mandela's 20th year release....

last week south africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of nelson mandela, after 28 years in prison, but what has changed in those 20 years, has democracy helped those who were suppressed during the years of apartheid?.......there have been many interesting comments on this in the local press, but the bbc web site sums it up in this article 'anger not hope'

please continue to pray for south africa, a country where so many cultures, tribes, races, ideals, ideas and tensions battle to be heard, pray for the government and those in places of power both on parliamentary level and those nearer the ground like our town manager mr liebenberg, pray for charities like thembalitsha who seek to serve those whom the government are failing to bring in the basics like, health, education, sanitation and housing.

its hard to live and work in this place, so much of what we seek to do can be undone or misunderstood by those we seek to help, please support us as we seek to share the love of Jesus, who told us not only to love our neighbour as ourselves but to also love our enemies and pray for them.

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!

the myths that surround HIV

living in grabouw we are part of a wider community heavily affected with the HIV virus, one in three people in our town live with this disease and many more are affected by it's prevalence. that said we don't see thousands of dying people walking our streets, living with HIV isn't a death sentence and what with the work we are doing via the village of hope, thembacare and the other NGO's in town we are seeing people not only stabilised but living a 'normal' life.

yes there are the drugs which must be taken every twelve hours to keep the virus from spreading and becoming full blown AIDS, but once a person is on the ARV programme life continues, with it's daily struggles and chores.....i was reading an article on the BBC web site about ladies living with HIV in zimbabwe who play football, the perception of 'the world' is that of people lying in hospital beds or dying in their tin shacks, however as the article states these ladies want their status to be known, for their lives to be as normal as possible, playing sport, working, raising a family is all part of life, with or without being HIV+.

we know and work with so many infected people, do we treat them any different to anyone else? no and neither should the world look down on or despise such people, we need to love them, embrace them and give them a hope and a future.