the village continues to bring ho ho hope!

santa and his sleigh before we left the village of hope

it has been another amazing year here at the village of hope, we continue to see God's provision to us as we seek to serve the community of grabouw especially focusing on those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, all of which are rife in our town.

we could spend a whole blog post about the wonderful things that have happened this year, all the stories of the children that we have helped to find a stable family to go home to live with or those that we are still seeking to help via our children's unit, we could talk about the provision of a new building provided by the students from stuttgart university or the people carrier bought with funds from our friends in england and the dutch charity 'wings of support'. we could provide a long update on the sports outreach which has grown from strength to strength, now engaging with more local mentors who have been supported by the students from the HAN university in holland but all that would take such a long time, so we urge you to venture through the previous posts on the blog to find out what we have been up to during 2012.

children excited to see santa coming to their street

however what we would like to share is the fact that our incredible team of permanent staff (our house moms and maintenance team) and our willing band of volunteers, both longer termers, short term mission teams and individuals, have continued to offer hope in what can sometimes be seen as hopeless situations and this culminated in our annual sleigh ride into the areas where we work day in day out.

it was great to see the children and members of their families that we work with enjoying the sight of father christmas being towed through the town, up the main street and then into each of the communities, many of whom live in little wooden shacks with no water or electricity. the whole community seemed to be out on the street and although we did bless them with a few sweets and apples that wasn't the reason we run this event.

kids chasing santa and his sleigh 

the main reason to do this again was to bless them with the chance to see santa coming to their streets and for that to provide another sign of hope as we celebrate the most amazing story of hope, that of a little baby coming to earth to show us how to live, to love one another, our neighbours and even our enemies, as we love ourselves, to look after the widows and the orphans and proclaim the good news that he can provide hope in the most hopeless places. thank God for Jesus and we thank him for inspiring us to do what we do each and everyday here in this little town in south africa.

happy christmas and may you see hope in 2013 as we enter another year of opportunity to serve those less fortunate than ourselves......

a visit from everynation london pastors

wolfi and ali with their children and the child that their
everynation hammersmith church support.

this morning we welcomed our great supporters and pastors of the everynation church, who we have strong links with in hammersmith, london, wolfi and ali, onto the village of hope. they visited with wolfi's mum and sister as well as their children and a neice and we trust that they could see how God has worked through us since their last visit nearly two years ago.

they are such a blessing to us, we value their support, both financially via the adopt a cot scheme, and spiritually, they also bless us by providing us with support at thembalitshauk via a member of their congregation, liz lugt, who is on the thembalitshauk board back in england.

sports outreach year ends at the beach....

kids eating pancakes at strand

our rooidakke and iraq clubs at gordons bay

the children who attend our sports outreach programme are now on their summer holiday's and to celebrate the end of another amazing year we have taken around  70 of the 250 children who attend our seven weekly clubs to the beach over the last four afternoons...

...i know that sounds idyllic but to have the worry to ensure that not only do the children travel safely down the long and winding mountain pass that we have to negotiate between grabouw and the seaside town's of strand and gordon's bay but also make sure that they all have a great time playing in the water, which for some it might be the first time they have ever visited, then its not all plan sailing!

beach 'water' football!

however everything went well, the weather was fantastic, the sea a perfect temperature for the kids to enjoy a dip and food provided by the dutch students, pancakes (pannenkoeken), which for some children were the first time they have eaten such a delight was all very special.

our amazing HAN students yoram and annemeik did such a good job throughout the last five month and it was great to share this time with you guys, we will miss you both loads! thanks must also extend to our longer term volunteers, tim and jacque who made sure that the children enjoyed their special days.

digging holes to holland!

it was a great end of the year for our sports mentors as well, we have been working hard with these guys as they serve us so well through the year, you guys rock.....we will now be taking a well earned break from the sports outreach until the middle of january!........

pancakes on the beach!

....more news will follow then as we seek to extend the work we do into new areas to bring 'new hope through sports' into our poorest communities of grabouw.

December News

Celebrating a new home for our long-term little girl

The children’s unit continues to roll along with the gentle flow of admissions and discharges.

Our little characters always keep us on our toes and bring smiles to our faces as they blossom in the loving environment our House Moms provide.
Hearing them pick up the English, Afrikaans and Xhosa languages is always a marvel and put us oldies to shame!
The school children had an outing to Bird World which they thoroughly enjoyed and were involved in an end of term presentation. One little girl received a certificate for 100% attendance. So proud!

We again had two children successfully placed into loving homes. The first was a little girl who spent a couple of months with us and whose mother sadly died whilst the child was in our care. The grandmother from the Eastern Cape was willing and able to take on the responsibility of this dear little girl and over one weekend an aunt travelled the 12-hour journey to Grabouw, collected the child and made the return trip!! What a mission! - but it demonstrates the commitment this family is willing to make.  The aunt really blessed us as she shed tears of gratitude because we had taken care of her niece through a very difficult time.  We have heard since that our girl is doing really well and is loving being with her cousins.


Our second child has been placed into a wonderful family on a foster order initially but soon to be adopted. This is again a real answer to our prayers.

One of our long-standing children has gone back into family care! It’s going to mean a massive change to our Village of Hope family dynamic but it seems her sister will also be placed with the aunt and so the girls will grow up together.  Again unfortunately the mother has died very recently during this process but we just marvel at the timing of all things.

With Christmas coming we hope that all our current children will be able to experience a family Christmas with willing volunteer careers for the day and possibly some with their own families.


Community Work

Sports Outreach:
It was a record-breaking month for sports. We hosted our largest sports Saturday to date with nearly 200 children attending. It was fantastically organised by Yorram and Annemike, our Dutch students and the children had a ball. The sports outreach takes a break over the school holidays and Yorram and Annemike will be returning to Holland. We will miss them – they have really become part of the team.

Rainbow Smiles:
We took the wonderful children from Rainbow Smiles to the beach to celebrate the end of the school year.  We try and do beach days every summer because it’s a simple outing but the kids really enjoy it and we live in such a beautiful area of the world. It is so lovely to see these children, who have to cope with so much, carefree for an afternoon.


Other News

Volunteers:
We said ‘Au Revoir’ to Kathryn Vernon who has been serving with us for the past 3 months. We will miss her bubbly personality but know that we will see her again at some time in the future. We also had a visit from two English lovelies, Cosette and Lauren, who know Maz. They helped us for two-weeks and were very good and helping to sort lots of ticket cutting for our Hope 2012 music festival!

World AIDS Day across the globe:
In the UK our loyal team of fundraisers organised a fantastic evening of music and comedy which featured ‘special’ video clips from Tim and Maz. It raised a bit of cash and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended.

The Parlotones, the headline act at Hope 2012

Here in South Africa we were very excited to host a music festival. It was held here in Grabouw and featured some of the country’s top bands to raise awareness for World AIDS Day and Thembalitsha. The event attracted over 2000 people, went off without a hitch and resulted in some fantastic feedback. We are extremely thankful to all those who prayed for us in the planning of this event and the team of local volunteers who assisted us. It was a real leap of faith but was worth it just for the exposure. Check out pictures from the day on our facebook page. We are hoping to repeat the event again next year so watch this space!


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!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event (it doesn’t have to be cycling)!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za



Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff 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 Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za.

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!


Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation

Thembalitsha Charity Tune!!
It doesn’t matter what country you are in. Everyone can benefit from this! The fantastically generous and talented folk of up and coming British band, Being Buffalo, have released a track especially for us! And it sounds great too! We get 50% of every sale so please let your friends and family know about this! You can find the track for download here:

http://beingbuffalo.bandcamp.com/album/hope-charity-download

wonderful news of our 29th home placement

opening her memory box

yesterday we experienced the end of one of the most amazing stories that we have seen at the village of hope and what we trust will be the start of the next part of the story for our wonderful 5 year old girl who has been with us since almost the opening day back in early 2009.

...in fact this little girl, who is HIV+ and also suffers from foetal alcohol syndrome, has spent most of her life within the thembalitsha projects, we were blessed to provide a home for her after our sister project, thembacare athlone, had stabilised this little one who came to us needing to take her fluids via a tube into her stomach.

her development has been a joy to watch, from her first day at pre-school to the time when we found a long lost great aunt who said she was willing to provide a stable home for this little girl following the death of the mother from AIDS earlier in the year.

the work that was done not only my mommy maz but also sister portia from thembacare grabouw, who has been visiting the great aunt to ensure that she is happy with the complex ARV medication that needs to be given every twelve hours to make sure she stays healthy and well, and our the social worker from thembacare in athlone, has enabled this family reunion to happen in what we never dared to dream would be the best outcome in this situation.

the staff and volunteers made her a memory box for her to remember us by which she opened once the court had made the placement legal.....it doesn't really need me to say that we will miss this little bundle of fun, as will all her peers, here at the village of hope but we know that God has an amazing plan for her life, a new school and family and we pray that she fulfils all the exciting things he has  for her to enjoy!

making pepernoten

girls busy making pepernoten

yesterday our social work student, marlies, took some time to make a traditional dutch biscuit, called pepernoten, which are made around this time of year, with our older girls. they really enjoyed making and baking these biscuits which were to be their present from sinterklaas and swarte piet who give out gifts on the 5th december in holland....its all double dutch to me but they had fun all the same....

HOPE2012 and our world AIDS day event it's nearly here

for those of you who haven't heard we are hosting an amazing music event called HOPE2012 here in grabouw this coming saturday....what has been billed 'the biggest south african world AIDS day music event' will be taking place at the elgin country club with major south african bands, the parlotones and watershed headlining an afternoon and evening of quality music just down the road from two of our projects, the village of hope and thembacare grabouw, which have picked up the challenge of the AIDS pandemic in south africa.

our friends at goodhope fm have taken up the batten partnering with us to raise the profile of the work that thembalitsha are doing across the western cape and with the support of our round table (who will be running the beer tent) and local vineyards who will be serving some of the amazing wine that is produced right here in the beautiful overberg we hope that people will see the good work that is going on in our lively little town.

for those of you in south africa who haven't bought their tickets yet then you best get your skates on and visit the computicket site to ensure you don't miss what will be a truly memorable day.

we understand that there are many of you who live overseas and who won't be able to join us at the HOPE2012 event, however there is an opportunity to get involved with fund raising by joining our wonderful team at thembalitshauk as they host an evening of music and comedy at the aylesbury vineyard centre which also takes place this coming saturday, for more info about that event then please visit the vineyard web page or facebook

lets pray for some great weather and lots and lots of people who will not only have an wonderful day but also be exposed to the plight of millions of people infected by HIV and the work that thembalitsha are doing to provide new hope to those via our health care centres.

lots of 'rainbow smiles' at the beach...

which colour are you gonna choose?

snacks on the beach

on friday we spent an eventful afternoon with the children from our HIV support group, 'rainbow smiles', as we took them to the beach at gordons bay...eventful in many ways, for some of the children this was the first time at the beach, somewhat crazy to think that it's less than 20 minutes from their homes but in their world it's a million miles from their day to day surroundings. eventful as hardly any of them had a change of clothes, let lone swimming kit and a beach towel, not an everyday item when you live in a home with no running water or electric, eventful as we blessed them with a visit to the ice cream parlor and gave them the option to chose a flavour....not something that many of them have ever had the chance to do before, eventful as some of the ice creams ended up in the sand!.....eventful in the fact that rob's faithful landrover broke down just as we arrived at the beach and we had to not only tow that to the garage but also try to work out how we to get the number of children back up the mountain, all with seat belts, and safely back to their homes.

too much choice!

for us at the village of hope these are some of the items we have to deal with on a daily basis, the disparage between those that have and those who have never had, the fact that most of our vehicles break down at least once a month and with the cost of repairs and fuel rising this is an increasing drain on our resources, in fact the toyota bakkie is back in the garage after a week off the road with gearbox problems!.....but none of these things seem to matter for that short couple of hours when we were able to bless these 15 children who attend our weekly club with some fun and games at the local beach...

..the lives they live are very complex, living with HIV comes with it's obvious health issues but the social and economic issues that surround and overwhelm them as perhaps unseen by many, but to see the joy in their eyes at the sight of the sea, the sand beneath their feet and the happiness at being able to be a child for just a moment as they splashed around in the water was another amazing experience and its great to be able to invest in their lives in this small way. so we want to thank all our supporters for the funds that are donated so we can do what we do for these very special kids.

our biggest sports saturday yet!

fun at the huge netball tournament

on saturday we hosted our biggest sports day ever at the elgin country club. our weekly sports outreach clubs have been growing in number over the last 6 months and the investment we have made with our sports mentors being a huge influence on that. as has become custom we like to bring all the children that we work with at the different clubs together for a whole morning of fun and games, based around our soccer (football) and netball teams.

it's a goal!

i hope that i'm not taking anything away from any of the other sports saturday's that we have run by saying that this was not only the biggest, with a total of 198 children attending, around 140 was our previous highest, but also the best organised. as with all things you hope to improve and some of the lessons we have learnt in the past were overcome and even with a smaller team of volunteers compared to the past we were able to host a bigger event which is a real testimony to those who helped.

awaiting the prize giving

a big thank you must be given to the dutch students who are on placements with various projects around grabouw via the HAN university, especially yoram who is our sports intern and who took the main lead in organising the event. our volunteers at the village of hope also helped and were assisted by our wonderful sports mentors (our local 16-20 year old's who assist us at our weekly clubs) in managing teams,  refereeing the games or keeping an overview on the whole day.

the winners!

winning girls receive their funky sportswear

we took a different approach to the way that we ran the soccer tournament  having all ages playing together instead of an under 13 and under 15 tournament, and with boys being split up from their normal weekly clubs to play in mixed teams. this worked really well, uniting teams, old boys caring for the younger ones, and working together as they played. we had a total of 16 soccer teams split into 4 leagues with the winners of each group playing in the semi final and then final.

headbands for all!

the girls played in their normal weekly groups but with over 60 girls playing it needed to be organised and refereed really well and we want to thank lori and cozi for sorting that with the help of jaqui.

in the past we had used just one bus to transport the children from the various areas around grabouw, with the two sets of farm children arriving via their own transport, but such was the numbers seen on saturday that we had to set up a second bus to ensure that the children had seats. as you can imagine there was such joy as we firstly pick up and then journeyed to the wonderful country club, many of the children visiting for the first time.

thankfully we were blessed with no major injuries but with our system of indemnity and contact forms we are always ready for the worst......the only down side of that system is that some of the children had forgotten or had incomplete forms which meant disappointment for them as we were unable to ensure their safety whilst in our care!

a great day was had by all, with the winning sides being blessed with some amazing sportswear which was donated by our latest american mission team..we hope the photos will show some of that joy!  

the kids enjoyed a russian and chips (pork sausage) before they left and the day culminated in a big braai at the country club for all our helpers, and even the house moms were able to join us with the children in our care from the village of hope. the weather played its part and we thank God for that too.....

.....bring on the next one in 2013....can it become any bigger or better run?

3rd birthday......

a happy third birthday, celebrated by lots of friends!

yesterday we held a huge party for the boy who has been with us since he was five days old, it was his 3rd birthday and the house moms, our volunteers and even two his little friends who had spent time with him at the village of hope before their discharge back to their families were able to join him in making the day special.

we love this little one but continue to pray for a favorable outcome in what is a complex case.

our 28th home placement follows quickly

not only did we place our 27th child home with either their own family or into long term foster care on friday but today we have the wonderful news that we have now found an adoptive family for our 28th child.

we can't say too much about the case as it is a little complicated but please know that whilst we are sad to see this little one go we thank God that a secure and loving home has been found, and we send the child off with the knowledge that we provided the care that was needed at this point of their life and we were able to love and nurture them in our wonderful children's unit

our 27th home placement

loving aunt

saying goodbye is always hard, especially if we have little expectation of seeing our successfully placed children again, however we do rejoice that we have now placed our 27th child back home with their family which is amazing testimony to maz and her team in the children's unit here at the village of hope.

this last little girl, of 2 years, is been taken to stay with her aunt in the transkei, the tribal homelands of the xhosa people. the aunt made the 12 hour journey down to grabouw in a taxi and the girl is now well on her way to her new home, we wish them well and will continue to pray for her.

food need outweighs flashy headgear!

happy but hungry mentors

late last week i was able to bless two of our sports mentors with a wonderful gift that was donated from our latest team who visited us from the united states. the gift was a sports cap with built in flashlight which is not only a cool accessory, maz has one so as not to wake me when she is reading at night!, but will make such a difference for our two mentors as they struggle to complete their school homework in their dark and electricity free tin shack in the iraq informal settlement in grabouw.

delivering our life skills in iraq informal settlement today

the boys were very pleased to receive this gift but once i had presented them with their cool hats, see photo, they asked if there was any way that i could help them out as they didn't have any, yes any, food in their home for that evening meal..........it suddenly stuck me that although they received a $30 cap which would help them in the future their immediate need was to put some food on the table!

engaging with their peers, so cool!

as a charity thembalitsha don't encourage us to provide hand outs, we are seeking to provide new hope via empowering people to a place of self reliance but what could i do, what would you do?, leave the boys with a wonderful new cap but with empty stomachs?......no i took them into town and purchased a few tin cans of meat, some eggs, fresh milk, sugar and paraffin to lite the stove, God calls us to love our neighbours as ourselves and i couldn't face the thought of leaving them with nothing knowing that my cupboards were full of food and a nice cauliflower cheese bake that maz had made for me to microwave as she was out for the evening!

today those two same boys were back helping with our sports outreach, they told me that their hats were great and that they could now read some of the educational magazines i had left with them, and that their mother had received her pay cheque and they had some food for their family....at least for this week!

October News

Once again this month has flown by! It doesn't seem a minute since we were in England celebrating Maz's big birthday with friends and family and we are already at the end of October and thinking about Christmas! At least the sun is starting to warm our bodies again and the blossom on the fruit trees on our surrounding farms is a sight to behold. However winter has one final fling since we returned - we awoke last week to a snowy view of the local mountains!

We firstly want to thank the core team here at the Village who allowed us to spend some much needed time away with the confidence that the day-to-day stuff would be undertaken. Thanks Rob, Em, Tim, Mel, the amazing house moms and maintenance team you really are all stars!

As always our children's unit remains our main focus, however there always seems to be something to fix and this month we have had to sort out the septic tank which is used by the children. This wasn't a pleasant task but with the help of our local plumber, digger driver and trusty volunteers we managed to sort that with a few new trenches which we hope will also drain our top field to allow us to proceed with some agriculture projects.

There has also been some exciting progress around our first Ukuqala house, with two big work parties working on filling then flattening the land and installing some much needed turf around the building. We have to be intentional in setting aside time to complete this type of work as our daily chores can overwhelm and run away with us. We are indebted to our friends Graeme and Charles Cherry who have been very helpful in getting this sorted for us with the supply of soil, turf, plant hire and labour.

On the children’s front we are now back up tour full complement of nine children! This week another two year old girl arrived who is in need of our support whilst she is stabilised on her medication and one of our older girls is making the big transition to being placed back home. She has been with us at the Village of Hope since we opened and before that spent her early life at Thembacare in Athlone. There has been little contact over the years with her family and unfortunately we heard the sad news that her mother passed away just a couple of weeks ago. In spite of this she is making some good progress with her weekly weekend visits to her paternal aunt who will care for her when she leaves us in December.

The new Dutch students are settling in really well, and they have also been joined by an ex HAN social work student who is spending some time working with Maz and Mel on the children’s cases as she seeks to become a full time social worker here in Grabouw.

Community Work
Sports Outreach:
The sports students have really helped to push along the development of our outreach, working with Jason, our new part time employee, to re-establish clubs in Rooidakke. It is now attended by around 50 children a week, as well as a rugby outreach to some older guys. They are also working with Michael in Waterworks and have even started a girls netball team in that area which is a brand new venture.

We were also blessed with a ton of sports gear, bought over by our latest mission team from the USA, the kids have already received some head bands as a simple thank you for attending the clubs and the kids enjoyed wearing their new training bibs at the Iraq club this week.

Rainbow Smiles:
Our volunteers and students are also working hard in the running and planning of our Rainbow Smiles HIV support group which runs each and every Friday afternoon and we are grateful to an ex volunteer, Heather from Australia, who has produced an amazing resource for us to use during the weekly planning programme....thanks Heather! – It must be over 500 pages long!!!!

Other News
Volunteers:
Australians seem to be getting mentions all over the place in this newsletter, as we were joined by Jacqui for 3 months. Yes, you guessed it, from Australia! She has joined our other volunteers, Kathryn and Martha, just wondering where all the male volunteers are at the moment...If you would like to come and join us for a short, medium or longer term trip then as always please get in touch with Emily...see contact details below.

Cycling from London to Paris!
Last month we had a team cycling from Aylesbury to Brighton to raise funds for us, this month Danny Gowing cycled from London to Paris to raise funds for us. Thanks Danny! We can tell you that your aches and pains were worth every penny. If anyone else wants to hop on a bike to raise money for us we will really appreciate it!!!

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!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event (it doesn’t have to be cycling)!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!
For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff 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 Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za.
Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation

South Africa

HOPE 2012

Top SA bands are going to be making some noise for us this World AIDS Day (1st December).
Diarise it and get your tickets before they sell out!
They are available on computicket now. A steal at R150 a ticket. Please support us and get the word out to your friends/family/school. The more people who know about this event the better!
Line up: The Parlotones, Watershed, The Muffinz, Tailor, Margaret’s Daughter
Get your tickets at www.hope.org.za/2012

England

If you can’t quite make it out to South Africa for World AIDS Day we have another equally attractive suggestion for you! The Thembalitsha UK guys are organising a Celebration of Hope
The evening will consist of live music and comedy from a top BBC standup.
Tickets are only £10 and there will be drinks and snacks available. Saturday, 1 December at 19:30, Aylesbury, Bucks
Please contact Jessica on 077 3883 1507 to book your tickets

Worldwide

A Song Of Hope!
It doesn’t matter what country you are in. Everyone can benefit from this! The fantastically generous and talented folk of up and coming British band, Being Buffalo, have released a track especially for us! And it sounds great too! We get 50% of every sale so please let your friends and family know about this! You can find the track for download here:
http://beingbuffalo.bandcamp.com/album/hope-charity-download

providing new hope to another child in need...

the first meal for our new child, given
by our house mom at the village of hope

some days the day to day chores that come with running a home for 9 children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, along side our daily sports and health awareness programmes into the local formal and informal settlements, can become so overwhelming that we have little time to really stand back to see the ways in which we are really making a difference to the people we have been called to work with..

...however there are some days where our eyes are opened to the amazing work that is undertaken at the village of hope, and today is one of those days as we successful see the fruits of the work of placing stabilised children home with families.....what do i mean by that?....

...well due to the recent successful placements of some of our longer term children (see their stories by clicking here, or here, or here) we have been able to create some more bed space to provide accommodation for more needy children, and today we are back up to our full compliment as we have welcomed another 2 year old girl into our home.

this dear little girl will be loved and cared for by our wonderful house moms and we hope that she will soon be back home with her family after we work with the local day hospital in addressing her immediate medical needs.

a visit by a flying dutchman..

henk, marlies and our new bus!

we are so grateful to all our sponsors and donors who enable us to undertake the work that we feel called to at the village of hope, many of you give funds help with the day to day running costs, which cover our house moms salaries, children's food bills, electric and vehicle maintenance etc etc but sometimes people give to a specific project or requirement.

it is also really really great when those who donate can come and make a visit to see where their hard earned cash is being spent and last week we had such a visit from henk from the charity 'wings of support' who had blessed us with part of the funds that we used to purchase our new minibus (see previous blog around that here).

wings of support as a charity set up and run by employees of the dutch airline KLM and it was good for henk to meet up with one of dutch students, marlies, who is studying with us for 10 months working around her social work degree.

thanks wings of support and thanks henk for making the time to come and visit us all the way up the mountain in grabouw.

visits from local dignitaries

thembacare grabouw make the front page

sorry that we have been so quiet since we returned home, but for those of you that follow us via this blog or have visited the village of hope project here in grabouw you will know that our days and therefore weeks seem to run away with us. added to that but just before we returned from england my (tim) laptop's hard drive gave up the ghost so i have been without my own internet connection which has hindered my prolific blogging!....however that is a poor excuse so whilst maz is enjoying an evening at the school of hope awards i thought i would share a bit of news, prior to the october newsletter which will be out soon, this majors around our appearance on the front and middle pages of last weeks local newspaper, the elgin grabouwer.



major visit with the HAN and UWC delegation at the
village of hope (in the rain!)

i say we appeared as in the royal we, meaning both thembacare and the village of hope, but news is news and we are so closely linked to our sister project that the we is really we....anyway the front page news was the fact that following their mandela day visit to our two projects in grabouw staff from the cape town parliament felt led to purchase a much needed hoist to help our staff manage the lifting and movement of the patients in our inpatient palliative care unit.

the major and maz

the other news, which took up the middle pages, and included a nice little article about the work that our former volunteers, daz and lisa, are doing with a little creche, was all around the visit of our major, chris punt, to the town. the visit was initiated by the HAN university team to showcase the work that their students are involved in.

the village of hope are currently proving placements for 2 sports students and a social work student, as well as a past HAN social work student who is volunteering with us at the moment and therefore a visit by the HAN delegation and therefore the major was always on the cards.

the delegation also included tutors and facilitators from the university of the western cape who we not only showed around our children's unit but also informed about our work in the community via our sports outreach and thembacare home based care team...the major also enjoyed lunch with us and had a long chat with myself and maz around the needs of our town and the ways in which the thembalitsha foundation are helping local and national government, and their departments, to provide much needed help in the health and education sector.

although some photos were taken for the paper it is very hard to see maz so therefore i have added a photo with her and the major together.!

new arrivals....

our new arrival and house mom (trulene)

myself and maz have only just arrived back to our wonderful village of hope project here in grabouw and we have been greeted by two sets of new arrivals. firstly our little cat, called quiet simply 'Cat' (as opposed to her sister who is called 'Other Cat') has had her first litter of kittens, 5 in all which might prove a little more difficult when coming to name them!....however the greatest event to happen since we returned home was this morning as we were able to offer a new home to a dear little 3 year old girl who is in need of some safe care whilst she is stabilised from a medical condition.

as with all things related to our children we can't provide you with her name or a full face photo but please know that given the circumstances she is doing very well and we will ensure that we provide the best care we can as she stays with us on a 3 month court order.

the hope (as with all our children) is that we will be able to place her home with some loving family members and maz, mel, along with our social work student and another social work volunteer will now undertake make sure that that reunification goes as smoothly as possible.

September News

It’s less than a week to go until our fearless leaders (Tim and Maz) return from their 6 week break. We are thanking the Lord for getting us through so far without too many hiccups! Although we have had some rather frustrating technical issues with our water system (which has to go through lots of hoops, gadgets and gizmos to make it clean before it magically comes out of our tap) we are still standing!

Our trusty volunteers doing their thing!

Children’s Unit
The children have been enjoying some more pleasant weather and it makes everyone’s lives a little easier when they have opportunity to let off steam outside! They are looking forward to a short, one-week school holiday too. Let’s hope the weather is good to us then too!

Last week we had a new admission of a cute little two-year-old girl. She is settling in really well to our strange little family here and certainly is happy to hold her ground around the older children! You may have read our blog post about her but we have recently found out her mother died due to TB. It is very sad but we are hoping there is a possibility for her to be placed with her grandparents soon.

We are still rather worried about a recent decision that has been made by the courts for one of our children. It is not appropriate to divulge the detail but please pray that God protects the little girl in question throughout the process and that His will be done.

Our football pitch - perfectly flat as ever!

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Sports in the informal settlement of Iraq now has a couple of challenges. We arrived last week to find that our ‘pitch’ (and we use the term loosely in the first place) had been attacked by a digger and had huge chunks taken out of it. The boys managed to play around it but it has severely reduced the space they have to play and makes it a bit of an obstacle course! Of course, we are more worried about it than the boys! We are also battling a little bit with all the younger children who come to watch the club. There are more of them that there are children to teach. A lot of them are younger siblings of the kids who are in our club. As much as we don’t want to tell them to go away – especially when we know they don’t really have anything to do or anywhere to go to – it is really distracting and makes it hard for the mentors to teach the sessions. When we have the manpower we can offer a babysitting service but this isn’t always possible and quite often there is a lot of in-fighting amongst the little ones. We need to pray about a good solution! They are so cute and need love and attention too but we can’t always do everything!


Other News
Volunteers:
This month we have been able to welcome two lovely all-american gels to the team. Kathryn and Martha are both from Texas and heard about our work through our church links there. They have been fantastic at getting stuck in and are great self-starters which is always helpful when we are short-handed. Both the girls will be with us for a couple of months and it’s really nice to have some refreshment to the team again.


Cycle To The Sea:
Our terrific team of 10 who cycled themselves silly for us managed to raise in excess of £2500. When we asked them for a report on their efforts this is what we received:

Too tired for prose but in brief my report is:
-          Great success
-          Splendid route
-          Stunning weather
-          Perfect lunch stop
-          Good crack
-          Varied fitness!
-          Very welcome overnight
-          Impressively generous donations
-          Most are keen to repeat next year


Thanks so much guys. We appreciate every penny. And to hear that they want to do it AGAIN makes our hearts swell!

You can still add to their total here: www.justgiving.com/CycleToTheSea2012


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!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff 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 Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za.

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!


Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation


Wholehearted New Album Released 1st October

Our friends at Wholehearted are launching their new album, Fearless Love, which will be available on iTunes very soon. If their previous offering is anything to go by then you are not going to want to miss out on this. It also includes Hope Is Here which was written with Thembalitsha in mind! Check it out! http://wholehearted.co.za/

HOPE 2012

Top SA bands are going to be making some noise for us this World AIDS Day (1st December).

If you are going to be any where near Cape Town then diarise it and get your tickets before they sell out!

They are available on computicket now. A steal at R150 a ticket. Please support us and get the word out to your friends/family/school. The more people who know about this event the better!


Get your tickets at www.hope.org.za/2012

Reality Bites

Mummy Netty taking good care of the new arrival

We are always very excited to have a new admission to the children's unit and last week we were able to welcome a gorgeous little two-year old girl (although she looks more like a one year old than two because she is so under-developed). She has settled in really well, is smiley, affectionate and definitely has some dance moves on her! She even has a pronounceable name which is always a relief for us English speakers!

She was referred to us because her mother, who is HIV positive, was too ill and had been taken to hospital because of TB. The social worker had said that the mother looked like she wouldn't survive much longer but we have often been told such things and then seen dramatic restorations to health so we didn't give it too much attention.

This week we heard that the mother had died. Just like that.  Of course, we don't know the reasons why this lady got so ill but it does make me wonder....Was she born with HIV or was she given it unknowingly? How did she find out? Did she know to take her ARVs regularly without fail? Was she getting any support from anyone? How did she get so poorly with TB? Did she even know she had TB or did she think it was just a cough and ignore it? If this woman had been born in another country or in this country but with money would her life have been the same?

We do have to be thankful that there is a possibility of this gorgeous girl going to live with her Grandmother in the Eastern Cape but it still doesn't detract from the fact that she will never know her mother....in this life anyway.

Emily

The Perfect Reason To Celebrate!

Last week, our little girl, who has been living at Village of Hope since we opened three years ago, celebrated her 5th birthday! It is hard to believe she is so big! She truly is a reason to celebrate because, even at 5 years old, she is one of life's survivors. Not only is she living with HIV but she also was a foetal alcohol syndrome baby. Her mother came from a farm that used the dop farm system (where workers were paid in alcohol rather than cash) and drank heavily during the pregnancy which has stunted her mental and physical development. When she arrived at Village of Hope she was severely malnourished and neglected and had to be fed via a tube in her stomach. Goodness knows what would have happened to her if she had not been discovered by the social workers! Now, although she is slightly smaller than the average five year old and has a short attention span, you would not be able to see there is anything wrong with her. She is such fun to be around and a cheeky little monkey to boot!


Maz and the rest of the team have been working very hard to progress her case. Despite all the hard work there is still a long way to go. Please join us in praying for the future of precious girl.

cycle to the sea

tref, harry, dan, chris, andy, lucy, lucy, robin, cara and andy

dan and harry off on their 3 day trip

as i write this post 9 intrepid cyclists will be on their way to brighton on the 2012 cycle to the sea, raising funds for the village of hope and the wider thembalitsha foundation.

myself and maz rose early to see the guys off from thame clock tower at 8am this morning, sending the team off on their 100 mile ride from west to east, the day has been extremely warm and we are trusting that they have enough water with them for what will be a hot ride.....

...two of the riders, dan and harry, are actually gonna be riding for 3 days, attempting to cover 300 miles in a round trip via brighton, southampton back to thame, if you would like to sponsor them, thus donating to the work that we are doing in south africa then click on this link to their justgiving site......or if you would like to support the core team of tref, andy, cara, lucy, robin chris and chris' friend andy then please click on this link

thanks guys and we hope to have some good news very soon that you completed the trip successfully.

the last we saw of them!

A Land of Promise - Reflections on some recent photos

For the next few weeks this blog might not be up to its usual standard. Whilst Tim and Maz are away I will be filling. But be encouraged; normal service will be resumed in October!

Beginning of a rainbow over Grabouw informal settlement

Perhaps one of my favourite things about living in this place is how often we get to see rainbows. I can't explain why we see so many of them (I am sure that science is involved so it's best for me not to go there with my limited knowledge) but what I can say is that they are beautiful and I never take them forgranted. Whenever I see them I am reminded of God's promise to never leave us or forsake us and whenever I see them here in Grabouw I am reminded that God has never left and won't forsake the people here. 

Working in this kind of environment, when we are faced with desperate situations more days than not, it really does make a difference to have this encouragement - especially on the days where it's hard to see that we are making a dent in the brokeness . It's good for us to be reminded that God has got all the situations we see in hand. He has His hand over every child we care for at the Village of Hope, those we have relationship with in the community and those we don't even know. South Africa is often fondly called the Rainbow Nation in reference to it's multi-cultural make up, but for me, I think it refers to a nation of promise and potential. I love the fact that the HIV support group for adolescents that we run decided to call themselves Rainbow Smiles and I really pray that it lives up to its name for the sake of the children who attend.

Rainbow coming in the gates to Village of Hope

We are just coming into spring here, the trees are beginning to blossom in the orchards, the sun is visiting us more frequently and you can just feel the potential in the air. There is so much opportunity for change in Grabouw and for God to break though. I am excited to see what will happen in this coming season and thankful that, no matter what, God keeps His promises.

Emily

August News

Well we have certainly been battening down the hatches this month. The storms that have been blowing through here have been rather wild. We’ve had trees blowing down all over the property (thankfully not near buildings or people) and anything that has not been tied down has been found in a foreign place. Perhaps the biggest casualty on the farm has been a pre-fabricated shed, fondly known as The Cabin. We use it to store lots of bits and bobs and, though it has never been water-tight, it has always been good for some kind of storage……Not so now! After the wind and rain this weekend the poor old cabin is as flat as a pancake and the roof is nowhere to be seen! Thankfully Mel and her friend as well as two of our fabulously multi-talented House Moms, were on hand to move the items quickly out of the wet weather. Those girls do have some muscles on them! Now it’s down to the maintenance team to sort out somewhere to store all the homeless items and clear up the mess!

We are having a giggle amongst the team because the cabin episode happened the night that Tim and Maz, our trusty Project Managers, left for a six week, much needed holiday! Let’s hope by the time they return we have managed to keep everything together. We have done it before so we can do it again!! Please keep us in your prayers!

Children’s Unit
With all the wintry weather the children and House Moms have been keeping safely tucked indoors a lot of the time but we are not short of news as ever!

We are most excited to welcome a new little one to the Village of Hope family. As with many of the children here, they all have their story to tell, but we are just happy that we can offer some relief and some loving care whilst he is with us. Along with a new child we have also been able to receive Marlise, a social work student from the HAN university in Holland. Marlise is going to be with us for a year and is already getting stuck in!

As well as a new child and new student we also have a lovely shiny new people carrier! Thanks to a lot of hard work and fundraising we finally had enough money to buy a Hyundai H1. It is not brand new but it is the newest vehicle we have ever been able to purchase and will be a lot more reliable than the old VW combi we had previously. We are doing our best to keep it looking new for as long as possible. The maintenance team has created an nice dry area for us to park it so it is less likely to get sandy and muddy with all the bad weather we have been having. The kids use it to go to school each day and we are able to use it for our sports clubs and Rainbow Smiles on Fridays.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
We’ve tried to keep sports clubs as regular as possible despite the weather. Now that we have reliable mentors it allows us to have more flexibility because if the weather is bad they can choose to hold their particular clubs on drier days whereas in times gone by we just didn’t have the capacity to be so flexible.

We also now have our next Dutch students. Yorram and Anna are fantastic and already proving their dedication to our cause by going beyond their brief. They even helped with babysitting in the Children’s Unit whilst we held a staff meeting – and those of you who have volunteered before and helped with that know what kind of dedication that is! It is so exciting to see the relationships developing between us and the HAN university and we know that every student we receive from them is an asset to us.

We are also very excited to be able to re-start our club in the Rooidakke area. We previously had to suspend it due to lack of resources but now we have been able to employ one of our mentors part-time via funding from a Government works programme. This means that he, along with Yorram’s assistance will be running the club and taking on some other duties within the sports outreach team.

Other News
Volunteers:
It has been very quiet on the volunteer front this month. Although that has meant more work for our core team it has also been a good time to regroup. By this time next month we will have welcomed three new volunteers. Two from the USA and one from Holland, so things don’t stay quiet for long and we will be happy for the extra hands - especially with our leaders being away.

Cycle To The Sea:
In a few short days a team of able, willing but crazy people are going to be excitedly donning their lycra and cycling over 100 miles to raise money for us. Please support them in their efforts as this is no mean feat and all the money they raise will come directly to us and the work that we are doing. You can sponsor them online here: www.justgiving.com/CycleToTheSea2012

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!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff 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 Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za.

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation