

last friday we held our 2011 staff party at the wonderful erinvale golf estate in somerset west, each of the 7 thembalitsha projects were present, in total around 130 people including our 10 wonderful house moms, johan our maintenance coordinator, mel kidd, me and maz.

the day started with a delicious hot and cold brunch, followed by update reports given by each of the projects, it was great to hear from each of the projects, it gave us a real feel of family and highlighted the amazing work that thembalitsha are doing to help the most needy people and children in the western cape.

we really wanted the staff to feel special and for them to see a lighter side of the management, therefore after the reports we were entertained by some of the project managers who performed a little ditty, me and maz tried our best to ruin ABBA's 'i have a dream'...maz looked wonderful in her 70's gear complete with blonde wig and tight hot pants....you don't wanna know what i was wearing and thankfully there will never be any pictures published of that on this blog anyways!

after the entertainment we had a short awards ceremony, some awards were very serious such as a long service award and johan received ours for 'all the hard work he puts in to save us money with his ingenious ways of mend and fix', our house mom franjoleen received an award as 'most competitive mom at the children's parties'....yes some where a little less serious!

it was great that all of our staff could come together and celebrate all the wonderful things that each of the projects have achieved over the last year, it is a privilege to be part of this foundation and to work with some of the most inspiring people on this earth.

sports saturday on a monday!?

waiting for their awards

sorry for the lack of posts/updates from the village of hope. maz' sister viv and our brother in law mark from the vale of aylesbury vineyard (church, not wine estate) have joined us for a 3 week trip to see what we get up to and at the back end of last week we managed to get away for a few days, enjoying some time of rest and relaxation.....but we are back now and the updates should come through thick and fast again.

our 'first day back' was a busy one, not only catching up on emails and all those things we missed last week but running a sports day for the 6 clubs that we run each and every term time afternoon.

i must say a huge thanks to our two new dutch students, stephan and wieke, who along with emily and our local mentors, did a great job of planning and prepping the day, and not to take anything away from any of our previous students they have left an amazing legacy of documentation both physical and electronic which will make our lives a lot easier in the future.

hillside boys with their winning football shirts

the day began with the collection of the children from 5 pick up points in the formal and informal settlements around grabouw, our farm team was transported by their own transport. whilst we picked up the kids, the set up team got busy 'setting up' the pitches and organising the kits that each of the teams would wear. the sports outreach team, mentioned above, were joined by kat, mark, jen and a handful of other dutch students who would be the 'team managers'. we even had a visit from the children we look after at the village of hope, which was really special.

after the 130 children had arrived, prayers were said, kits handed out and the games began, we held a huge netball tournaments for the girls, with 7 teams taking part, and two groups of boys football, an under 14 and an over 14 tournament. made up of a total of 11 teams.

the joy, noise and sportsmanship that surrounded the elgin county club during the morning was amazing, all the children behaved really well, they played hard but fair and the standard of skill that was shown was something to behold, we are very proud of them that they are learning the sports, life and lifestyle skills that we speak to them about each and every week.

we were served a hot dog lunch, with rolls sponsored by the local spar and Vienna's from the roundtable, and after a short presentation/game from some of the other dutch (HAN) students about the need to collect rubbish and recycle the winners of the sports tournaments were announce.

for the record, the rooidakke girls team won the netball from a hard fought hillside team in second place in the league, and for the first time a team from hillside won the under 14 league, they were blessed with an A and B side, and iraq won the over 14 league with our new team from site-view coming a strong second.

the winning teams were presented with a soccer shirt (we wont mention their name on this blog but they come from west london and aren't my favorites (me being a QPR fan!).....but the kids really appreciated the thought and we hope that we will be able to repeat this again very soon.