We were very happy to be able to spend Christmas Day hosted by The Weigmans, a wonderful couple from our local church who opened their home to all 24 of us (including visiting family) for a beautifully relaxed day by their pool. We were able to coax the children into the water and encourage them to play with all the inflatables and just relax and have fun together. The children received some gorgeous shoeboxes full of presents from the generous folk at Operation Shoebox. As you can imagine, they were very excited.
As you may have heard, 2013 has started with a lot of tension here in Grabouw and there has been strike action this past week which has had us all on high alert. The protesting has included fires and looting and at one stage we had 200 people going past our front gate. The local farmers have been on patrol 24 hours a day trying to protect the farms and the sound of gunshot has not been unfamiliar either. It has been very disconcerting and we are trying just to keep carrying on with our usual activities but it has been tiring being alert all the time and it has been difficult to get staff in on occasions.
Obviously our major concern is for our staff and children that we work with who live in the community and are closest to all the action. We have been praying for their safety through all of this and the striking does seem to have calmed down since the beginning of the week.
Although this is happening, this week sees another one of our children take his first step into preschool. We can’t believe he is starting! – It only seemed yesterday we were looking after a 2-week-old bundle of baby!
Community Work
Sports Outreach:
Our community work took a break over the long summer holidays which gave us time to bless our sports mentors this month with a trip to Green Point stadium to watch South Africa play football against Norway. It truly was a great time for the 16 young people and for some of them it was their first experience of the big city a quite a culture shock.
Other News
Sleigh:
Fast becoming a Village of Hope tradition, we took our make-shift sleigh around the town the Friday before Christmas. Complete with Johan as our South African Father Christmas, we towed the sleigh behind the bakkie and gave our sweets and apples to the children. Although this may seem a trivial to do for a community in such need, it really does bring a smile to everyone’s face and spread a little joy.
Volunteers:
We have been very happy to have lots of family visitors over the Christmas and New Year period and of course, we hoodwinked them into helping us out with our work whilst they were here!
We also said ‘au revoir’ to Tim Berger who served with us for all of 2013 and was a fantastic complement to the maintenance team. Tim isn’t actually leaving Grabouw but it moving on to do some other work and will still come and help us out when he has time.
Towards the end of the month we will be welcoming Shannon, from America, who is coming to serve with the other long-term volunteers and the Stuttgart Architect students will be returning for their third visit and be developing our buildings and land further – watch this space because this time there is going to be a big change!
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 (it doesn’t have to be cycling)!!!!! – 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!
Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation
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:
http://beingbuffalo.bandcamp.com/album/hope-charity-download
