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....