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!