looking back at 2013 and forward into 2104

well where did that year go?....2013 certainly seemed to fly by, this is a trend that we have become accustom to at the village of hope as we pack so much into each day but it's frightening when you realise that a whole 365 days have passed in the blink of an eye.

its hard to put into words all the things that have happened during the year, just taking a look at our blog posts there are many fond memories, some sad moments and a few disappointments, but overall we made lots of new friends, increased our service to the community, celebrated the completion of the new children's and volunteer units, we've hosted many wonderful mission teams and single volunteers, and put on some amazing sports events for the children that we work with.

our relationships with our local community have been strengthen, just think about the amazing events that we have already hosted at the hope@cluver amphitheater, we are able to host more children at the project, we have a stronger social work side, we have employed a part time sports coach to work with the under 8's who attend our daily sports clubs, the sports mentors have increased in numbers and have all been on a number of training days which has enabled them to work even better with the huge number of 9-15 year olds in the community and to cap it all the 'Rainbow Smiles' HIV support group is flushing with some more bible based teaching for those children living in the community with what continues to be a disease surrounded by stigma.

i suppose some of the heart ache has been around those who we have had to say our sad goodbyes to this year, at the forefront must be the passing of dear little assi who went to be with his heavenly father in january, we speak of him often and he is in our thoughts daily.

it was also with a heavy heart that we said goodbye to a member of the thembacare grabouw staff who had also been our (tim and maz) housekeeper when we first arrived in 2008, and the news of the passing of three of the moms of our children from chronic but manageable diseases was a shock but bought home the realities of the community in which we live, work and serve.

we are very much looking forward to 2014 with open hearts and minds and want to finish this year by thank you for all the support, be that spiritual, physical or financial, that you have given towards our vision for the village of hope over the last year. so we wish you a very happy 2014 and hope that we will see you all very soon!

its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together

santa and his elves (sports mentors)

yes its that time of year again when the days are sunny, warm and bright and we dust off the 'good olde sleigh' again and tow it, along with father christmas, around the community of grabouw.

if you have followed this blog for any length of time you will know that our annual sleigh rise has become a tradition at the village of hope, to see the faces of the children as they catch sight of santa passing their homes is a real treat and to hand out a few sweets brings so much joy to those who won't have chance to visit santa's grotto in the local mall.

santa in site view

we know that christmas isn't all about presents and a funny white bearded guy who supposedly comes from the north pole (no that's not you trondar) but to know that this one hour of fun can bring so many smiles from all ages of people is worth doing and we trust that this random act of kindness will be seen as our continued desire to serve the town of grabouw via our village of hope children's unit, our sports outreach and rainbow smiles club and confirm that the work we do via thembacare has a community feel about it.

santa in iraq informal settlement

our pictures hit the headlines of the christmas edition of the elgin grabouwer, whom we are so thankful to for highlighting the work that we do in the wider community throughout the year.

normal scenes behind the sleigh!

this year santa (once again played by the ever willing and somewhat typecast johan) was joined by his little elves (the not so little arron, shana, mel, maz and barbara, as well as my mum and dad, shannon and amanda from the thembalitsha fundraising team) and it was also great to see some of our sports mentors come out with us on this ride for the first time, it seemed like they really enjoyed it.

so its with a thankful and blessed heart that we wish you a very merry christmas from all at the village of hope.

beach days, new babies and mentors help....

happy christmas meal

house moms and our eldest girl enjoying the sea

nana on the beach!

we have been enjoying some balmy summer weather over the last week or so and fittingly after the funeral of nelson mandela on sunday the country celbrated its annual public holiday, 'the day of reconciliation' on the 16th december.

mommy maz building castles in the sand

grace with our newest baby boy

helping mentors

on the 15th we held our 'christmas dinner', which was cooked for us by barbara and my mum (tim) and on the public holiday it was a chance to take our wonderful children, our house moms and some members of the thembacare grabouw staff for an afternoon of fun and games at the local beach. the weather was great and the kids had a great time digging sandcastles and jumping in the surf.

after our sad goodbyes to two children on friday, see earlier post here, it was fantastic to be able to take in our newest child, a seven week old baby boy who has been placed with us after some very trying home circumstances.

who's got the frog eyes

the weeks seem to be flying by at the moment and although the schools have broken up we have been holding our sports outreach during the afternoons as normal, however with the mentors at a loose end in the mornings we have been able to provide them with a chance to earn some extra pocket money as they have joined us at the village of hope, clearing wood, cutting grass and generally tidying up around the place.

its been great working with the mentors, they are an amazing bunch of guys, willing to learn and keen to make a difference, we are blessed to know them.

parting christmas parties

our 3 year old and his granny

it is the season to be jolly (tra...la..la...la..la..la...la...la..la..la..etc) and on friday lunchtime we were able to celebrate with the children who are currently staying with us, with some of those who have been discharged and with their carers. it was great to see some of the little ones who had spent time with us at the village of hope doing so well and to be able to bless their moms, aunties and grannies with a festive feast (kindly donated by chanttel and her husband)....'father christmas' (aka josh holtrum) made his annual (josh's first) appearance and handed each child and their siblings a present.

clicking thumbs for the last time!

the party had its ups and its downs as we knew at the end of it two of our longer term boys would be going home to stay with aunties and grannies for good. the aim of the village of hope has always been to provide a safe environment for vulnerable children to stay whilst their medical and or social issues are sorted and maz and her team have now successfully placed over 40 children back with their families or into long term foster or adoptive care, however saying goodbye is never easy and we will constantly think of and pray for the dear ones who we have cared for over the last five years.

please take time this christmas season to think of those who are less fortunate that ourselves and should you wish to donate or make a pledge to the work we are doing then please follow the links to our giving pages by clicking here!

rainbow smiles for a rainbow nation

as you can imagine the news of nelson mandela's passing on thursday evening has dominated the thoughts of all here at the village of hope, the news feeds, not only here in south africa but all around the world are full of thoughts towards him and the name he was, its quite strange being part of the national outpouring of love and support that this country is going through at the minute and we are aware that that will probably heighten during the next few days as we lead up to his funeral this coming sunday.

yesterday morning we gathered with the rest of the congregation at elgin united church to hold a special memorial service for nelson mandela and we had the privileged to hear from two men who were very close to him following his release and creation of the new government. the stories they told really captured the essence of the man the world has come to revere and as a nation we are now standing at the precipice of a new era, he has gone but as he so rightly said in one of his amazing speeches 'the future is in our hands now' and we need to build upon the work he so freely gave his life to.

its at times like these when we realise that the work that we are involved with at the village of hope and the wider thembalitsha foundation comes even more in line with mandela's fight for the rights of the poor, the overlooked and those who have or are missing out on basic healthcare and education that that most of us reading this post would take for granted and its amazing to be deeply involved in an organisation that has the essence of freedom at its heart.

rainbow smiles children enjoying the time at the beach
(photo by susie erwin)

therefore it was continued vigor that we set out after our regular morning meeting on friday as we sought to continue to bring new hope to those we are called to serve. the day (as with many of our days) was a busy one with runs to drop of the weekly rubbish, collect and distribute the soup to the two communities we support, the picking up of the sports mentors from their training week away in tokai, however the highlight must have been was our year end rainbow smiles event which ended up with a trip to the beach followed by a meal at the spur restaurant in strand.

for weeks the excitement around the trip had been building and as last friday came closer and closer these HIV+ children, who attend our weekly support group, were almost climbing off the walls. by 1.30 (it should have been 1pm but TIA) we completed the collection from their homes in the two thembalitsha bakkies and set of over the mountain to find the nearest beach. upon arrival we found some much needed relief from some breeze and changed into our swimmers and enjoyed some time splashing around in the sea and playing some ball games on the beach.

it was great to see these beautiful kids, who we have come to love and see as friends since starting the rainbow smiles group a few years ago, just having fun and it was an honor to join emma, johan and andiswa, in this special afternoon.

the highlight of the trip must have been seeing the children's faces when they received the christmas presents that emma had so thoughtfully bought and gathered together for each of them, it was a wonderful and humbling afternoon and quite a fitting end to an eventful day for all here at the village of hope.

thoughts from the village of hope around world AIDS day...

stories in the news around HIV can be confusing, on the one hand we hear that there has been a 'dramatic drop in new infection rates' and 'that mother to child transmission is falling', and on the other hand there are 'reports of a more dangerous strain of the HIV virus in west africa' and that 'adolescence dying from AIDS in south africa is on the increase', what are we to believe on 'world aids day' in 2013?

well we will now provide you with four stories that have impacted us in grabouw over the last four weeks where we are really feeling the effects of the loss of our full time ARV doctor at our local hospital, not all of these stories can be attributed to the fact that we have lost probably one of the most amazing and caring HIV specialists in south africa and we don't want to get into the politics of all that here but the facts on the ground are pointing to more suffering and even deaths due to the changes that have been made.

the facts are that two of our children, one who we discharged back to his mother in 2010 and another who is still living with us have had mothers dying due to the effects of HIV, with another mother of two siblings who were placed with us for a period, also 2010, dying of cancer, perhaps with HIV complications during this last month.

further to the news of those dear mom's, two of whom were still in their twenties, and the other under the age of forty passing, one of our security guards has been off ill and upon his return he looked awfully gaunt and told us that he was suffering from TB, another disease which is prevalent in our town and is often linked to HIV, we are praying that he continues to take his medication and that he welcomes the home visits that our wonderful thembacare careworks will make to ensure he follows his course to the end, however he didn't report for work this morning and we are full of worries about his health.

it's not all doom and gloom as we are seeing progress via our careworkers, rainbow smiles (our weekly adolescent support group) and our sports outreach health and lifeskills training but when we were discussing the worries around our patients one colleague said that 'we aren't waiting for the time bomb to go off' we are literally 'picking up the pieces of a bomb that has already exploded'.....

...therefore please think and pray for us on this world AIDS day 2013 as we seek to serve our children, their parents and the wider community, all of whom are affected by HIV and TB and many of whom are infected by those two debilitating but not life threatening diseases!

thoughts from volunteers and mission teams!

the infocus mision team at the very 'country
club' that shana speaks of....

living in the day to day 24/7 world of the village of hope is an awesome experience and it's amazing to think that our small actions are having a huge impact in our community. we are obviously aware of the plight of the poor, we work with them each and everyday, however there are days when we forget that we still live in a very parallel universe, on one side are 'the haves' and on the other side are 'the have not's'.

we are blessed to be able to host volunteers at the village of hope, these come in all shapes and sizes, they can be individuals who have felt the call to serve for three months or more, or can be larger groups of short term mission teams, mainly coming from churches who are linked to the wider foundation.

it's interesting to watch the dynamics of these teams as they see for themselves the impact of our work via our various missions in our town and have an opportunity to meet the people we serve, it's also interesting to watch each individual as God moves them as they spend time with us.

we do try to give a broader view of our work on this blog but it's always good to read how other people see things during their time with us. over the last few weeks we have hosted a couple of mission teams, one from dallas and the other from the infocus church in augusta, georgia, who kept a blog about their time with us, we would encourage you to read their blog by clicking here and to see the things that impacted them during their time with us.

one of our longer volunteers, shana cox, has also been busy blogging and her latest post really picks up on the plight of our sports mentors, we are sure that you will be as moved as we were when we read this well constructed post so please sit down grab a coffee and or a tissue and follow this link to her blog and her post entitled 'opposite hillsides'.

we want to thank these teams and individual people for the impact they made and the skills that they shared with us.....it really does make a difference.

November News

With only a few weeks until the end of the year we are packing in as much as we can before the country slows for the summer holidays. Sports Saturdays, music concerts, home visits, mission teams, budget meetings!!!!...We are actually looking forward to a slightly quieter time over Christmas!

Perhaps some of our most exciting news is that two children who used to be part of our Village of Hope family now have a new family! They have been adopted as brother and sister to a wonderful American family. It is our first international adoption and is such a turn around of prospects for these little ones compared to when these two first arrived with us. Read all about their new family journey and the process of international adoption via their blog here: http://garrardpartyof7.wordpress.com/. We are going to miss these two terribly but are SO over-the-moon for their new family!

Fun in the sun

Children’s Unit
The children’s unit continues to be busy with seven children under the age of six! This includes a five-week-old baby which is keeping everyone on their toes. It is amazing being able to watch these little children grow and develop during their time at Village Hope. Watching our 17-month-old as she starts to take her first steps, holding cautiously on to the furniture, every now and then daring to let go. Our two and a half year old boy is talking more and more every day, saying something different each day. He is actually teaching us Afrikaans! Our 15-month-old boy, who has battled with infection since he arrived in July, is doing extremely well. His skin is now a lot clearer, he is getting stronger and with the assistance of some exercises given to us by the Occupational Therapist his muscles have loosened and he is now able to hold his own bottle and put things to his mouth which he could not do a week ago! It is lovely to see him playing and having fun and not feeling the pain or discomfort.

Being able to support our children in their development is a privilege but it is also an amazing opportunity to be able to work with the children’s parents and families, supporting and helping to build their relationship with their child and working towards a place of permanency for the children (ideally with family members). We have been looking this month at the possibility of some of the children going home for Christmas. A family member of our three-year-old boy has stated she would like him to stay with her for the whole of the Christmas period. This has been really exciting. She has already been up to visit him and even brought his older brother along. The brothers had not seen each other since he was admitted to Village of Hope and watching them play together was a lovely sight. We hope we can continue to support the family in building and maintaining a relationship between the brothers.

Sports
With the weather finally taking a turn for the better (!), our sports outreach program has really been growing. We are seeing huge increases in numbers across our seven clubs, and believe we are now reaching upwards of 250 children over the age of nine, and at least 100 under this age each week! To celebrate the dedication and commitment of those who attend our clubs each week, on Saturday 2nd November, we held a Sports Saturday event at the Elgin Country Club. Over 160 kids joined us for the morning of soccer and netball tournaments, which was blessed with amazing weather. Thanks to our brilliant sports mentors and other volunteers, the day ran smoothly, the standard of competition was high and most importantly, a lot of fun was had by all. It is clear to see from photos of the day how much the event meant to our kids; for many of them, just being able to play on grass rather than stones and glass is a blessing, not to mention being given a kit, having proper goalposts and a post-match meal. These pictures are indeed worth a thousand words! For a more in-depth report of the day, and more photos, click here.

Our sports outreach program would not be able to run without the hard work and dedication of our 15 sports mentors. Most of them are still at school, and yet they devote a large amount of time to running the sports clubs in their communities each week – some of them come every day! Though we are not able to pay them for their time and invaluable work, we have recently started to pay them in kind with a weekly food parcel. We hope that this small token will be able to give them and their families some support and thank them for all they do for us.

Other News:
Mission Teams
This month we are hosting two mission teams. We’ve already had the pleasure of meeting a team from Trinity Church in Dallas, a team of 12 including three families. Although their time here was brief (just four days!) we managed to fit in a lot and they were very helpful with helping us to repair the roof at the home of one of our discharged children as well as doing lots of sorting and sanding some of the wooden walkways around out volunteer accommodation. Next week we are expecting the second team, from InFocus, Augusta. These are a team of 15! Five are returning for a repeat visit and we know they are all hard workers! –We are planning to make the most of their week here and have lots of jobs planned out for them to do as long as the weather plays along.

Concerts
Our first Hope@PaulCluver concert of the season took place earlier this month. Suzanne Vega was the artist and there was a fabulous turn out. Although we don’t benefit much financially from this particular event (as it was organised by a third party), we were able to expose our organisation to around 1000 people over the course of the two shows, which, in itself, is a wonderful opportunity. At the end of the month on Saturday 30th we are holding the Hope Music Festival which is a fun-filled day for the family with wonderful music and more. It is also the event we use to mark and celebrate World AIDS Day – an annual day which is particularly close to our hearts. Tickets are selling well so we are looking forward to seeing a good crowd there.

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!

We also have job openings for specific long-term volunteer roles. Please visit the volunteering section on our website for full details.

help from our friends from dallas

clearing the old tin roof

last week we hosted our first major mission team in the new short term volunteers accommodation, the teams who had used it before were mainly couples or families so it was good to see that the building held up and was enjoyed by the guys from dallas.

during the week they helped us with some jobs around the village of hope, sanding down the new board walks, chopping up wood to ensure we have enough dried for next winter, sorting donations and playing with the children in the unit. they were also able to help out with our community work, planning and running our rainbow smiles support group, assisting at our sports outreach and making house visits with our thembacare home based careworkers, they also joined us for our weekly thembacare service which was a joy to behold.

after the installation of the new roof..

on friday the men helped to put a sail sheet onto one of our discharged children's homes (see photos) which was a real blessing to him and his grandmother and at lunchtime they joined us on the soup run and prayed for the soup given out to the creches and children in the community.

it was a blessing to know this team and we pray that they will continue to be a help to our other thembalitsha projects that they are visiting this week, we hope they will make as much of an impact at those projects as they did with us in grabouw.

an amazing sports saturday

last saturday we held another of our amazing sports saturday's where we hosted over 160 children who joined us at the elgin country club on what was a very sunny and happy day, we therefore firstly need to thank God for the provision of the good weather, the finances and abilities that each of our team has which enables us to run an event as big as this.

the children who came are part of our sports outreach clubs which run every term time weekday afternoon, weather permitting, in seven different areas around grabouw and it was a real pleasure to see the joy and excitement on their little faces as we met them at each bus pick up points with an expectation of a morning playing sports.

the day is a celebration of the children's commitment to our weekly clubs and is a place where they can show us the skills that they have learnt on the sports pitch as we organise an under 11 and over 11 soccer (association football for all those living in europe!) and netball competitions throughout the morning. however during this time together we are able to see the life skills, and even the health awareness, which we teach at each club, come to the fore, where both teamwork, sharing, communicating, courage and even patience with others is evident as we split the boys and girls into mixed clubs enabling them to work with others as they seek to win the prize!

the event isn't without its complications, just to get 160 children to the event involves early morning bus journey's as we pick every child up from around the various formal and informal settlements of grabouw, but it doesn't start there as there are so many jobs that need to be completed to ensure that this runs as smoothly as possible, from delivering and installing the 12 soccer and netball goals and setting up the pitches on the friday afternoon, to sorting 160 shirts and shorts to ensure that every player feels like a premiership star, to cooking the hotdogs and delivering them on time, it has taken a while but the preparation that is undertaken by the 'sports outreach team' ensures that the day runs like a well oiled machine and enormous thanks is sent to them from me (tim!).


during the morning we played over 20 ten minute soccer games and held a netball tournament which was attended by over 40 girls, the biggest yet!, each child was part of a team which was managed by either one of our sports mentors (peer educators) or a willing volunteer, no names but you know who you are, these managers make the children feel really important, with fair play and encouraging teamwork being the main elements to a successful manager at these events.

we could continue to write about the amazing time we had but we know that sometimes pictures speak louder than words therefore we have placed as many photos as possible which we do hope capture the spirit of the event and shows the joy that a morning of sport can bring to some of the poorest children in our communities.

October News

Tim and Maz are back from the UK and the rest of the team are breathing a sigh of relief that they are! On their return we were able to all attend the Thembalitsha annual party which was held at a township restaurant near Cape Town. The House Mom’s said it was ‘rockin’ (!) which is always good to hear and we were able to celebrate and recognise staff members who’d made extra effort this year by presenting them with certificates. We were very thankful for our team of volunteers who took up the baton of caring for the children in the unit to allow the House Moms to be able to attend the party.


Children’s Unit
The unit is gradually filling beds. We now have two new children. One is a little girl who is only 3 weeks old. She is tiny! Our 3-year-old girl, who’d been having trouble walking has also been fitted with splits to assist in her development and to complement the work being done in her regular OT sessions. She is not too pleased with them at the moment and keeps trying to take them off. This is understandable because they must be quite sore and difficult to adjust to, but we are trying to encourage her and demonstrate how it will make a difference in the long run – we are not sure she is convinced, but what 3-year-old would be?!

Sadly two parents of previous Village of Hope children have recently been admitted to ThembaCare as they are really ill again. Whilst we are pleased that ThembaCare are there to offer them support, it goes to show how tough it is for so many people who live in the local community to remain well and healthy. Please keep them in your prayers.

Sports
Plans are in full swing for our Sports Saturday which is happening next Saturday. The clubs themselves seem to be growing at a massive rate at the moment. So much so that we are running out of the collectable cards! We are now seeing at least 250 children every week and we’ve also expanded this work by providing sessions for under 8 year olds to keep them entertained whilst their old friends and siblings are at the clubs. We are really so thankful for our volunteers, Josh, Shana and Seb, and the work they are doing for this outreach. Their dedication, along with the support of other volunteers, like Emma, is making such a huge difference and also encourages the sports mentors from the community too!

Other News:
Garden Improvements
Our front entrance is now looking very grown-up and tidy thanks to the funds we received to do this. We’ve got a wonderful driveway with parking slots too. We’ve also got a proper key-pad for the gate which is going to make getting on and off the property safer and easier.

Concerts
Our Hope@PaulCluver events are starting next month and Emily has been working very hard getting the programme organised and ready to launch. We are still bowled over by this fantastic opportunity granted to us by Paul Cluver Wines. If you are based near Cape Town please do your best to attend and help to promote these events. All of which will benefit our projects in Grabouw. Read more info on the origins of the partnership and full programme details on our website.

Volunteers
Shannon, our much-loved volunteer and in-house worship leader is back in the States visiting family and so too is Mel. There are definite gaps with them gone!!! Whilst they are away we are expecting two teams from American churches so we are going to be lots of activity going on!

3 Men Went To Mow
In the mornings, before sports clubs, Josh and Seb are spending a LOT of time assisting Johan with strimming, trying to keep the grass on the land under control and limit the danger of snakes being close to walkways. It’s a mega task as everything is growing like crazy now that summer is nearly here!


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!

We also have job openings for specific long-term volunteer roles. Please visit the volunteering section on our website for full details.

welcoming new children

emma and our other special girls feeding
the new baby

the recent official registration of the village of hope with the department of social development has meant that our phones have been busy with calls from our local social workers as they seek to place children with us, which is obviously great news and the reason why we exist, however with any new admission the realities of the communities we work with are highlighted and the need for the services that we provide become even more evident.

highlighting this fact was the arrival of our second new admission in as many weeks and this afternoon we received the second of two girls who need our care, the newest arrival is a beautiful little 3 week old who has been placed with us from some very trying circumstances and she joins a very malnourished and needy seventeen month old who was been with us for just over a week.

please pray for us, the team of wonderful house moms, the social workers and our volunteers as we all try to work together to understand the needs of these, and our other children, to ensure that the best care is provided for them and that their families get the best support during the times these children are with us.

stories of hope!

as you might be aware myself (tim) and maz have been enjoying some much needed family and holiday time in europe over the last few weeks and we are so thankful to the team of wonderful volunteers and staff who valiantly held the fort whilst we were away....to have such a team around us takes away that stress and strain when we are away and the legacy of the project is the fact that the project can run without us being as involved in the day to day stuff which is really cool.

whilst we were away we had the opportunity to meet up with family and friends in england and france and we were able to share highlights and update people on the work we are doing both at the village of hope and the wider thembalitsha foundation. we also had the chance to speak at a couple of churches and a surprise fundraising event with our main focus on encouraging everyone that they can make a difference whether they are called to set up a HIV project in south africa or called to provide a hot meal to a needy neighbour wherever they live!

upon our return we were able to celebrate the amazing news of our successful application for the village of hope to be registered as a temporary place of safety which we have been waiting and praying for over the last year or so, as has been highlighted before much credit for this must go to maz who has been a stalwart in ensuring that this registration came through under the correct government department and within the new children's act, of which she is an expert.

however our successful registration wasn't the only incredible news that we are able to share, what must go down as a true miracle happened yesterday as two of our village of hope children have been officially adopted by an amazing american family, who we were able to join for a celebration braai at the elgin country club last night. the parents, brent and karla, have been visiting our thembalitsha projects for a number of years now and we are so pleased that these two children will now have the opportunity of a lifetime to grow up in a stable loving home with a mum and dad who can provide the basis of a life in the united states.

the underlying success of the village of hope is the fact that around 40 children have now been placed back home with their own families here in south africa and that continues to be desire, however for some that isn't that easy so we are so pleased in the outcome that has happened to these two dear little ones...should you want to read more about this fantastic story then please visit the families blog by clicking on this link, we are sure you will be inspired.

September News

This month is a cause for much celebration for us here at Village of Hope. Last week we received the news that our project is officially registered with the Department of Social Development. It has taken a very long time to establish with, which government department we should be registered to and what kind of facility we should be registered as. A process of over 4 years to be precise! Maz and her team have had lots of to-ing and fro-ing to do and red tape to wade though, but finally we have the piece of paper (laminated, scanned, copied and soon to be elegantly framed!) to prove that we are acknowledged by the government and officially allowed to be in operation as a 12-bed partial care facility.

What was ‘funny’ was that all the other social service organisations in town found out the result before we did. Apparently it had been confirmed a week previous to us knowing. Slightly back to front we think!

The only slightly element that took the shine of the news is that Tim and Maz weren’t here when we found out but we look forward to celebrating with them when they return from a break in the UK.

Children’s Unit
The unit has been nice and busy with lots of visits from some of the children’s parents. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, we’ve been able to send another little boy home to live with his mother (read the full story here) and another child’s mother, the girl who has difficulty walking, is being given her last chance by the social workers to prove that she wants her daughter back. She has to demonstrate this by coming to visit regularly and taking responsibility of caring for her daughter on those visits. We are hopeful that a reunification is possible for this little girl and her mother too but it has to be for the best intentions of the child.

Sports
This month has been rather frustrating for our sports team with so many afternoon clubs being postponed due to the intense storms we’ve been having. They are trying to make the best of the bad weather and using that time to sort out mountains of kit and prep for a sports Saturday they are planning in a few weeks. We are praying that the weather will be slightly more friendly by then as the children are really looking forward to a bit of healthy competition.

Other News:

Cycling:
On 13 September 12 cyclists in 2 different countries took on Thembalitsha’s cycle to the sea challenge. You can read more in ThembaCare Grabouw’s blog but we wanted to mention it because of the huge representation that came from our Village of Hope volunteers and friends. Shannon, Josh and Emma all completed the cycle here in South Africa covering 200km in three days (in awful weather sometimes) and our friends in the UK: Trefor. Dan and Cara Williams and Andy Gilbert completed the UK challenge which was to cycle to the sea, 100 miles in 1 day! Way to go guys!!!

Dancing:
Over the same weekend as the cycle, we were also given the opportunity to benefit from auction items sold at the annual Elgin Barn Dance fundraiser which is held here in Grabouw. Seeing as though most of the rest of the VoH team was off cycling, it was up to Emily to represent the project! Thankfully she didn’t have to dance too much and only had to speak on stage for a couple of minutes. Getting guests to bid on the items was a hard sell but the evening resulted in a haul of R5000 which is not to be sniffed at. Yee Hah!

Volunteers:
Our trusty past volunteer, Tyler Snelson, has popped back for a brief visit. Tyler is from Texas and has volunteered with us numerous times in the past. It’s always great to see people come back and reminds us of how big the Village of Hope family has become. We are sure he craftily planned is trip to coincide with National Braai Day (September 24)!!


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!

Best. Result. Ever!

Our number one goal for every child who comes to us at Village of Hope is to see them reunified with their parents. Often, that result is not always possible. Often, the child ends up with a member of their extended family, an Aunt or a Granny and sometimes we have to feed them into the foster-care system. So, on the rare occasion when we are able to place a child back with their Father or Mother our hearts do a little leap of joy! It is the Best. Result. Ever!

This week we are going to be able to do just that with a little boy who has been in our care for the last 6 months. He was referred to us because his mother had been defaulting on his ARV meds (HIV medication) to the point where he had ended up very poorly and in hospital. He couldn’t even sit up because he was so weak. Now he is a walking, talking little tinker and always entertaining us! He is particularly fond of music and loves to play the guitar with Shannon.

This little boy’s mother is only just 19. She is HIV positive herself but had kept her positive status (and her son’s) a secret because of the fear of how people around her would react. She hadn’t even told her mother. What a huge burden to bear alone! She had a job and her son was cared for by neighbours whilst she was working. She had not realised the serious consequences of defaulting on her son’s medication and because her neighbours were not aware of his status they did not know he needed any medication at all.

Whilst her little boy has been in our care, she has been to regular counselling and even felt confident enough to share her status with her family. It is clear that she really REALLY loves her son and I would go so far to say that I don’t think she would have ever considered defaulting on the meds had she realised how severe the consequences were for her son.

Her family are extremely supportive and the local social worker, along with our wonderful social worker, Emma, have concluded that it is suitable and safe for her to resume full time care of her son. So, over the past few weeks she has been coming to Village of Hope every day to learn how to care for him and administer his medication. It has been so fantastic to see Mother and Son bonding and playing together. They really do love each other and his face lights up whenever he sees her. The House Moms have been observing her closely to make sure she is doing all things necessary to care for her child and he has even been on two visits home to try his new environment out.

On Friday we will be waving goodbye to him (although I am sure we will see his cheeky face out and about in the community), confident that we’ve done our level best for this little one and excited for what lies ahead for him and his mother.

Like I said: Best. Result. Ever!

By Emily

If You Want To Go Far, Go Together

Hi-5s and pats on the back to all of us because we’ve survived our first week without Tim and Maz and without any major hiccups. Always a relief! We have a month to go before they return from the UK and our aim until then is to keep the wheels of the project on and running smoothly until then!!

However, as we waved them off at the end of August I was struck that, for once, I didn’t have the usual feeling of fear or trepidation. There was no sinking feeling or thought of ‘oh, no, what’s going to happen now!’ and I actually was quite happy for them to go! This wasn’t, contrary to what Mr and Mrs Walker might be thinking right now, because I was sick of the sight of them and needed a break (!) it was because I realised that:

1. God’s got us covered
2. We’ve survived in the past – in spite of children suddenly falling sick and having to be rushed into hospital, employees quitting, sheds being blown down in storms and numerous other 'coincidental' happenings

And importantly

3. We have a wonderful support team of long term volunteers around us to share the burden of responsibility

I can’t be thankful enough for these volunteers, each of them giving of their time and skills so generously to assist us in our mission here at Village of Hope.

With them by our side we are more than equipped!

Melissa and Barbara are keeping the Children’s unit ticking over, Emma is soldiering on (at a scary pace!) through the social work cases, Shannon is running our Rainbow Smiles club for us and providing worship sessions for the team and Josh, Sebastian and Shana have the sports clubs nailed! What a team! And it is so obvious that God has assembled them here for such a time as this. There is no way could have afforded such skilled people working here if we had to pay for them and they are serving us so graciously.

Thank you:
Barbara Wood, Emma Podmore, Josh Houltram, Melissa Kidd, Sebastian Griffith-Head, Shana Cox and Shannon Jones!!

Where in the past it would just have been a few of us trying to keep the SS Village of Hope afloat, we now have wonderful people to share the burden. Of course, it still isn’t easy. Most of us live together, on site and we have the challenge of getting along together at home AND at work. BUT it’s a unique adventure at the same time.

Some of the team have personal blogs which I’d urge you to dip into. It really opens your eyes to the life of a volunteer here.

Shana: http://shanainsouthafrica.wordpress.com/
Shannon: http://eachstepbyfaith-shannonjones.blogspot.com/

GO TEAM!

-By Emily

more birthdays!

making sure everyone is enjoying the party food!

yesterday we celebrated the third birthday of our dear little girl who has been struggling with her walking and speaking ever since she arrived with us late last year. emma and shannon did a great job of putting on the party with the kids making the table cloth and party hats, as well as playing games and barbara continued to bless us with the food which was enjoyed by all the kids, house moms and volunteers.

if you would like to find out more about this wonderful girl you can read more about her and the development she has made since she has been with us by clicking on the following links, her arrival and her with her walking frame.

new sports outreach starts in xolanaledi

i am feeling a little frustrated at the moment as my laptop has had a big breakdown so i am having to use other computers to post on the blog and uploading photos, even a simple task like completing our village of hope internet banking is providing difficult as i don't want to sync my cell phone with devices that i'm not going to be using in the future, however that said i have found a way of posting this blog and i am so encouraged about the story that i am prepared to work around my technical challenges!

we have been so busy over the last few weeks, which you will have read about in our august newsletter and even today we are wanting to share about the new landscaping that is taking place around the entrance to the project as well as another birthday party, the end of which is still taking place as i write this (i can hear the music to the 'pass the parcel' as i type), however the photos and stories around those items will have to wait for another day as i am wanting to update you all on the wonderful news about our new sports outreach club which started today.

our four sports mentors full equipped to run
 their new club

as you will be aware we are having a huge impact on over 250 children each week, those are the 9-15 year olds who attend our older club, there are hundreds of little ones, aged two to eight who have been ably entertained by boniface who looks after those children, with our bible based sports outreach and lifeskills programme. the main area of growth over the last year has been with our local 'sports mentors'/'peer to peer educators' who we have developed to assist and even run some of the more established groups.

the mentors sharing the lifeskill and bible story to
over 20 new boys who joined them at the new club

today was a real testimony to how well the new sports mentors are doing as i challenged them to seek a new area where they could run their own club, with our full backing and support (both physically with the sports equipment and spiritually with our continued mentoring programme towards them), so it was with great joy that i dropped off four of the mentors to an open piece of ground, equipped with their bible cards, footballs, training bibs and cones.

the sight of over 20 children joining the guys for the training session, which they led from start to finish, warm up, drills, lifeskill and bible story, was amazing and i must thank them for their dedication to see the very programme which has bought them to this point in their life being shared by them to the younger children in the community.

i am very proud of them and this is a real testimony to all the hard work we have put into the clubs and the lives of these young people, well done boys!

August News

August has been a month of contrast weather-wise. Although we've had days of 29 degree sunshine, we've also experienced 0 degree days that have brought wind, rain and storms and caused a lot of discomfort and damp to our friends living in the community of Grabouw. The rivers are overflowing and although we have to be thankful for the rain for the farmers here we sometimes feel frustrated that we can't help to relieve the problems that it causes for the majority other than delivering a small drop of soup once a week - which often just doesn't seem enough....It's then that we have to remind ourselves of the starfish story!

Children’s Unit
We have to remember that we are able to make a difference to a few and this children who we care for in the unit here have somewhere safe and comfortable to be. Last week we were about to celebrate our smallest child's first birthday and have taken great delight in seeing him physically progress in the short time he has been with us.

Another one of the boys has recently turned 3 so is now able to start at the local preschool. His first day was a success, although came with the usual dramas of being left in a new environment! -Thankfully one of the older girls who we are looking after attends the same school so at least there was one familiar face!

Sports

We are very excited to welcome Shana Cox to our team. She has come to serve as an intern for 6 months and has just recently completed studies at Loughborough University (one of the top sporting institutes in UK). She is a fantastic addition to our team and, although she only arrived last week, has already been working with Josh helping to refine some of our policy documentation around the Sports Outreach Programme. Unfortunately she arrived in a week of very wet weather and, although she was itching to get out to do sports, has been unable to until this week.

Earlier in the month you may have read that we took the mentors along to a tournament held in Worcester (a town about an hour north of Grabouw). This was a wonderful experience for the whole team and Shepherd received the accolade of Player of the Tournament! - A very proud day for us all. Read a full match report here.

Other News:
Landscaping:
We are continuing to landscape the land in and around the project buildings and it is great to be able to start to tame some of the wilder bits. We've had to do a lot of water diverting at short notice because of the heavy rains to stop the water submerging pathways. We now have some new rivers (or perhaps canals!) as well as small lakes!

Within the landscaping we have been defining the entrance to Village of Hope and, thanks to a generous donation from local funder we are in the process of installing proper (lump-free) driveways and parking areas, which is beginning to look very proper! We have also installed a nice new fence around the Childrens' Unit play area - we are just waiting for a dry day to finish of the painting of it.

Supporting Other Community Projects:
We are trying our best to use our skills and experience to assist community projects that need help getting to the next level – so that they can apply to register their centres and potentially receive government funding etc. We’ve been assisting with doing surveys and research to uncover the need in the community and filter that into existing projects like crèches. We have also been able to help match funders with needy community projects, like Masiphumelele crèche who are now the proud owners of a new converted container extension with bathrooms and office space! It is such an honour to be able to assist in this kind of community development and make the most of all the time consuming lessons we have learnt in our work here so far.

Volunteers:
We have already mentioned Shana's arrival but we also had a quick visit from past volunteers Debbie and Jeff Trigg and Tony and Hazel Allen (who this time also brought one of their daughters, Rosie, along for the ride). They were here for 2 weeks and got really stuck in especially helping with all the painting that needed to be done -which can be a niggly job but a HUGE help.


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!

first day at pre-school

one of the most amazing things we can do to support the little ones who we have been given care over is to ensure that we don't miss those most important dates in their lives, and obviously one's first day at school, be that real big school or pre-school, is key date in anyone's life. so today we had the pleasure of taking our little three year old boy to his first day at pre-school, well i say we as it was actually emma who got up early to ensure that this boy fitted in well and was made a bit of a fuss over.

as you can imagine the lives of the children to stay with us are so complex so what is already a very trying and emotional time was made all the harder as there were many hurdles to overcome this morning, firstly his estranged mother who lives near the school, and who we have had very little interaction with since he has been with us, was calling to him as he arrived, an over friendly dog was waiting to greet him at the school gate, the little boy is very scared of dogs so this wasn't such a warm welcome and he started to cry when emma finally had to say goodbye!

that said our five year old girl who attends the same pre-school made him feel really welcome and by the end of the morning he was talking excitedly as emma picked them up from his first morning at school.

(sorry no pictures but emma said that there was a little too much going on to get her camera out to capture the moment, i don't know what she means!)

winning in many ways...!

the team, and supporters before the big games

the 9th of august is a special day in south africa when we think about the wonderful women of the country, it's a public holiday and many things are done to celebrate women, however for myself, josh, seb and our sports mentors there was no lay in as we were up by 6am collecting the mentors from their homes in the formal and informal settlements before we made the hour long journey to worcester where we were taking part in a soccer tournament organised by solid rock.

kick off!

we arrived ready for registration at 8am after a fantastic drive through the snowing mountains and by 9.30 the event was well underway with teams from the whole of the boland area competing in various age groups from under 9's right the way through to under 19's. we had entered a team made up of our under 17 mentors with a few supporters joining us for the ride!....unfortunately we were placed into the under 19 competition but this didn't deter our team of five players with two subs, who were wearing some new football boots donated by tony allen, who relished the challenge of competing against the older boys (men)!

the ground with snowy mountains in the background

during our first two games we looked very nervous and although we led both games we ended up drawing those 2-2 which was a little disappointing, however it was a round robin tournament which meant we were going to play another six games against the other teams.

over the next six games we went from strength to strength, coming back from 2-3 down to win 4-3 and then thumping the next three teams 5-1, 6-1, 7-2, we finished off the tournament against the two strongest (other than us) teams and won those 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. it was a truly wonderful display with the team playing so well together with sterling performances from the goal keeper through our back line up to our amazing goal scorers.

our star player of the tournament 

there was a very strange scoring system which in principle worked well, where teams we given beans instead of points, ten beans for a win,  five for a draw and one for turning up (losing!), however there were other ways to 'win/collect' beans, such as collecting litter, sitting in straight lines for lunch etc, as i say the principle of the system was great, however the application left a little to be desired and we some how missed out on winning the whole competition via this system.

that said our boys were complimented on their sporting behavior and although i am biased we were the team of the tournament in all aspects of the day and i can only praise the way the boys took the news that they hadn't won the prized kit which we were playing for.

there was a silver lining to the day as we did come away with one highlight which was the fact that our youngest player was voted senior player of the tournament, not bad for a 16 year old pitting his skills against 20 year olds, however his skill levels were outstanding and it wasn't a surprise that he won the overall prize!

a great day was had by all, the day was well organised and although we arrived back in grabouw over 12 hours later, most of the boys slept all the way home, it was great spending time with them and seeing the skills, both football skills and the lifeskills that we encourage each and every day during our outreaches coming to the fore.....a big thank you josh for joining me in the driving, you were really a star!

small steps make such a difference 2......

first steps with the walking frame, mind the toys boxes!

as we highlighted on our previous post we are constantly seeing that small steps really do make such a difference and come in so many different forms as we serve our community here in grabouw.

there was much anticipation for the arrival of tony, hazel and rosie allen from winslow, not only were we looking forward to catching up with them again and seeing the impact that they would have as they joined us for a couple of weeks volunteering at the village of hope, but we knew that they were bring over a children's walking frame for one of our children who is suffering from the affects of the HIV virus.

the walking frame was donated by one of our other volunteers, josh holtrum, mother who wanted to make a difference to this dear little girls life and yesterday there was so much joy on the faces of the house mom's, the volunteers and most importantly the face of the little girl as she took her first meaningful steps behind the frame which provided some much needed support as she learns to walk.

it's amazing to see the transformation of this little life, when she arrived with us late last year there was little interaction, her eyes were vacant and she could hardly sit up on her own, but since she has been with us and had the much needed stimulation that was lacking at home she is not only taking her first steps but she is forming sounds and providing us with wonderful smiles of delight as she discovers her new world.

her mother came to visit a couple of weeks ago and it was wonderful to see the joy in her face as she saw the development that had taken place in her daughter and we are confident that with further support from our social worker/s some sort of reunification can be made to place her home soon.