our 22nd miracle

going home!

for those of you that have been following us since we opened our children's unit in april 2009 you will know that the heart of the village of hope is to see the little ones that have been placed into our care be reunited with their families as soon as we are able. for some of these children that can be a quick process and the three month court orders soon come to an end and without knowing it the child has left us to continue his (or her) life with their family.

however this isn't the case for all of our children, some of whom have been with us since we opened. the village of hope is a step down unit to enable us to stabilise the children on their medication (with medical oversight given by our thembacare sisters), ensuring they meet their hospital appointments and have regular contact with their families to ensure that that bond isn't broken, however the social circumstances of most of those families, who are all either affected or infected by HIV, AIDS or TB, has a huge impact as to how quickly we can make the transition back into their home lives.

since opening we have placed 21 children either back with their maternal family or into foster care, each of those cases were complex and without lots of prayer, and therefore the intervention of God through us, many of those would still be living away from the love of their families.

over the last few months maz has been busy with our local social workers, our thembacare home based care team and his grandmother to ensure that she knows the signs to watch for as she seeks to provide the care that this little life will need under her eye, yes the medication is difficult to understand and it is a huge commitment to take on but we are happy that she has learnt enough to look after him well so today we have the great news that we placed our 22nd child back with his grandmother in an informal settlement in grabouw..

her home is a small tin shack with no running water or electricity but it is full of love and it was a wonderful experience to see her taking her grandson back home today....over the next few weeks and months we will continue to monitor this little life via home visits by the team here at the village of hope and thembacare team to ensure all is going well but we wish the family lots of blessings as they provide a home for this little boy.