the village of hope seeks to help children infected or affected by hiv, aids and tb in two different ways: we have a 9 bed children's unit to support those infected by hiv and aids and we also run a community-based sports and lifeskills outreach in the informal settlements and squatter camps each afternoon.

this blog has been set up to allow the key members of the team at the village of hope to share their thoughts, photos and experiences as we work in the community of grabouw in south africa

Friday, April 26, 2013

Hope Captured On Camera



By Emily House

Where is Tim I hear you say?! - Don't panic, he is fine and he and Maz are taking a well-earned break for a couple of weeks. Leaving me to take care of the blog!! - Eeeek. I hope I manage to do a good job! When I dropped them at the airport this morning I did remind them not to forget to come back!

For those of you may not know me, I am Emily and I, along with my husband, Rob and children, Rosie and Isaac, moved out from the UK and have been volunteering for Thembalitsha for the past three years. We work closely with Tim, Maz and Mel and live onsite here at Village of Hope. Part of my responsibility here is to manage all the communications on behalf of the Thembalitsha Foundation.

Over the past 6 months I’ve been using my experience in television production to assist with the development of a number of short films which, I hope, help to give a glimpse into the amazing work that the Thembalitsha Foundation does. You will have seen in Tim’s previous blogs the links to some of our films we are calling ‘Stories of Hope’.

It means so much to me to be able to use some of my skills and past experience for something so worthwhile. Thembalitsha definitely has something to shout about and I am really proud of the results. This week we completed the story based around Village of Hope. Of course, it is impossible to encapsulate the work that we do here in a few, short minutes but I hope it captures the heart of this project - which is so close to my heart -  and entices you to get involved!

Please follow this link to view the film: http://bit.ly/ZmrHEb

All the stories are going to be complied onto DVD in the next month and will be available for anyone who would like to share about our work and raise awareness.

Please take the time to watch and share this story because the more people who hear about us the better!.... and look out for some more blogs from me over the next couple of weeks!

Thanks, Emily

Special mention goes to Jorrie and Alret Van Der Walt from Empty Canvas Productions who’s invaluable skills helped to produce these stories so vibrantly. And Maz - who did such a great job of explaining the project and looks so beautiful on screen!

Monday, April 22, 2013

soup run hits the news, again.

page 4 of this weeks elgin grabouwer
last week i was able to take our local photo journalist, peit marais, on our weekly soup run. as reported in page four of the elgin grabouwer, see image, peit captured the fact that although this is a service provided by the village of hope it really is one mans way of connecting those who are able to help with those that are in the deepest of need.

the soup run was really birthed out of a conversation had over a beer with a local restaurant manager and has blossomed over the last few years, where each and every friday we now collect soup which has been lovingly made by two of our local farmstalls, who also provide us with bread and pies and distribute it to three creches in the rooidakke and iraq areas of our town.

it really is a simple way of serving but really does show the local community that there are people out there who care for them, supplying a valuable meal to those poorest of children or people who need to take specialized medication on a full stomach.

we know that time is an important thing and we are blessed to be able to serve people in this way but for those with little time but a big heart this is a way for them to really feel connected to those that we serve each and everyday via our thembacare and village of hope projects here in grabouw.

for more photos of 'the soup run' then please visit the elgin grabouwer facebook page by clicking here!




Wednesday, April 17, 2013

April News


Well, the Children’s Unit has truly been transformed at the hands of the Stuttgart University team. We now have a unit which is big enough to accommodate 15 children, a new kitchen, beautiful spacious day room space as well as a refitted bathroom and much needed treatment room. Although the team achieved a lot in a short space of time they had to leave before much of the final finishing could be done so we have been hard at work trying to maintain momentum in the hope that we can move the children in by the end of the month. It seems a long way off with still such a long snag list to complete but we are thankful that the team left some more funding to assist with this and we have been able to hire a very competent builder to assist.


We have been making the most of having our volunteers too and Shannon and the Littler Family have certainly put in the elbow grease to get the wooden floors looking super shiny! We are so thankful to the Stuttgart students who worked so hard for so long to get as much done as they could and we cannot wait to move in and be able to start filling the rooms up with children!

On top of the new children’s unit we also have some, much needed office space and meeting rooms and our short-term volunteer accommodation (Ukuqala II) which was started by last year’s team is also complete.

With all this change happening we’ve got reduced numbers of children staying with us until we have more space. Although this has been strange – we currently only have 4 children! – it has meant that each of them has been able to receive a lot more 1:1 attention from our house moms. We have really noticed an acceleration in their development, especially in the areas that they were struggling. Now one little girl can walk, a little boy can talk and the other boy and girl have increased a lot in confidence! It is very exciting to see.


Sports

The past month has seen another one of our famous Soccer Saturdays come and go. These days are always a tremendous amount of work but we know how worthwhile they are for the children who attend our weekly sports clubs. 180 children attended and had great fun.

We have also been able to bless all of our sports mentors with a new pair of trainers thanks to our lovely friend from the USA, Helen! Having the right ‘kit’ helps these dedicated guys feel appreciated and also makes it easier for them to do their jobs. Thanks Helen!

The sports mentors continue to develop into upstanding young men and women. We are so proud of them. They have really taken up the challenge and recognise their responsibility. They are a fantastic influence on the children they teach. Please keep these young people in your prayers as they lead their generation forward in this difficult and sometimes disheartening environment.

Other News:
Volunteers -
This month we said goodbye to Jacqui who has served us for the past 6 months here at Village of Hope. She has gone back to Australia and was a great help with our Rainbow Smiles HIV support group for adolescents. We wish her all the best for her next venture.

We were also very happy to say hello to the Littler family, who we mentioned earlier. David, Suzanne, Joel, Toby and Zach are friends of ours from our church back in the UK and were the guinea pigs of the new volunteer accommodation in Ukuqala II! They visited for two weeks and were a breath of fresh air and fun. They also provided us with a long snag list of things we need to sort in the new accommodation! ;-)

Fundraisers-
Congratulations to Andy Gilbert and Dave Bambury who completed the Reading Half marathon in 1h58 – most impressive! They also raised £500 for us. Thanks guys!

On top of his sporting prowess, Andy also organised a very successful music and comedy revue in Aylesbury . Long time friend of Thembalitsha and singer/songwriter, John Zealey and his band performed an electric and acoustic ser. He was also selling his latest CD with all monies going to Thembalitsha. Between John’s performances award-winning stand-up Andy Kind did a set which was well received.  Andy was also selling his book at a discounted rate. £750 was generated for Thembalitsh UK so thank you to all who were involved.

Cycle To The Sea | Date Set for September 2013 - 
We are going large with our Cycle to the Sea event this year! We will be running an event in UK and South Africa on the same day! Exciting stuff!! The date is set for 14th September so please keep your eyes peeled on the Thembalitsha facebook page for more details as our plans develop.

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!

Monday, April 15, 2013

further stories of hope...

it's so wonderful to be part of a wider foundation, especially one as amazing as the thembalitsha foundation, we are so proud of our six other projects and have been excited to see the new videos which capture the different aspects of work that each of the projects are doing here in south africa.

we think the village of hope video will be uploaded sometime next week but today we are pleased to share a further two thembalitsha videos which were uploaded onto youtube earlier today, these are those staring frances and laura as they share about the work they do at bosom buddies and the school of hope.

please take a few minutes to watch these stories of hope maybe go grab a coffee and a box of tissues and click on the following project names to follow the links to each of the youtube pages.

bosom buddies for ovayo's story

school of hope for khumbula's story

for those that have been uploaded for a few weeks or months follow.

thembacare athlone for unam's story

themba training for jenifier's story

thembacare grabouw for vivan's story

our graceland preschool and village of hope stories are still to be uploaded so keep an eye on this blog for info when they will be available.

Monday, April 8, 2013

a different view...

sometimes its hard to capture all that goes on here at the village of hope and to have an opportunity to look at it from a different angle is always interesting.

our most recent longer term volunteer, a wonderful young lady called shannon from hunnington beach california, is serving with us for six months and she is keeping a blog (which hasn't been updated for a while, come on shannon!) which we would like you to visit to hear her experiences as she lives and works with us....therefore please click on this link to read her blog, see some of the photos she has taken and hear about her experiences here in grabouw.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

new sports shoes for our mentors

guys and girls with their new sports shoes
well once again a week has passed since the last blog post, things are so crazy busy here at the minute and what with that and the Easter break, during which time myself and maz celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary (yes i know we don't look that old!), i haven't had time to update on all that's been happening so here goes with some latest news.

this afternoon i was able to bless our 12 sports mentors (yes i know there's only 11 in the photo but one couldn't make it) by buying them some much needed sports footwear, this was due to a wonderful donor (you know who you are and the team say a big thank you) from the USA who after visiting our sports clubs late last year wanted to ensure that the guys had proper shoes, or even a pair of shoes, as they coach the other younger children.

the shopping trip was a bit of a whirl wind as i gave the boys and girls free reign of a couple of sports shops, however i did set some boundaries and made sure that the shoes were within budget and suitable for playing soccer. some tried to get some fancy school shoes, others wanted proper football boots with studs in, however we compromised on a couple of requests and it seems that they were happy with their purchases.

it is so great to be able to bless these amazing mentors, who coach at our sports clubs/outreach every afternoon and to ensure they are fully kitted out is so important as they share their skills with others!