May News

The big news this month is that we were finally able to move into our refurbished children’s unit last week! Hurrah! The new space is fantastic and it’s great to be settling in and making it feel like home. We’ve still got some issues like heating for the winter to sort out but we will get there!

Birthday Girl - celebrating in the new unit!

Now that we have more space we are able to begin to take more children in. We had already taken a little boy in whilst we were still in the temporary unit so our numbers are now up to 6 and have space for another 9! The new little boy is HIV positive but was not on ARVs. He had to spend his first two weeks with us in hospital because he arrived with serious diarrhea and was so weak he was unable to sit up. Now, after being fed intravenously at the hospital and being stabalised on his medication, he is doing so much better and is always smiling. He has such a cute face!

Since we’ve moved into the new unit we’ve had a visit from a team at CFNI who came and spent the afternoon with the children and entertained them with a puppet show. We’ve also been able to celebrate our first birthday in there for one of our little girls who has just turned 5.

Sports
The sports team is really coming together and this month we’ve had another new arrival. Boniface is employed by another NGO, Good Sport and he is going to be assisting with our sports programme. He is a class 1 FIFA coach and class 2 cricket coach so he really knows his stuff and we are excited for him to share his knowledge with our mentors and inspire them and the children that he meets through our sports programme.

Other News
New Film -
Emily has been very busy this year compiling Stories of Hope from each of the Thembalitsha projects in the form of short videos and now our story is complete. You can view it here: http://youtu.be/coxbNHyX8OE. Please share it with your friends and help to spread the word about what we are doing.

Volunteers -
In the next couple of months we will be welcoming back two previous volunteers: Barbara Wood and Emma Podmore have both served with us before and this time they are coming back in a long-term capacity. Emma is now a qualified social worker so we will definitely benefit from her knowledge as we try to advance the cases of each of the children in the unit. Barbara is going to come and assist with hosting volunteers as well as helping with the cooking for the children and she has a good head for numbers so we are going to be getting her to help with balancing our books too!

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!