July News

Tim and Maz in front of their (soon to be completed)
new home

After months of upheaval, building, moving and change it really does feel like we things are coming together.

The land itself is looking more tidy. We have nice neat spaces for wood piles and the generator. Maz and Tim have moved into their new accommodation by the children’s unit and the long-term volunteer’s house (which used to be where Tim and Maz stayed) is truly homely and full with long-term volunteers!

Children’s Unit
The children’s unit is benefitting from the arrival of Emma Podmore. She has, along with Barbara, slotted in with ease to the ebb and flow of the unit. Emma is a qualified social worker and is already making distinct headway, solidifying our relationship with the social services further and working with them to see our discharge plans implemented more smoothly (and possibly quickly).  This month she has been able to assist the mum of one of the boys here in the unit to acquire a protection order from her violent boyfriend. This is something that should seem quite simple but is never easy.

Two of our house moms have recently completed their Early Childhood Development Level 4 qualification which is fantastic news. It has taken them 18 months to get the training. We have two other moms who started in January so will hopefully be qualified this time next year. We really do believe in investing in our staff as much as we can and are so excited that the moms will now be able to put into practice all they have learnt on their courses for the benefit of the children we care for. With this as well as the catering training they are receiving from Barbara we are going to have some very well equipped staff working for us!

Sports
The sports programme took a break over the June/July holiday. This freed up the afternoons to build up our wood store. We have wood burners in all of our buildings and this is our main form of heating in the colder winter months. Therefore we get through a lot of wood. Thankfully we also have lots of trees on the property which we can harvest as we need them. We’ve been lucky enough to have Josh and Sebastian from the UK volunteering with us and helping Johan build up the wood supply. Of course, boys being boys, they are more than happy to have the opportunity to use chainsaws!

During the holidays all of our sports team attended training from Solid Rock. It was a great opportunity to invest in our mentors and also to get our hands on some fantastic new materials to assist our programme. They’ve just started to implement the new programme as sports restarted after the holidays this week and from now on each child will receive a different card (similar to a baseball card) which they can collect each week.

Other News:
Mandela Day -
This month we celebrated Mandela Day and were blessed with some tasty soup made by the pupils of Applewood Preparatory School. This soup has been stashed safely in our freezer and will provide a nutritious meal to our children both in the unit and at our Rainbow Smiles HIV support Group.

Volunteers -
As well as Shannon, Emma and Barbara we also have Josh volunteering with us for three months from the UK and Lisa who is visiting from America to help out with sports. In the next few days we welcome back Tony, Hazel and Rosie Allen and Debbie and Jeff  Trigg who will also help us out for a fortnight. We are going to be busy! Adding them to Tim, Maz, Rob, Em and Mel it means we have 15 people serving here all together. Crazy but blessed times!

Events -
Get #Active4Hope –
Please do not forget to support these two events we have coming up if you can:

• August 10th - Going The Distance for Hope
• September 14th  - Cycle To The Sea.

Follow the links for more details and see how you could get involved and help to make a difference in a simple way.


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!