continued blessings

ashlyn (far right) enjoying an after church drink in the
beautiful elgin valley

this weekend we have been overwhelmed with volunteers from the U S of A, on saturday evening ashlyn joined us for a four week stay, she is the sister of britton, a long term volunteer who served with us for 3 months last year. then on sunday evening the latest team from infocus augusta joined us for a week long mission trip.

old friends, God brings us together!

we hope that ashlyn will become involved with all things village of hope and she has already experienced an amazing kids outreach in site view yesterday afternoon as we had over 70 children attend our club in that area, we are sure that she will fit right in and become a key member of our team for her shorter spell with us.

the augusta team are returning for another bout of self sacrifice, it's great to have returning teams, familiar faces that we just get on so well with, there isn't the need to break the ice they just fit right in but with new members who are also keen to make a difference here in grabouw. this time they have undertaken the huge task of redecorating the children's unit for us.....and although they have only been with us for a day they have already completed two of the children's bedrooms....

HIV talk at our site view sports club

...there was such a delight in the children's faces as i went in late yesterday evening to see how they had got on (i was going to use the word 'gotten' in that sentence but as it isn't a real word i had to restructure midway through!)...the children were so pleased with their newly decorated rooms eagerly showing me the wonderful work that these guys had done.

tuesday morning painting team in
the children's unit!

their week will be a real mix, today there is the threat of rain so we are having to keep the children occupied in a temporary room whilst the painting team undertake to complete as much as possible in this short time, two of their team are also down with our sister project, bosom buddies, in somerset west, whilst others are out with our care workers from thembacare....we hope that the weather will play ball this afternoon to enable the team to get the chance to hang out with the children in the iraq informal settlement as we bring our life skill programme to those precious ones but one never can tell what the weather will bring at this time of year.

if you would like to keep up to date with the augusta teams movements, experiences and highlights then please follow this link to their blog...

..thanks guys and we are only sorry that you have to return to the US over the weekend but we know that you hold us in your daily prayers and we continue to thank God for his amazing provision towards the work he that he has called us to do and you guys are a key part of that.....

May News

Well winter is definitely on it’s way and we are thankful that we have log fires to keep us warm on the colder days. We are also very thankful that we have our own supply of wood here on the farm thanks to our small plantation which has always been enough. The maintenance team (as they are now known!) Tim Berger, Heinrich and Johan have been kept busy cutting trees to keep our wood store replenished.


Children’s Unit
Chicken pox has been making its way through the children’s unit!! It’s never ideal for any child to have to deal with such an illness but we were worried that the HIV positive children would really suffer. Thankfully they all seem to be coping very well with it and most of them have only had it mildly. Well done to our House Moms for getting though it too!

Another month generally means another birthday and this time it was for one of our girls who turned four. This particular girl has been with us for over a year and has had no contact with her mother for over six months. The social workers are trying to track down her mother for the purposes of assisting in acquiring a birth certificate so that a foster home place can be found for her. It is crazy that a child can be four years old and still not have been registered! The mother suffers with alcohol addiction and at the moment we have no idea where she is staying. Despite her difficult social situation the birthday girl had a fantastic time celebrating in the traditional way with Maz, Mel and our newest volunteer Lauren organising a lovely party for her. We love spoiling the kids here and being able to love them. We know it doesn’t always make up for a lack of a real family but at least they know that someone is there for them. In the time she has been with us she has really come out of her shell and become a confident, delightful child. We are trusting God for the best family for her, whatever that might look like.

Although we are often battling with frustrating social work cases, it is good to be reminded of those situations which are being resolved and we have a fantastic story of reunification this month. The mother to one of our three year old girls has been told that she will be allowed to have her child returned to her if she can prove her responsibility by following a strict set of guidelines set by the social worker. These guidelines include visiting us every day to learn how to take care of her child and learning how to administer the medication. We are pleased to say that the mother is responding well, adhering to the guidelines and are we are very confident that, in a few weeks, the social worker will agree to the child returning home! The mother is also taking responsibility for her own medication and the Day Hospital are real pleased with her progress. It is always our prayer that a child can go home to a loving and caring family member and for it to be the mother too is just the icing on the cake!

We have also received news that one of the little boys who returned home a few weeks ago is doing very well. His mother, who was defaulting on her HIV medication, has become compliant again and is working hard, along with the grandmother, to improve the house – by putting cardboard on the walls and carpet on the floor -  and keep it clean and tidy. This is truly fantastic news and goes to show how Thembalitsha can make a difference. Watch this space!

Sports Outreach and Community Work
A highlight of this month has to be the fact that we were able to take our eight sports mentors to Cape Town Stadium to watch Cape Ajax v Orlando Pirates. It was fantastic to be able to invest in these boys who are willing to get involved and regularly commit to our weekly sports outreach in their local areas. Many of the boys have been involved in our clubs from a young age and realise the difference they can make. We made a day of it and took them to see some of Cape Town’s sights either side of the match. It was truly a precious experience to share in their first viewing of a proper football stadium and we could see that it was something they would hold in their memories for a long time to come.

This month we also assisted in the Community Police Forum’s (CPF) feeding programme where, for one day, we took over the daily task of providing a basic meal for patients of the TB clinic in town. This meal is essential for the TB medication to work effectively. Providing this meal for fifty was no simple task but we were able to enlist our volunteer, Pauline and Tim’s mum to prepare the food and then use our volunteers to help in the distribution. The food was certainly well received and we had enough left over the take to the ARV clinic too! Our hats go off to Captain Noble and the team of volunteers from his church in Grabouw who usually provide this service – at least we could give them a day off!!!

You may have read in ThembaCare Grabouw’s news about the inpatient who is regressing. Sadly she is the mother of two boys, both of whom attend our clubs. The older boy assists the mentor for our club in Siteview (an area in Grabouw) and the other attends our Rainbow Smiles HIV support group. Please hold them in your prayers. Although it is good that these children are known to us and we can look after them it is still a very sad situation.

Other News
Volunteers:
As another month passes we have to say goodbye to two more volunteers. Heather Moore and Grace Perret have both served here for three months and have been invaluable members of the team. As always, the goodbyes are bittersweet as, though we are sad for them to leave, we are so excited about what is going to happen in the next chapter of their lives. Thank you girls! We can’t wait to hear about what you get up to next!
We were also happy to receive our newest volunteer, Lauren Carmen. Lauren is another Aylesbury (or should we say Quainton) lovely! The Carmen family have been long-standing supporters of the Village of Hope and this is Lauren’s second visit. She is already getting stuck in and brandishing her own form of humour in the team. We can tell we are going to be in for a fun three months.


Ukuquala Two:
Our new building from the Germans has been in need of some TLC whilst it dries out. It was noticed that the walls were starting to sag so we have taken the advice of Ian, our friendly structural engineer and arranged for some bracing to be attached. This was carried out by a team of loyal workers at Rustic Homes. Thanks guys! – we appreciate your skill!! The new bracing will become a feature once the walls are dry and plastered and a bit reminiscent of a tudor house!

Hope2Light:
We cannot end the newsletter without saying a huge thank you to Amanda Nortje, our funding manager, and her friend, Karlien Scholtz who have just completed a cycle from Village of Hope to the Cape Aghulas at the southern tip of Africa. They completed this mission over 4 days in an attempt to raise awareness of the Thembalitsha Foundation but also to raise funds towards a new minibus for us to be able to transport the Village of Hope, Sports and Rainbow Smiles children back and forth. They certainly were pedaling with a purpose and we appreciate all you have done for us, girls!




Up and Coming Events


Head’s Up For Father’s Day 19th June

Last year our alternative gifts for Father’s Day were a real hit so we are going to repeat it again. So, if you would like to buy your Dad a gift that counts instead of a comedy tie or pair of socks follow this link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290717510664

• British 10k London Run

We have six places available and the run takes place on Sunday 8th July. This really is a fantastic race – you get to run past major London landmarks like Big Ben and St Paul’s cathedral. It costs £30 to enter and you need to be willing to commit to raising at least £250 for us. So, whether you are new to running and looking for a challenge, or an old hand looking to beat your personal best, this is a great opportunity to get into training and to run for a great cause. Contact us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information.

• Thembalitsha Bike Challenge 
Can you cycle 10 miles? 100 miles? Either way we’d love you to join us on Saturday 8 September as we challenge ourselves to cycle whilst raising money for Thembalitsha.
 The challenge:

8  - 16 Miles: A there and back again route from Aylesbury on picturesque lanes in the Chilterns, suitable for all kinds of cyclists and all ages and including families, you just need to be able to cycle comfortably for around an hour at an easy pace. Entry fee is £5 for adults, £2 for children.

100 Miles: A wonderful route through the Chilterns and the Thames Valley before lunch at a riverside inn, then on to the South Downs and the sea at Brighton. You’ll be rewarded with a stopover at a farm and a hearty breakfast before being driven home the next day. Suitable for regular or more experienced cyclists, you need to be able to cycle at a moderate pace for most of the day. Entry fee is £25, which includes overnight accommodation, breakfast and return transport.

Whichever personal challenge you choose, our challenge to you is to raise as much money as you can for Thembalitsha in sponsorship. Are you up for it?!
Contact us: office@thembalitshauk.org.uk to sign up!

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!

some days that bite back!

this is a personal reflection and although it picks up some thoughts around the thembalitsha foundation please read it as a tim to all post rather than a village of hope to all....ok?

life here at the thembalitsha projects in grabouw can sometimes become so focused on the doing, reports need to be written, banking needs to be done, proposals submitted, talks to various funders planned, sports outreach prepared, children's hospital visits made, staff issues sorted, vehicles and buildings maintained, the list goes on and like many companies and individuals our lives are spend on the more mundane things rather than lifting our eyes above the paperwork and seeing the bigger picture.

life can also become comfortable, and yes we have left home, family and even continents to be able to serve our community here in grabouw but we do have access to many of the luxuries that we become so attached to...like running water, an inside toilet or two, electricity to power an oven or heated blanket, gas to warm our home or petrol to run our cars, let lone a bank account which isn't quite as healthy as it once was when we were living the corporate dream in europe but at least the credit card enables us to purchase food for the table and wine for our enjoyment.

i think you get that picture but i had a bit of a wake up call on monday as i saw and experienced things that caused me to question the humanity, or lack of humanity that we are part of here in grabouw....one can become so blase to the plight of the thousands of people who share our community with us, so if you will give me the time in would like to bring up a few of the things that knocked my vision back into focus.

stark reminder 1

i had a meeting scheduled with the ARV doctor to discuss our rainbow smiles club, for those not aware of this its a wonderful little support group that we run with thembacare and abba counseling each and every friday for children aged around 9 - 15 living with HIV, anyway as we were making our way to the meeting i picked up one of the key team members, a young lady who is HIV+ herself, this lady is an inspiration to all of us and is so passionate about the children that we work with......it was the first time that i had been to her home and i was somewhat shocked by what i saw....

a 6 x 3 meter garden shed (wendy house) right next door to a toilet block which serves her community, the issue with her home is that the tin roof, on a home that has been moved a couple of times, had some holes in it, in fact the sheets of tin weren't very well secured so she had a bucket next to her bed to catch the drips....

....it must be mentioned that this small 'shed' is probably about as good as it gets to something she calls home for most of the staff that we employ at the village of hope and thembacare but it was a stark reminder that although she was so well turned out for our meeting she had managed all of this without a toilet, sink, even running water (other than through the roof) or electricity.

stark reminder 2

was we turned up for the meeting at the ARV clinic which is linked to the local day hospital there were people waiting to be seen, not on the regular plastic chairs but on the linked seating that were usually used in the waiting area inside the hospital...the reason being that the chairs had been stolen, people had just picked them up and walked off with them...that in a way is shocking but the thing that struck me was that we are now nearing winter and other than a simple converted container there is no shelter from the winter winds and rain........these HIV+ people are sitting outside waiting to be seen covered in simple blankets, many with no shoes!

stark reminder 3

i had to pop into thembacare before sports outreach and as is my norm i went to say hello to all the patients that are currently receiving medical care from our wonderful in patient staff, but my eye was drawn to the sight of an ever frail woman, the mother of two boys who we work with, one attends our rainbow smiles club, the other is part of our site view soccer outreach, however the boys mother has now been taken off of her ARV and TB medication due to her body shutting down.....it won't be long before she becomes another piece of data used to highlight the fact that thousands of south africans have succumbed to the AIDS virus over the last 20 years.

stark reminder 4

on my way to sports outreach i saw the mother's son, he was somewhat obvious of the plight of his mother lying in thembacare, not that he didn't care but i don't think he realised who seriously ill she is.....after a quick chat with him to encourage him to spend as much time with his mom as possible, without telling him the enormity of the situation, i made my way to pick up one of our sports mentors. he lives in a tin shack, again with little basic services, and normally has a huge smile on his face as he greets me, but today was different, today he had a serious look about him and as he joined me in the front of my bakkie he told me of a class mate who had been stabbed to death on saturday evening.

stark reminder 5

the children at my sports outreach were so badly behaved, a few newcomers tried to steal our balls, others were so disrespectful, i was trying not to let this get to me, especially after the day that i had had, but then i looked at their homes, their neighbourhood, their friends, peers and family and thought about the lives that they were leading, struggling to survive...what a difference from the stable home and environment that i had grown up in.

stark reminder 6

i had to attend a meeting at the local community hall in the evening, now it gets dark at 6 here in the winter, i had even put on some long pants and shoes and socks which is highly unusual, waiting outside the hall were a group of people sitting on cardboard boxes, huddled around under blankets...then as i passed by so busy with my thoughts of the day and the meeting ahead a small voice called 'tim', as i looked i saw the smiling face of one of the mom's of a child we had living at the village of hope. he had been discharged back to his family only a few weeks before....as i inquired to what she was doing sitting out in the cold and dark she told me that she was queuing to be amongst those lucky ones who would be first to receive their application forms, that were being handed out at 8.30 the next morning, this application wasn't even for her but she was supporting her two friends who were trying to register their children for a small grant which might be made available to them in 3 months time....it was freezing out there.

what to do?......

as you can imagine my thoughts were fried as i tried to process the sights that i had witnessed during this somewhat harrowing but all together normal day......thoughts around how i could help secure a home against the winter rains, provide shelter to those sitting in the cold waiting for the medication that suppresses the HIV virus, seek God's plan for the future of a mother and perhaps help her sons realise that she wouldn't be coming back home to look after then after all, thinking why i hadn't heard anything in the news about the death of a 15 year old school boy living not more than 1 mile from my comfortable western home, or the fact that the children at my sports club were so poorly behaved because of the lack of support for them and their parents, what could i do for the mom sitting outside in a queue.....

what did i do...?..what could i do..?.. i went to the local KFC and bought the guys in the line a whole lot of hot chicken and then went home and ate mine with a nice glass of wine and got into my comfy bed!

the thembalitsha foundation works to bring people to a place of self reliance, we don't hand stuff out, other than the love, care and sometimes medication that we have, we work in health, education and training seeking to provide new hope (thembalitsha in xhosa)......but some day's God breaks your heart again, monday was that day for me and as i type away on my electrically powered laptop with my hot cup of coffee and chocolate biscuits, my eyes are full of tears at the thought of those whom i encountered on monday and i wonder if i did enough....but what more could i have done?....

...as i finish typing this another email from groupon arrives in my inbox offering an exciting seafood platter and a wellness programme....shall i succumb to this enticing offer........! arrgh.

.............

hope to light

maz, house moms and kids with karlien and amanda

amanda already eating karlien's dirt

this morning we said our goodbyes to amanda (the thembalitsha funding manager) and karline who have set off on their epic ride from the village of HOPE to the LIGHT house at cape agullas (the southern most point of africa. their HOPE to LIGHT ride will be made on the gravel roads, taking in such sights as the elgin valley apple orchards and the town of hermanus (home to the southern right whale)....they are cycling to raise awareness of the thembalitsha foundation and are collecting funds for a new mini bus for the village of hope.

love the tee shirt (and balloons!)

if you would like to support them on their journey you could catch them at the everynation church in hermanus tomorrow but should you be unable to cheer them on their way you could make their (and our) day please donate at amanda's givengain page by clicking here!

time to play

up up and away!

one of the most disappointing and frustrating things about running the village of hope is the limited amount of time we have to just play with the kids that God has placed here. much of mine and maz' (as well as our longer term volunteers like rob and em, or tim, mel or even johan and heinrich) time is spent on completing the long list of daily tasks, such as shopping, or admin for social workers, or finances or report writing for our stats given to the department of health.. we seem to spend more time cutting grass, mending the myriad of broken things, taps, cars, toys etc......rarely do we have chance just to chill with the kids.

however just before i went out to run a sports outreach at a local farm yesterday (which in itself is an amazing part of what we do!) i passed the kids lying around on the newly transformed trampoline and grabbed a minute or so just to support them as they jumped into the air....as you can see by the photo they are somewhat fearless and reached heights which would have turned maz' stomach but we had such a cool time just playing....

...oh for more of those....life is so full and i miss just being a dad to these precious little ones.