small steps make such a difference.....

as many of you will be aware thembalitsha is the xhosa translation of the english words 'new hope' and its amazing to work with a charity where we see new hope being provided in various different ways via our seven projects throughout the western cape.

it's easy to miss the stories of hope that surround us each and everyday so we have made a point of sharing some of these stories around the morning meeting table as we start each day, one as an encouragement of the things that we have seen from the days before and one to challenge us to see the small things that bring hope to those we are working with.

the new hope we see at the village of hope comes in many different forms and expressions, some are obvious as we see the development of the children who are placed with us, be that in their physical, emotional or even spiritual growth or less obvious as we see the slight changes in behaviors of the children that attend our daily sports outreach clubs.

the story of hope that i want to share on this post is one that i saw in the life of a 21 year old boy who has attended our club in the waterworks informal settlement since we set it up over four years ago, he has gone from a child attending the club to a sports mentor who has led the club on his own or with one of his big best friends with little input from us other than him attending our weekly planning sessions.

anyway he is keen to extend his studies at a local university in cape town as he comes to the end of his compulsory education but there is the small issues around the university application process, this might not seem like newsworthy information and something that should take up space on our blog, but just to be able to complete an online application isn't as easy as many of us would think.

take a moment to think about it, to complete an online application you firstly need to have to have access to a computer, which also has to have access to a phone line and most importantly of all have an electricity supply, basic stuff i know but for thousands of children in our town this something that isn't available in their own homes, and that's just for starters as we progressed through the online application form it asked for the young man's email address, again something that we take for granted but for him was a new concept. it was amazing just to be able to help set him up with his own google account, using his full xhosa name to gain a personal address that many of us with familiar european names would only dream of!

there were other highlights that included submitting a postal address, living in a tin shack in an informal settlement with no street names or even postmen is a challenge, what was he to put? this story could run and run from filling in his household income to thinking about transport to and from the university or whether we were too far away for him to be hosted on the campus were real challenges, but we managed to get the application through with the only further small problem of the online payment option (the only option by the way), which needed to be filled in with a credit card, something that this boy and his father don't have so we will have to use mine for the moment and trust he pays me the R100 application fee to cover my cost!

this is a very simple story and only part of his walk, it was indeed one small step for this guy but one giant leap as he seeks to better himself and the prospects of his family and one are where we can see new hope budding in the amazing children we are working with at our sports outreach.

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!

birthday parties are the best!

3rd birthday celebrations!

yesterday we celebrated the third birthday of one of our little boys, he had a great party with games, face painting, food and a cake. it's wonderful to be able to spoil our little ones on their special day but i think the house moms and volunteers really look forward to these more than the kids!

new things a foot...including a new child

mommy brenda and the new baby

we are really sorry for the lack of communication via the blog over the last few weeks, but it has been a little bit manic here. i'm not going to say too much on this post as our monthly newsletter is due out this week but just to say that we have taken in a dear little baby boy who needs our support whilst we regain his weight and place him onto his HIV medication.

more to follow in the newsletter about the other new stuff.

volunteers arrive (from buckinghamshire!)

emma in an unfortunate one legged pose alongside
josh in his sad football top, anyone spot the team?

as you will be aware the opportunities that arise for volunteers to come and serve with us via the thembalitsha foundation are wide and varied, and our local nurses, house moms, care workers and sport mentors (of which we employ over 50 full time staff over our two projects in grabouw) are complimented by amazing people who have joined us from all around the world.

over the last few weeks this team of volunteers who serve in so many different ways here at the village of hope has grown by three, two of the those are returning to fill specific roles which we have been praying around for a long time and one is joining with the hope of extending their stay if things work out well.

emma starting as she means to go on with a
home visit in the waterwerks community

all three volunteers hail from the same part of the globe, that being a very small area based in the vale of aylesbury, in buckinghamshire, england. but they all attend different churches and have all arrived on separate journey's which is a testimony to the diversity that we have with the churches in that area (tim and maz used to live in buckinghamshire before they came to set up the village of hope!).

barbara will helping with our volunteer programme, she is a great cook and will also be supporting the house moms as they look at the menus that the children are enjoying, she also has a bent for finance so she will be involved in that area as well. emma was last with us in 2010 and since then has fully qualified as a social worker and she will be assisting maz in the complexity of our children's social cases which as a major task in itself. it's great to have these two wonderful women come back to serve with us.

on the other hand josh has committed to helping johan with maintenance around the property in the morning and will be joining the community team each afternoon as we share our lives with the children in our community via the medium of sport. josh will also be joined by seb who has been working with us for a few months now but has committed to being part of the team, abet living 'off site' and we welcome him to the ever growing family.

beanies for babies

a visit from huis groenland

the lovely folks from the local home for the elderly, huis groenland, visited the village of hope today and came bearing gifts which they had made for our children who are currently staying with us and also some of those we have successfully placed back into the local community.

the photo shows the children with their new hand knitted beanies, which will bless them as the play outside in the colder winter weather, and we are looking forward to dressing them in their new tracksuits which were also made for them, in the near future. the visit and the time taken to make these clothes was much appreciated and we were also able to enjoy a cake with one of the ladies who was celebrating her birthday today which was nice.