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!

providing new hope to another child in need...

the first meal for our new child, given
by our house mom at the village of hope

some days the day to day chores that come with running a home for 9 children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, along side our daily sports and health awareness programmes into the local formal and informal settlements, can become so overwhelming that we have little time to really stand back to see the ways in which we are really making a difference to the people we have been called to work with..

...however there are some days where our eyes are opened to the amazing work that is undertaken at the village of hope, and today is one of those days as we successful see the fruits of the work of placing stabilised children home with families.....what do i mean by that?....

...well due to the recent successful placements of some of our longer term children (see their stories by clicking here, or here, or here) we have been able to create some more bed space to provide accommodation for more needy children, and today we are back up to our full compliment as we have welcomed another 2 year old girl into our home.

this dear little girl will be loved and cared for by our wonderful house moms and we hope that she will soon be back home with her family after we work with the local day hospital in addressing her immediate medical needs.

can you fill these spaces?

could you be sitting here this time next year?

as you may be aware the village of hope is run by staff of 13 full time paid workers, ranging from our house moms to a maintenance team but these key people are supported by a team of full and mid term volunteers who oversee the management of the project, run sports outreach, invest in the house moms, do the finances, write policies around the care of the children, complete the school and shopping runs, take the children to their medical appointments and assisting in running our adolescent HIV support groups, the list is almost endless and this all takes time and dedication to undertake the running of such a large project which is also linked to our sister project, thembacare grabouw where there are other opportunities to serve.

these mid and long term volunteers also oversee the short term mission teams who join us for 10-14 days throughout the year and who are an invaluable resource to carry out the larger tasks much like this weeks team from augusta have undertaken with the repainting of the children's unit.

we have never been short of volunteers and with the amazing support of the HAN students from holland we are able to undertake the day to day running of the project most of the time.....however we currently have a couple of opportunities for the right people to come and join our team for a mid to long term period.

our sports outreach is growing and with our 40 week programme now in a format which can be rolled out into other areas we are seeking a longer term volunteer/s who can help run and coordinate our sports outreach programme which currently takes place in 7 different areas of grabouw each and every weekday afternoon. this could be an opportunity for an intern or recently qualified student, however before you get too excited there are a few things that you must consider, firstly you must be able to drive a 4x4 vehicle, this is how we transport most of the sports equipment to the clubs, many of which are run in areas where a normal car wouldn't be able to access, you would also be able to lead and stimulating an existing team of willing local mentors (volunteers), and finally and most importantly you would have a passion for children, especially those aged between 9 - 15 years, who we work with bringing life skills, health awareness and the love of Jesus via sports!

...there are other opportunities around social work and our wider children's work, this post or posts would involve supporting the current children who live with us at the village of hope as we seek to place them back into their homes in the community, most of our children have complex medical and social issues which means that this is a job with lots of pressure but is also so rewarding when it comes together with a successful reunification back into their families. with this in mind there is a need for this person/s to complete home visits to ensure the 20 or so children who have already been placed home are still healthy and being looked after by their carers in the community. helping out with support groups and stimulating the children who live with us at the village of hope is also a key area of this role.

if you are interested in coming to live in grabouw, south africa, and are keen to help support our work with those infected and affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in an area which is rife with these health issues, if you are someone happy to share their lives with our other volunteers in the self contained volunteer unit, and are self motivated and have a love of kids and empowering people then we would love to hear from you!

time to play

up up and away!

one of the most disappointing and frustrating things about running the village of hope is the limited amount of time we have to just play with the kids that God has placed here. much of mine and maz' (as well as our longer term volunteers like rob and em, or tim, mel or even johan and heinrich) time is spent on completing the long list of daily tasks, such as shopping, or admin for social workers, or finances or report writing for our stats given to the department of health.. we seem to spend more time cutting grass, mending the myriad of broken things, taps, cars, toys etc......rarely do we have chance just to chill with the kids.

however just before i went out to run a sports outreach at a local farm yesterday (which in itself is an amazing part of what we do!) i passed the kids lying around on the newly transformed trampoline and grabbed a minute or so just to support them as they jumped into the air....as you can see by the photo they are somewhat fearless and reached heights which would have turned maz' stomach but we had such a cool time just playing....

...oh for more of those....life is so full and i miss just being a dad to these precious little ones.

March News

As ThembaCare Grabouw have probably mentioned in their news, we have had a dramatic month here in Grabouw. There has been a large amount of unrest in the community which culminated in violent protests a couple of weeks ago. We are thankful that our project is not immediately in the township so we weren’t caught up in anything directly, however it impacted our staffing for over 24 hours because it was not safe for our House Moms to move back and forth. Thankfully we are currently blessed with lots of very capable volunteers who stepped in to fill the gaps and they did an fantastic job of keeping the children stimulated and the routines running.

Children’s Unit

Peek-A-Boo Easter Bunny

With the Easter Holidays now in full swing, the House Moms are being kept on their toes. Nine children to entertain all day, seven days a week can be quite full on! To add to this we have been looking after two extra little boys in the day as well. The boys are staying with ThembaCare (because we don’t have any spare beds) whilst they wait to go into hospital for TB treatment. Thankfully we have the distraction of a new trampoline. The frame was a second hand donation a while back but the pad arrived perished and sun damaged and no good for hardcore bouncers. Tim’s parents brought out a new one with them from the UK using some money that was donated and now trampolining is a new major past time. We have also got Jess, Grace, Heather and Katia on hand to do some Easter crafts with the kids to keep them entertained.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Two weeks ago we had one of our Soccer Saturday events at the Country Club. We had a fantastic turn out with over 150 children attending from the seven different areas we work in. All credit to the volunteers and Dutch Students who arranged it. It all ran very smoothly and the kids had a fantastic time. The German building students came along to lend a hand and be ‘managers’ for each of the teams and then later on the Dutch and German students went head to head in a match of their own. We are very grateful to the Elgin Round Table who came through again with food and refreshments for all the children. We stood back and realized that at one stage with had volunteers from England, USA, Canada, Holland, Norway, Germany and New Zealand helping out…Village of Hope really is going global!

It really was also great to see investment that we have been making in the sports mentors paying off. They conducted themselves really maturely and were an asset to our day. We are exploring how we can invest more in our mentors off the pitch too by seeing whether we can offer a scholarship to one of them to help to develop them and give them hope for a better future.

Other News
Volunteers:
The whole team was very sad to say goodbye to Niall this month. He had five weeks serving at ThembaCare Grabouw and with us and had become a true father figure in the volunteer unit. We are confident it’s not the last we will see of him but we are already missing him. Lance and Travis, our Canadian duo also said goodbye – things are certainly very quite around here without them!

On the flip side we were able to say ‘hello’ to Katia and Heather. Both of them are serving with us for three months and have already got stuck in! Katia is a Nurse from New Zealand and is assisting in the children’s unit and we have been enlisting Heather with lots of admin and petty cash. Not always the most glamorous of jobs but the help is always very much appreciated. We have even loaned her skills out to the Day Hospital who have needed help with their mountains of filing.

The New Building:
….Is complete! (well very nearly!) Yes, the Germans have now left, leaving us with another lovely straw house. This one is a two-story affair but is very similar to the house they built last year. The whole team worked extremely hard to get it completed as far as possible working late into the night and early in the mornings. We are so blessed to have another building which we hope will help us cater for more volunteers in the future and eventually lead to us being able to expand the services we can offer in the children’s unit. But for now it’s the same process as last year: we need to wait for the straw to dry out before we can plaster it and then begin to use it and with the rains on their way it could take a while.


Events
With Easter just around the corner, why not give a chicken this year rather than an egg?! We have a great alternative gift for you just visit eBay to get yours! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290691216752

It’s that time of year again when we are recruiting runners to for our 10k run. We have six places available and the run takes place on Sunday 8th July. This really is a fantastic race – you get to run past major London landmarks like Big Ben and St Paul’s cathedral. It costs £30 to enter and you need to be willing to commit to raising at least £500 for us. So, whether you are new to running and looking for a challenge, or an old hand looking to beat your personal best, this is a great opportunity to get into training and to run for a great cause. Contact us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information.


How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

January News

Happy New Year from all of us here at Village of Hope. As we enter 2012 we are full of excitement at what God has in store for us this year…We are also rather hot! The summer has decided to kick in and it has been in the mid-30s for the past week…phew! Anyway, we intend to grab 2012 by the horns, seizing every opportunity and continue our fight to restore hope to the communities we work with.

We want to invite you to join us in our quest and use this year to make a positive change . Why not sign up to volunteer or take on a personal challenge to raise funds for us? Two of our Thembalitsha staff might inspire you. Together with their friends they have organised two initiatives in aid of our Foundation. Frances from our sister project Bosom Buddies is completing 6 physically grueling trail runs within a month – for those of you who don’t know, these runs are actually like racing up and down a mountain! (Sponsor her here) And Amanda, our funding manager, is going to cycle from our Village of Hope project around the coast to the most southern point in Africa: Cape Agulhas.

Together we can make a huge difference. For more information on how you can get involved email us: info@thembalitsha.org.za…..Start now!

Village News
Tim and Maz returned back safely from their exciting tour or Europe – That might be a slight exaggeration but they did cover a few countries on their trip! The tour proved to be busy but very successful. It seemed a fantastic mixture of talks and presentations, worship events, radio interviews, plane flights and visits to past volunteers. They also managed to spend some quality time with their family too!

The rest of the team here were very relieved to receive them home! There were no major incidents whilst they were away, the project didn’t burn down and remained pretty much as Tim and Maz had left it! – Always an achievement!

The children opening their gifts from Operation Shoebox
(Isaac ably assisting!)

Children’s Unit
The Children in the unit had a most enjoyable Christmas time. This year, for the first time, all the children were able to spend at least Christmas day with either a House Mom or a relative. This was a really special time for the children. They all came home very happy and with huge grins on their faces. It must have been great for them to be so spoilt and have the sole attention of a normal family for a change. Our 11-year-old boy was the only one who was unable to go to a family. Unfortunately for him he had to remain at our sister project, ThembaCare Athlone, because he had just been discharged from hospital after yet more health battles. He is still there now. We have tried to bring him back to the children’s unit in between times but it just hasn’t worked – he isn’t stable enough and needs more medical support. Please continue to keep him in your prayers.

Christmas also saw a flurry of parties and celebrations for the children in the unit. This year our party, in conjunction with the day hospital and ThembaCare, was very generously funded and meant that we could have a magician: Mr Fu Lin Yu (get it?!) The kids loved it.

The new year brought in a new child who has come to stay whilst his home environment gets sorted. He is yet another little one suffering with HIV and TB but is a happy little soul and has made himself at home here very quickly.

Those kids who are old enough to attend school are back. Our 6 year old boy has started ‘big’ school and now has to wear uniform – he looks very cute and is very proud of his new attire but is a little overwhelmed by his new environment. Also, our 3 year old girl started preschool for the first time. She is loving it and is especially insistent on carrying her own rucksack despite the fact that it’s almost as big as she is!

Our Dutch and Australian volunteers with
some of the kids from our sports clubs

Sports Outreach and Community Work
We were able to take the children from our sports clubs out for their annual trips to the beach again which is always good fun. It’s such a special experience for these children who, although they only live 20 mins drive from the sea, hardly ever get to visit the beach and for some it was their first time. We were also able to take them to a local restaurant to have burgers for lunch. The expressions on their faces really were priceless when they saw their lunches arriving. It really makes you realise how blessed we are to consider eating out as a normal activity.

These beach days were the final flourish of action from our fantastic interns from HAN University in Holland. Stephan and Weike really have helped to develop and refine our sports outreach, taking it to the next level, and we were very sad to see them go last week. They were so dedicated to us in their time here and really embraced the project as a whole. They go leaving a legacy and a high standard to retain – so no pressure for the next two students who arrive in February then?!


Other News

Volunteers:
Where would we be without volunteers? This year we have so many bookings (right through to July already!) and we are so thankful because if it wasn’t for these fantastic specimens  we would really struggle to keep our heads above water. This month we were sad to say goodbye to Heather, whose solid, level-headedness  and hard work was so valuable over her three months of service – especially with Tim and Maz being away. We also said goodbye to Stjjn who was with us for a month including Christmas and new year. He was a building student from Holland and helped to construct a new water tower on site so that we can install a new filtration system to purify the borehole water. We will miss trying to pronounce his name and his big hair!
Thankfully we’ve also been able to welcome some new volunteers. Jess Trigg from Yorkshire is with us for six months and is already getting stuck in with the Children’s Unit. She is revising all the activities and bringing in some fresh ideas. She is already looking a lot less pasty that when she first arrived thanks to the heat wave we’ve been having recently!
We are also very excited to welcome Tim Berger back. Tim has served here numerous times by bringing over and leading mission teams from America. This time he has arrived to serve us for 2 years and we can already see that he is going to be a great asset to the team – even though he’s another American so with him and Mel here us Brits are rapidly losing ground!

New Year, New Building:
Yes, you did read correctly! –Guess what? We have another group of students from Stuttgart, Germany, arriving to build another building on Village of Hope. The advance party of three has already arrived and another twenty-five will be joining them mid-February. The university are keen to build a long-tern relationship with us and will be putting a plan in place to return annually to add more structures. Once again they have raised the funds to do this themselves which is staggering. Our thoughts at the moment are that, hopefully, we will be able to build enough accommodation so that we can move the volunteers out of their current place and free up that space to develop the work of the children’s unit to include counseling rooms and a staff room for the House Moms as well as meeting rooms….but this will all take quite a while. We will be posting regular updates on the blog as to the progress of this next building. It looks like now we really are going to have a village of the land!


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!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer

• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


VOLUNTEERING

We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from the Support Us page on our website (www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you

info@thembalitsha.org.za

full team from stuttgart arrive

over the weekend and during the early part of this week we have welcomed the new arrivals from the ukuqula team from stuttgart. some of them flew direct to cape town, others had arrived in south africa a couple of weeks ago and had traveled down to grabouw on a road trip.

and

now the hard work starts.

fortunately for us johan, our maintenance man and his wife, joyce, moved out of the single bed accommodation that they have lived in on the village of hope for the last three years, to a new home in grabouw, which has enabled the team to set up their HQ

in that space.

all the foundations are in place, see last post, and the straw and clay which will provide the 'cob wall' construction have arrived, the team are now busy designing the windows, doors and internal furniture which will make up this new build.

please follow their progress on this blog and also their own university blog here.

March Newsletter

The long summer holidays are now over, which has bought some much needed relief to our house moms, who were somewhat overwhelmed with the needs of 8 children aged 9 months till 10 years, all with some social or medical issues 24/7. I am sure you would empathise with them!

Menu
• Children’s Unit
• Sports Outreach & Community Work
• Other News & Volunteers
• Events
• How You Can Help
• Volunteering

Children’s Unit
A new school year is always exciting and it was wonderful to see one of our little girls, who also suffers from alcohol fetal syndrome, skipping and jumping through the school gate her ruck sack on her back on her first day. Thankfully the novelty hasn't warn off yet as its important to us that our children attend the local schools. This term our eldest boy was also able to attend the opening of his new school, which is situated at the end of our gravel road, this school caters for his special needs and we think he is enjoying it!

During the month we were able to place our youngest child into some more permanent foster care at another project in Gordons Bay. The whole team at the village were very sorry to see him leave (see pic) but this is the aim of the project and he is now the 17th child that we have had through our unit in just less than 2 years.

The moms continue to do an amazing job, treating each child as their own, offering them a loving shoulder to cry on, or snuggle into, but discipline is always hard when you have 10 to 15 different ways, however we are sure that our children know that they are blessed and much loved by everyone here at the Village of Hope.


Sports Outreach & Community Work
With the new term we have started back each Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at our sports based life skills clubs in the communities. The take up has been somewhat mixed, Arron has had 6 boys turn up one week and then over 40 the next, with similar experiences at each of our clubs. However with the new Dutch students arriving, and they once again seem really nice and enthusiastic, we are hoping for a little more continuity.

That said, the lives of the children we work with are very hard. Most have to wash their own clothes or cook tea (if there is any) for the family before they can come and play. Life is so much different here in Africa for those living in the townships and informal settlements and we have to be a little more flexible when issuing both rewards and punishments for late arrivals!

We have changed our approach to our Bible times, we used to focus on one scripture that fitted best with the life skill and sports skill, however even our helpers couldn't always remember what verse we were teaching or what way we could apply it to our lives. We have now decided to focus on a well-known bible story or character which gives us wider scope to engage with the children. Imagine getting 50 kids to march round with a vuvuzela whilst talking about Joshua and the walls of Jericho...quite a sight I can tell you!


Other News - House Move & House Build:
Johan has taken 4 weeks off to 'move house'! Yes Johan and Joyce, along with their newly adopted little girl, have moved from their one bed unit at the Village of Hope into their very own two bed home in Grabouw. Their leaving this has created some additional space for us to move into - the possibilities are endless! A pool or table tennis room are high on Arron’s list, however Maz has the final decision and we think that it might be best used as office, meeting and reception space. Sorry Arron.

The wonderful prep team of Leslie, Ulrika and Gerhard have arrived from Stuttgart university ahead of the 20 or so further students who will be joining us at the end of February to build us a lovely new accommodation block on the land at the Village of Hope! Their team is called Ukuqala- which is Zulu for ‘beginnings’- and the building is strongly influenced by traditional African building techniques. They are carrying out the project as part of their university course but blessing us as a result as we will be getting a brand new accommodation block for free! Please follow the blog for the development of that site. I am sure it will be interesting to see the building taking shape. At the moment they (along with Arron's willing help) have levelled the site, and secured the wooden poles that will provide the support for the cob (hay and mud mixture) walls.


Volunteers
As we have already said Leslie and the Stuttgart, Ukuquala, team have arrived in dribs and drabs. By the beginning of March there will be 23 of them in total. Don't worry we aren't hosting all of them at the volunteer accommodation - they are going to be moving off to a lovely site with three homes overlooking a lake in the Elgin valley. Emily's 18 year old sister, Sophie, has arrived for a 3 month stint at the project during her gap year. We hope that she will enjoy her stay.

Issac house started his first day at school as well. I think Rob and Emily are enjoying having some more time to put in a full mornings work now that both he and Rosie are at school every day.

Mel Kidd will no doubt have filled everyone in on the U2 concert that we (me, Maz, Arry and Mel) attended at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town on the 18th Feb, which was a blast. If you weren't aware Bono and the boys played two gigs in South Africa during their 360 tour and I think that will be one of the highlights of Mel's year.

We have also been blessed by 3 visits from people linking with us via the Stuff Your Rucksack site. These people found our project on their website and bought over donations in their rucksacks to give to us when they visited the project. As a result the children now have some fantastic new dressing up costumes and stationary items.

Events
We are planning our annual Cycle for September and we still have places available for a the 10k London Run in July. Please get in touch if you would like more details. We are also looking at doing a charity ball for World AIDS Day this December.

If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.


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!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (http://www.thembalitshauk.org.uk/). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

Village of Hope Prayer Day Prayer Points

If you don't already know we are planning 24hrs of prayer this Saturday. Please consider whether you can spare 30mins of your day to pray for us. You can sign up online here - we still have some slots that need filling




Below are some prayer points to inspire you:

Health

• A’s repeat chest infections

• N’s skin – keeps getting infections and having to go on medication for it

• Praying against the HIV virus itself

Ins and Outs!

• Exit plans for current children: Our social services are in crisis,

social workers quitting under pressure. This holds up any progress they are

making on cases for our children.

• We currently have two empty beds in the unit so would like to know the next

steps to fill spaces wisely

Staff Wellbeing

Lots of our staff are having difficulties at the moment. All this is on top of their usual testing home/life situations.

Sports Outreach

• Please pray for each area we work in: Rooidakke, Hillside, Iraq and Remhoote

• Pray we can find local mentors to train up as leaders

• Pray for supernatural communication for the life/bible skills – Language

barrier is a constant issue.

Building Project

We currently have a team of German architects building accommodation on the

farm inspired by traditional African techniques. They have a very tight deadline and

budget but have raised all the money to do it themselves.

• Please pray for the whole team – that they will encounter God whilst they are

here

• For protection during the build

• For everything to go smoothly with paperwork/planning/building

• That the finished result will be practical/livable/long-lasting!

Cluster Home

We are hoping to be able to have our hands on a house in the community to use as a

cluster home very soon. Please pray for:

• The right foster mum

• A warm welcome into the community

Finances

Please pray that we would be able to raise enough to cover our monthly running

costs and be more stable in the long term

Team Members

Please pray for us all individually and as a team:

• Tim and Maz

• Arron

• Rob and Em

• Rosie and Isaac

• Mel

Johan’s Place/New Reception

Johan and Joyce have recently moved out and we now have some space space which

we are thinking could be used as a proper entrance to the Unit and meeting rooms.

Please pray for wisdom on how to use the space.

The Wider Body of Thembalitsha

• Please pray for strong relationships within the Thembalitsha Foundation,

between the other 6 projects

• Please pray for the international arms of the Foundation: UK & USA that they

will find good ways of communicating the message of the charity and have

divine appointments. Pray for dedicated volunteers to come forward to help

with marketing/fundraising

• Please pray for Grant, the MD of Thembalitsha SA as he leads the Foundation

• Our relationship with our closest sister project, ThembaCare Grabouw – that

we might be a good support for each other

Protection

Please pray for protection of:

• Health

• From snakes and spiders

• From spiritual attack

• Whilst we are in the community/driving around

Our future

Direction and Guidance, Wisdom for the future of the project

Local relationships with the people in the town

We are making lots of good contacts, pray we know how to develop them

Please pray for all the children in the unit

Pray over each child, ask God to heal them and provide for their future

Thank you! - and please let us know if God gives you any words for us as a result!

keeping it level....

the team from stuttgart universtiy have been doing an amazing job this week, leslie, ulrika and gerhard have been working all hours God sends in making sure that the foundations of our new build are level and stable....it speaks so much to me as we think of the 2 years we have been running the village of hope, without firm, level and solid foundations any project is unstable and is at risk of crumbling when any presure is put on it, however with lots of help we are getting closer to this project being less reliant on one or two people and ensuring it's longer term success by spreading a load over a firm foundation.

on friday afternoon i took the boys from the children's unit down to see the work being carried out and each of them had a look through the 'dumpy level' to check on the progress....see photo......we hope and trust that the work that we are doing in their lives, as they stay with us at the village of hope, will also provide a level and stable foundation for their little lives.

CD4 count just 6!

i was somewhat shocked today to find out that a mum of one of the boys who attends our soccer outreach was in thembacare receiving treatment for HIV....obviously this is a very sensitive and personal topic but when i enquired as to how she was doing i was very upset when i heard that her CD4 count was only 6. for those of you unfamiliar with HIV and AIDS i have copied a couple of statements from a web site to give you a bit of a background, see below.

"On a regular basis, your doctor will draw blood to measure the number of functioning CD4 cells. The higher the number the stronger your immune system. People without HIV infection have about 700 to 1000 CD4 cells in a drop of blood the size of a pea. HIV infected people are considered to have "normal" CD4 counts if the number is above 500 CD4 cells in that same size drop of blood".

"If the number of CD4 cells in that drop of blood ever drops below 200 CD4 cells, you are classified as having AIDS. Simply put, experts have found that when your CD4 count drops below 200, your body's immune system is no longer strong enough to prevent illness and infection. Some of the most serious of these illnesses and infections are said to be AIDS defining"

therefore i have a big concern for this lady as her immune system is very very low and she will be susceptible to other infections that may lead to full blown AIDS, please pray for her and her son who we love and care for....

international news exposure

news of the dutch ambassadors visit to the village of hope has reach the publication 'foreign exchange'. we hope that all this extra exposure will mean that our work will start to receive the recognition that will able us to secure the necessary funding to enable us to continue to support, develop and expand the work we are doing for children infected or affected by HIV and AIDS.

hope for AIDS ?

This week the powers that be in the world of AIDS meet in vienna, there seems to be some growing hope that better treatments and even breakthroughs in prevention are being made but the facts are that over 5.6 million people are living with HIV in our country alone and over 1000 people will die of the affects of the AIDS virus in south africa today.

Please pray for us as we seek to make a difference where we can.

so you think you are safe?

a report from the BBC web site confirms that HIV and AIDS are the main causes of death in women..........when will the world wake up to the fact that if this disease is not controlled we will all be at risk of infection......infection doesn't necessary lead to death as we see with the patients and children we work with.....but the disease is spreading, people are still dying at a rate of over 1000 per day here in south africa.....we can make a difference, with education and the right medication...would you like to help us?.....

we have a new baby....

we have been working with a very needy mother in our community, unfortunately this young lady has full blown AIDS and the virus has attacked her eyesight and she is now blind.....she has also just given birth to a 4 week premature baby, born last saturday in our local hospital....she was discharged that same day with the new born......!

the mum is now in thembacare receiving some much needed support from the wonderful team there and she realises that she cannot support this child and is happy to place him up for adoption, however for the foreseeable future we will help her as we take this precious one into our care at the village of hope until all the red tape has been sorted (and that could take some time).....

please pray for this mum, her child and the team here on the village of hope as we seek to do our best for her and her baby, that she might be fully restored and that this child might grow up in a family who can provide him with a bright future....thanks

christmas is coming!

the weather is getting very hot here in south africa which must mean that Christmas is coming!....with that wonderful thought in mind we are hoping that you wonderful readers might want to do something amazing this year for the children we are working with....our current monthly costs have risen to over £7K and with only £1K of regular giving coming each month we will soon be at the end of our 'buffer' and the project will be at risk....therefore we need your help, could you run a fundraising event, buy one less present and donate the money to village of hope?....whatever you can do will really make a difference to the children we are working with who are infected or affected by HIV and AIDS...

to donate please visit www.justgiving.com/thembalitshauk thanks the team at the village of hope!

the plight of south african children

i was sent a link to this interesting article on the bbc website from one of the thembalitshauk board members, it tells of the story of so many children in south africa who are the only breadwinners in what are child headed homes.....and as you imagine homes in the affluent west, or even affluent cape town, please amend your thought to a tin shack with no running water or electricity which you wouldn't put your dog!.......click this link to read

funnily enough (well not so funny) we were only talking in our village of hope meeting yesterday about the plight of a 14 year old girl living in nearest squatter camp, who is looking after her brothers and sisters and has never attended school.....we were asked to help her, but how, we have so many other children who live with the same situation in our town.....

another interesting article on the bbc site, and one is at the heart of my concerns, is that of all the work that is being completed on the stadiums that will be used for the world cup and the infrastructure that surrounds that, as opposed to the governments concern on providing the promised new schools, basic housing, sanitation etc.........it's a mad world!

so you wear gloves all day do you?

i had a chat with a local grabouw man yesterday and he wanted to know how we were getting on at the 'farm', the conversation went something like this:

him: 'what are you farming up there then'

me: 'oh children'

him: 'ha, ha'

me: 'no really'

me: 'we work with children infected with HIV and AIDS and we have a home for ten of them to stay with us on the farm, called the Village of Hope'

him: 'oh so you wear gloves all day do you'?

him: 'do you get yourself tested for AIDS often'?

such is the limited knowledge of the local population to a situation that is killing and affecting millions of their country men...sad but true

the world remembers, the world remembers not!

8 years ago today around 4000 people were killed in the awful events that surrounded the destruction of the twin towers in new york, today once again the world remembers those that died in that tragedy.

today around 1000 people will die of AIDS in south africa, by the end of next week 7000 people in our country alone will have lost their battle of this awful disease, families will be mourning the lost of a mother, father, or even a child, families will be devastated and the lives of those thousands left will be made even harder.

please take time to remember the dead today, whether killed by terrorists or disease.

medibook stats

last night we met up with some amazing people who are already helping in the fight against HIV and AIDS, can't tell too much yet but we might have some exciting news to tell about that in the future. one guy, len, runs a 'facebook style' web based application called medibook which is an online data base for hospitals etc in the northern cape, we will be looking to see how we might work together to bring that in to support the work we are doing in grabouw.

one of the applications on this site is an up to the minute report of births and deaths in south africa, quite shocking really as you can see how many people today have died from various diseases, and or this can be looked at by the month or year.....the figure of 1000 deaths from HIV today still stands...click here to have a look and be shocked by the amount of people currently living with HIV.....in all that we are doing we still have an increase in numbers, but we might just have found a solution....more on that one another time!

please continue to pray for our 9 year old who is now in hospital in caledon, with suspected pneumonia, TB and possible liver and kidney failure (he's the guy sitting on my lap in the hilux on my flickr site)....we really need a miracle today!