March News

Another whirlwind month has whipped us up and spat us out like Dorothy’s house leaving Kansas and landing in Oz. But we hang on, flying by the seat of our pants, waiting to see what God has in store for us next!

The whole of Village of Hope has been turned on its head and transformed by the hardworking team of German students. They really do work from dusk till dawn and their commitment and diligence is a lesson to us all. We are so excited to see how it is all going to come together, with less than two weeks to go before they are due to be complete there is a lot still to be done!

Children’s Unit

We are very pleased to have finally obtained a birth certificate for a little girl who has been with us for over two years. We have always had difficulty keeping track of her mother but this week our social work student, Marlise, managed to find her and did a fantastic job in pulling all the information together and got it sorted. Trying to progress this girl’s case without a birth certificate is pretty much impossible so this is a big deal!

The Moms and children have been enjoying the change of scenery because at the moment they are ‘camping out’ in what was the volunteer accommodation. However, a couple of weeks ago they were broken into by four masked men who threatened them with screwdrivers and stole their valuables. Thankfully no one was hurt but, as you can imagine, it was a very traumatic experience for the Moms on duty and they were signed off work for a week as well as being sent for counselling. We have also had another section of our perimeter fence cut. Since these episodes we have temporarily contracted a security company to post a guard overnight and on weekends.

Sports

Mabel has joined us as a sports intern. She is 20 and lives in Strand which is a town 20 mins away. She travels over 2hrs each way to come and mentor to our kids because she has to rely on public transport. We are so grateful for her dedication and are really appreciating having another girl who can speak the language and be a role model for the girls in our clubs. She is with us for 3 months on a probationary period but our hope is that we can offer her a full time salaried post (dependent on funding). 

Since Mabel joined we’ve had to stop one of our farm sports clubs due to poor attendance but we have been able to start a new one in another area of town and over 40 children have turned up after only 2 weeks of working there which is fantastic.

We are in the process of planning our next Sports Saturday which we try to hold a few times every year. It is basically a mini tournament where we bring all our sports clubs together to experience some healthy competition. We have given out 200 invitations to the children we work with each week and last time we decided to mix the teams up instead of keeping each club in separate teams. We were nervous how this would work because there had been a bit of hostility in the past but the kids loved it! We are looking forward to bringing all the children together and blessing them with this fun day. Shannon, our most recent American volunteer, has been very busy sorting out all the different kits which is a mammoth job in itself!

Other News

Volunteers -

We sadly had to say goodbye to Dave Knight who has kindly served us over the past month. He has experience as a builder so has been very helpful whilst all the building work has been going on and he has worked just as hard as the students themselves. He left earlier than expected because old injuries were flaring up and causing him a lot of pain. Nevertheless he was a fantastic asset in the busy time and we are sorry to see him go.

In memory of Assi-

We all know that a boring old plaque on the wall is not what represents Assi so we were overwhelmed when a previous volunteer, Katrin, and her husband, Matt, donated this amazing rocking horse. It is a beautiful toy that will bring joy and laughter to the children’s unit for years to come and is a perfect reminder of Assi to us. Thank you so much Katrin and Matt! 

Fundraisers-

Andy Gilbert, our fit friend who also sits on the Thembalitsha UK board is running the Reading Half Marathon with some pals to raise money for us. Please spare a little cash to support his efforts. 13 miles of running is not to be sniffed at and we know he wants to try and finish in less that 2 hours. Go Andy! http://www.justgiving.com/C2three

Also – one simple way you can give is by buying our charity single 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: Charity Single

Up for a challenge?

We are planning our annual ‘Cycle To The Sea’ bike ride to raise some funds for the project. If you would like to find out more details and register your interest please get in touch. We will be offering a long and short distance cycle so there are no excuses not to get pedaling.

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!