June News

The winter has certainly arrived here bringing wind, rain and even some snow on the mountains. It’s very cold and makes conditions for the poor in our community even more challenging.

Scubba diving anyone?

Children’s Unit

All the children are progressing very well and seem jolly and happy. We have an occupational therapist who comes once a month and she is very pleased with all children which proves that our wonderful House Moms are doing a grand job!

One little one in particular is a boy who’s been with us for a year. When he came to us he was just a year old and was unable to sit unsupported. Now he is meeting all his developmental mile stones which is fantastic news. The other great news we have recently been able to discharge him home. His parents have visited him constantly since his placement here and have worked well with the social workers and us. He went for a weekend visit two weeks ago and he was positively glowing when we collected him. We are always sad to say goodbye but we are also happy to know that we’ve done our best for him.

We are also further a long with the case of our six year old girl. We’ve have found a foster family for her and it now depends on the upcoming court case to see if the order will be granted so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

Sports

With the arrival of winter in South Africa this month, our sports outreach programme has suffered due to the severe weather. We’ve major storms but, when the weather has permitted, we have continued running our clubs with energy and enthusiasm.

Our ninth and most recent club continues to grow under the leadership of Aphiwe, 18, and he now mentors to over 30 children each week.

The World Cup has given us an opportunity to put on something special for the children and teenagers of Grabouw, resulting in a tournament to be held on 4th July at one of the local schools. This hundred-person event will run in tandem with the actual World Cup, allowing the children to play while keeping track of the scores in Brazil.  


Rainbow Smiles –HIV support group for adolescents

We now have 15 children at our Rainbow Smiles Club which is amazing. We seem to have more younger children being referred which is giving opportunities to our older children to support and help the younger ones. One of the new children is a child who used to stay at Village of Hope and now lives with his grandparents. It is great to see how we can continue to support our children after they are discharged and as they grow up.

This group also reminds us of the constant challenges these children face. In the last week we’ve been alerted to one girl who is purposefully defaulting on her medication – a serious issue. We are grateful that her parents wanted to confide in us and make us aware of the issue so that that we might be able to help get the situation resolved quickly preventing too much damage to her health, but also to ensuring that we support this girl with the love and care that she needs.

Other News:
The Themablitsha Big Buck$ Bike Ride
What an amazing success with a fantastic turnout! The final figures aren’t in yet but it looks like the team smashed their £5000 target and everyone enjoyed the day getting #Active4Hope! Big thanks go to the team of volunteers who worked so hard to get this event off the ground, to all the cyclists who’s blood, sweat and tears made the event as well as to all those who sponsored the athletes!!!


Volunteers:
We’ve had an unusual few weeks without any short-term volunteers but as of yesterday we’ve been able to welcome Polly from the UK who is spending 2 months of her gap year volunteering for us and next week we have Shae and Aubrei from USA coming to volunteer and assist in our school holiday sports programme so it will feel a little bit more normal again!


Gardening:
Big thanks to the team from Every Nation Somerset West who came and slaved hard on their weekend to help improve a garden at one of our long term volunteer houses. They worked like trojans and have really made the space much nicer for Rob and Emily (who are staying in the house at the moment) and for all the volunteers who will stay there after them!


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!

theres nor way that norway can win!l

view from signal hill

the title of this post refers to the banter that the sports mentors and older sports outreach kids were having with me before the bafana bafana game in cape town's greenpoint stadium last night, however for those of you who follow international football (that's the real european type, sometimes wrongly called to as soccer, and not the american style 'football', which is more like rugby with padding!) then you will know that in fact the little country of norway turned the tables on the south african national team and did indeed beat them 1-0.

can i take a picture

the game was of little importance as a sporting spectacle due to the fact that it was only a friendly, providing some much needed match practice for the south african team before they host the african cup of nations (similar to the european championships and not to be confused with anything which might be referred to as a world series, which would only include one country!) later this month. but saying that it was of great importance to our band of sports mentors who had never seen their countrymen play in the flesh before.

watching the warm up

although the game didn't start until 8.15pm, later changed to 8.30pm for some reason or another, we set off in rob's trusty land rover and the village of hope's hyundai H1 at around 3 o'clock and picked up 14 boys and 2 young ladies from the various areas, informal and formal settlements of grabouw, and set off down the mountain to cape town to enjoy an afternoon of fun before the big event.

another corner to bafana bafana

it is a real privilege to take these young adults anywhere, many of them have a very limited knowledge of anything outside their home, or home town, so to show them the sights of cape town, the magnificent table mountain, the harbour, beaches, tall office blocks and the waterfront is somewhat eyeopening on both sides.

our first view of the greenpoint stadium was from the rump of lions head, commonly know as signal hill, this little tourist spot provides a wonderful vista over the beaches of sea point towards robben island, of which the boys seemed very pleased to see as well! we then ventured down into cape town's waterfront where we enjoyed a meal at mcdonalds. all of this was a revelation to some of the boys who were keen on taking photos of each other eating their quaterpounder with cheese meal!

after the meal we had one of the most memorable experiences, we had entered the first floor restaurant via the stairs but as we left to go down towards the stadium two of the boys created quite a scene when confronted by a moving staircase (an escalator to me and you) which they were very skeptical to step onto. it's incredible to think that these older teenage boys had never taken the ride down an escalator but that in a way is the conundrum that we live with in south africa. for a few it is a country of western standards which people take for granted, for the majority it is a land that basic housing, sanitation and services are something to long for and things that one takes for granted are new, exciting and sometimes scary to others. (for further experiences please visit our previous posts entitled supporting mentors and sports mentors united in cape town)

excitement was building as we entered the stadium, we found our seats after being searched at the security point which was another point of hilarity, and the boys faces lit up as they saw their hero's warming up right in front of them.

the game was a bit of a mixed bag and you can visit sports sites to read up on what the reporters had to say about the tactics, the abilities and perhaps the prospects of bafana bafana in the upcoming tournament, all i will say is that south africa had all the possession with little fire power upfront, norway played well, shut down in midfield and scored with perhaps their only real opportunity of the game.

our journey home was almost as eventful as they boys were keen to stay together, never being in such a large crowd my hand was gripped by a 17 year old boy who was so worried about getting lost in the dark in the middle of a big city (and rightly so), the bright lights of the city reflected in their excited eyes, win, lose or draw they were going to have an amazing time and i feel honoured to be able to serve these guys who support our work week in week out as we try to bring a little highlight into the lives of the 200 or so children we work with via our sports outreach.

a great time was had by all, arrived home just after midnight where many boys went back to their simple shacks and the conundrum started all over again as i dropped them off into those homes with no electricity or running water knowing that my house was just up the track and a security light would brighten my way to my soft bed.

we wish bafana bafana all the best for the cup of nations and we hope to be able to provide other children with experiences like our 16 mentors had last night.

sports mentors united in cape town

on saturday afternoon we were able to bless 7 of our sports mentors, the boys aged 16-20 who help us with our sports outreach each afternoon, with a trip to cape town to see cape ajax play manchester united. the weather was similar to that on a summers afternoon in manchester with wind and rain accompanying us on our journey from grabouw but once we found our seats high up in the green point stadium the sun came out to weclome the cape ajax team!

manchester united tour 2012, cape town!

another manchester united corner

as you can imagine the stadium was packed with manchester united fans, some how this team is loved the world over, however even though the game was a friendly and had that feel about it but cape ajax played very well and gave the likes of paul scholes and anton ferdinand a bit of a run around, indeed taking the lead late in the match with a brilliant goal but ajax's defence finally broke 2 minutes into added time when manchester united finally got the ball into the net to earn a 1-1 draw.

men and 4 of our mentors, in the ajax jackets!

the boys really enjoyed their time and it was wonderful to see their eyes as they sat enthralled watching their hero's right in front of them. we aren't able to pay the boys so for us to be able to repay them for all their hard work and commitment in this way is a real pleasure.

supporting mentors...ajax come so close

view from signal hill

its hard to put into words the sights, sounds, feeling and or just the experience that we had yesterday evening as we took our 8 mentors who help with our sports outreach to watch cape ajax v orlando pirates at the green point stadium in cape town. we were also joined by some of the dutch students and a few of our volunteers who came along for the ride (more about that later).

our first stop was at signal hill, the back side of lions head mountain which shares the cape town backdrop with the world famous table mountain, from our lofty view the boys had a great vista across their city and were amazed by the sight of the stadium far below. as we drank in the view the mist from table mountain rolled in front of us, causing the stadium and roben island to appear and disappear from the scene....one of the boys commented that it looked like a dream, and in a way he was right, it was a long way from the realities of his daily life filled full of worries about the basic things of life that we all take for granted.

the wow of the stadium

from those lofty heights we ventured down into cape town and made our way to the victoria and alfred waterfront where the boys were wowed by the street performers and overwhelmed by the amount of people enjoying the sights and sounds of africa (not the real africa but a good introduction to the the continents many tourists!).

after a long meal at the mcdonalds overlooking the harbour, where the boys enjoyed and even lingered over their big mac and fries, we made our way with a few thousand other vuvuzela blowing fans to the stadium and other than a few minutes getting through the not so tight security we found ourselves walking up the steps to the awe inspiring stadium which was fully lit against the cape town skyline.

to see the faces of the boys as they saw the view of the pitch for the first time was one of the most amazing things i have had the pleasure to have share, their eyes opened wide at the spectacle that presented its self before them, not only were they dumb struck by the vastness of the stadium but also with the presence of their famous footballing stars right before their eyes.

our intrepid volunteers

many of the boys come from homes with no running water, let alone electric to power a tv, for some of them these legends were only seen via the newspapers or soccer magazines telling of tales of heroism and glory. tonight they were going to share in the highs and lows of their team, and even if 'their team' wasn't playing they would cheer and clap at every move of these modern day gladiators. (i've be waiting to write a report like this for years but after the 2010 debacle that england played on this very pitch against a poor algeria side, and the fact that that night the stadium wasn't a riotous colour of african fans but just the same old random blokes from london, huddersfield or manchester who were in south africa to watch their hero's fail once more, (this time in africa (rather than south america or europe as has happened so many time before), it didn't seem that fitting until now!

only god can help his team!

the game was fast and furious with cape ajax taking a dissevered lead around 20 minutes, however that lead only spurred on the pirates and their large allegiance of supporters which out numbered the home support by at least 2 to 1, and they leveled 3 minutes later with what was to be the last goal of the game.

we were surrounded by home, away and even neutral supporters who all aligned their support of their clubs, pirates, ajax, cheifs and stars fans chanting their songs, calling upon their god's support of their teams...the riot of colour, the cacophony of sound filled the stadium and although the game ended as a 1-1 draw each fan, each child and spectator took away their own thoughts and dreams such as i have seldom seen before.

boys enjoying after game celebrations at the waterfront

after a short walk back to the waterfront, posing in front of the 'ferries wheel' we found our faithful combi to join the queues of vehicles making their way back to their homes, for us it was grabouw  but along the N2 we said our goodbyes to those from the townships of langa, athlone, kayhelitsha, maccassa and lwandle.....

...dropping the boys off in the informal settlements of grabouw proved to be a quiet affair with the majority of friday night party people in their homes when we arrived at 11.30...and as we dropped off our last of our sleepy mentors we received a phone call from 'the girls', our volunteers had broken down half way up (or down dependant on your stance) sir lowry's pass in our newly acquired audi A4....argh....another two hours waited us as we firstly returned to the village of hope to secure our toyota hilux to provide the much needed pulling power, but found that the car was fixed fast and only a tow truck would suffice to bring the car to its return to grabouw.

the audi on the tow truck...eeek how much will
that cost?

an amazing and long day came to an end at 1.30am with thoughts of new sights and sounds, new friendships made and the thought of an expensive repair bill filling my mind!....

...for me today is another day, the stresses and strains of running a project which engages with people infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB, but for the boys a new day has dawned where they have seen the stuff of dreams.....such is the life we lead here in grabouw, its a real conundrum but thanks for taking the journey with us.

praying for our children

just chilling in the kitchen before dinner,
her favorite time of the day

on tuesday morning maz took our little two and a half year old girl into tygerberg hospital where she will stay for a few days whilst the team get her started on her ARV (anti retro viral) medication for her HIV. normally there's no need for our children to go to hospital to start this treatment but due to the fact that she is also on TB medication and has had TB meningitis then the staff want to observe her before sending her back to stay with us at the village of hope.

she is such a dear little (well not so little) thing, she copies everything anyone says and has really developed since she has been with us. please pray for her as she stays on her own and that there wont be any complications with the different types of medication.
we are longing to see her happy smile back with us again soon.

an update on our 11 year old boy is that he has now been discharged from the red cross children's hospital into our sister project, thembacare athlone, mommy maz visited him yesterday and he is doing a little better but he is still a poorly boy!

new year and new baby boy...

the last week of 2011 saw the village of hope offer new hope and a loving family environment to the 30th child since we opened in 2009. our home has been a little quite since our 11 year old boy has been in the red cross children's hospital, again, but we are now up to our full compliment of 9 children with the addition of a wonderful little boy who needs our support whilst his family get their feet back on track.

he is around 20 months old and is on TB medication and is HIV+ so please pray for him as he settles into life here at the village of hope, thankfully his grandparents have already made a visit to him, which is all positive news, lets hope that 2012 will prove to be a better year for him.

please could we ask you to continue to pray for our little 11 year old in red cross, he has had a rough time of it, unable to keep his food down over christmas, due to some of the medication he is taking, although maz was able to feed him his first meal when we visited him on thursday which was good to see.....we will keep you updated on his progress here.

may we wish you all a very blessed 2012.

watermarks...identifying the maker

on saturday morning we were fortunate to visit the barnard gallery in newlands, cape town, to view the exhibition by duncan stewart called watermarks. we only met duncan a few weeks ago, as our good friend set us up to stay over with duncan and has wife natalie in their home in port elizabeth as we traveled to the transkie (see ealier post).


we were so blessed to meet this amazing man, who has a living faith in christ and who challenges people through his art to think beyond ourselves. it was great to hear duncan speak, not only about the art, but what inspired him. his work has such depth and can be viewed on many different levels, watermarks is subtitled 'identifying the maker' and duncan explores the use of water within this work and asks the question of what watermark would we have if we were held up to the light, would we have the makers watermark?

if you are in cape town, or even south africa, then please take time to visit the gallery on main street in newlands and be inspired and even challenged by the depth of the art that duncan is exhibiting.

have a look at his web site here and visit the gallery's site here.

this little piggy went to market....

mrs pig having her last piggy back!

well we didn't have to take the piggy to market just to the man with the gun....yes that's right our male piggy is off to make us some much needed bacon, ham and sausage tomorrow morning, after his 5 months of piggy bliss at the village of hope.

we have really enjoyed having him around and we think arron's experiment with the pigs has gone very well. i suppose the proof will be in the pudding (nice black pudding to go with the sausages!) but we have already decided to keep his 'wife' as the next plan is to get her another husband who we hope will provide us with a constant source of piglets for us to grow on.

it was quite a sad moment as i took the photo, she is making the most of the piggy cuddles, as you can see!

sunday at the dam

the long walk to the waters edge

the village of hope is a full time project, the children we care for live with us in our children's unit and are looked after by a dedicated team of local 'house mom's' who work a 12 hour shift rota. other members of the team (including our volunteers) start each day at 8.15 at our morning planning and prayer time and finish their day by around 5pm, sounds simple hey! but as with anything that involves kids, especially those living with HIV, and a project involved in social issues there really isn't a 'clocking off time'...therefore we need ensure that we have 'cover' both overnight and during the weekends...

each of our volunteers take turns doing 'weekend cover' and we are keen for the children to understand that sunday is special and that God loves them, therefore the people on weekend cover either take the children, and house moms, to a local church, or spend sometime singing, reading bible stories or creating an activity around that story.

children playing at the dam, they all got every wet by home time!

last sunday afternoon we (me and maz) took the children down to the local dam, which is looking very empty at the moment. it's always a special time as we show the children new things, spending time travelling in the back of our bakkie (pickup) is a highlight of any trip and the children just love to explore. whilst we were down at the waterside maz asked the children what song we could sing, and without hesitation one of our little 4 year old girls piped up, 'fishing for Jesus'...which was so apt given the surroundings.

please continue to pray for us as we seek to not only provide a 'home' for these precious ones but also show them that even though many of them haven't known the love of a family that God does love them and that they are special to Him.

soccer in lwandle

arron and djuri giving a half time team talk

on saturday morning we took 15 of our local boys, mainly made up of arron's winning rooidakke team from the last soccer saturday that we held at the country club, plus a couple of boys from the iraq team, down to play their first 11 a side match against a team from the lwandle township just outside somerset west.

the whole event was a real adventure of the boys, the first time playing an 11 a side game, against a very well organised team, run by my friend mbetha, who used to play for cape town ajax in the south african premier league. the game was played in the middle of the township (mainly made up of black african people and what with our boys being mainly coloured and all the coaches being white europeans this was quite a mix!)

it was somewhat shocking to realise that many of our boys, 5 of the 15, didn't have sports shoes, some had trainers, others second hand football boots but some either came with their school shoes or bare feet...at our sports saturdays we always play bare feet so that no one feels out of place but to see our guys turn up without the basics of a kit was a shock.

free kick to lwandle, do you like the grass!

we never struggle for soccer shirts, but we played in a mix of blue and white hooped tops, shinny green shorts and yellow and or blue and white socks, we did look quite a sight!...however as my dad always told me 'it's not the player with the best boots or kit who is the best player' and we proved that by creating some good goal scoring opportunities in the first half and should have been 2-0 up before they scored the only goal of the game.

the boys played out of their socks, literally, and came away with a credible 0-1 loss to a team who had played together many many times before...they all really enjoyed themselves and were a real pleasure to take on this first adventure.

if you are living in and around cape town and do have access to old soccer boots, sized around 2-7 (that's old english sizes i think) then please let us know and we can really really bless our boys who don't have anything to play in...thanks

health awareness at our sports outreach

talitha teaching oral hygiene

as part of the link that we have with the HAN university in arnhem in holland we are blessed with new students every 6 months or so, who come to complete part of their studies with us at the village of hope, over a period of either 5 or 10 months. providing help to maz in the children's unit via social and physio students and to us with our sports outreach in the community via their sports management students.

we run our sports outreach in 5 of the poorest areas of grabouw each afternoon, this sports based ,bible and lifeskills programme uses football and netball to interact with the children, giving us a base to provide them with some basic life skills, such as working together which brings self respect and respect for others as well as allowing us to link that with a suitable story from the bible which shows the children that God is interested in their lives and can help them when they are faced with different issues during their home, school and social lives.

during the last few years the dutch students have been setting up a life style programme which teaches children basic health awareness topics, such as teeth cleaning, hand washing etc and over the last few weeks we have incorporated this programme into our sports outreach, which now provides the children with a wider knowledge for their lives.

this is working very well, although our hour long sessions are a little bit crammed so we are needing to spend slightly longer with the children, which is no bad thing!

holiday time at the village of hope

yesterday we had a visit from a team of guys who attend the his people church in baxter, cape town, tracy and her friends came up to the village of hope to entertain the children during their holiday time.

we took the opportunity to invite a few of our 'ex' children (those who we have successfully placed back out with their families or foster families in the grabouw area) to come and join in the fun.

it was great to see how much the children have grown and developed since they left us, it was great to see them playing with their old friends and enjoying all the activities that tracy and the team had set up for the morning.

we just want to thank the team from baxter for being willing to make the trip over the mountain to visit us and make our children's holiday time a little brighter.

who says that prayer doesn't work....

on saturday 26th febuary 2011 we had our first village of hope day of prayer, which we felt was a great success, we were able to cover the whole 24 hours with people praying for us from all around the world, which was amazing.

we were so encouraged to know that people had set aside time to raise us (the VoH team), the project and the people we work with, along with some wider issues on funding and support, up in prayer and we have really felt the benefit in the following ways.

a) amazing provision of unexpected funding which will enable us to come closer to covering our monthly costs and plan for future development.

b) increased opportunities to apply for additional regular monthly income.

c) break through in our children's health, development and social needs.

d) encouragement to expect our boundaries to be increased, to test God and see that he IS GOD and HE will provide for the increase of the project and those that we seek to serve.

these have all been a great encouragement to us and we would just ask for you to continue to lift up the village of hope as we see God move in our project and the lives of the children that live on both our project and those in the local community.

new photo of children's and volunteer unit

we are so proud of the facility that we have created at the village of hope, the children's unit provides a home to 9 children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB, since opening in april 2009 we have placed 18 children back into the community and our volunteer accommodation has hosted over 200 amazing volunteers who have helped us create this wonderful space and supported our work in the community of grabouw.

for those of you that haven't made the visit to the village of hope we thought that you would like to see a panoramic photo to show you the main accommodation block, (children's unit to the left and the volunteers to the right with the play area including swings and race track in front) and for those who have been instrumental in the set up and running of this project we thought that you would like to see the unit in all it's late summer glory!

we want to thank everyone who has been involved in this work and hope that you will enjoy the photo and if you would like more info on how you can support our work, whether that be via prayer, volunteering or raising funds then please contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

sports outreach

every time i come back from one of our sports outreach afternoons i just want to tell more and more people about the wonderful children that we work with, they are just so cool, joyful and fun to be with, but many of them come to our clubs with stories to awful to tell and that is really hard to think about as i sit here not 500 yards from their tin shack homes, that have no running water or electricity or basic sanitation whilst i type away on my internet wifi connected laptop with all the trappings of a western style life, a tap that produces cold water, a toilet that flushes, coke in the fridge, shoes on my feet, a light switch (that works) at the flick of a finger.....

....keeping it all in context i have to say that the new dutch students, from the HAN university, are a real help to us as we seek to input basic life, health and bible skills into these wonderful children's lives, to share the love of Jesus with them in a real practical way, it is a real privilege to spend time with these kids. it's not only the sport that brings us together, they impact into our lives in an incredible way too, to share the smiles, stories, hugs, tears, love and ultimately life with them is just amazing....

as we work with the older kids the younger ones spend their time sitting, chatting and playing in the back of my bakkie (pickup), it is too wonderful yet heart wrenching for words, never did i ever think that i would be working with people so embracing yet so sick, ill and needy...... have a look at the photos and see the life that explodes from the faces of the poorest and most needy children i have ever met!...wanna get involved, then please contact me, YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE....

the first straw!

yesterday the ukuqala team from stuttgart started to create the 'cob walls', this is mix of straw, clay and water and will provide the main outside walls of the new building.

the 'heart' of the structure is constructed from 'standard' bricks, with a heavy duty timber frame, the smaller windows will be made from old washing machine doors, this really is an ecco home!..the team have a wealth of talent with different types of skills, carpenters and brick layers, however most of the team are architect students and this is the first construction site that they have ever worked on.

please follow their progress via their web site here and facebook here

what would YOU do for charity!

we have been blown away by the extent that some people will go to raise funds to provide our project with the finances that we require to support our children who are living with HIV here in grabouw.

no one is less crazy than our friend ben jiggins, brother of jenny who volunteered at the village of hope last year, i (tim) have know ben for many many years and i'm not sure if i can ever remember him having a hair cut in all that time. however ben decided to put his golden locks on the line and used them to fund raise, via justgiving, for us.

have a look at these wonderful photos which show the before, during and after photos of ben's perm!, i love the photo of him sitting in the middle of the ladies just wondering what on earth he is doing!.....ben what you have raised will almost pay for our 10 house moms salaries for a whole month.....and should you wish to add to the amount he has raised then please visit his justgiving page here.

we also want to thank nasreen who has just set up an new justgiving page, nasreen is running the asics 10k for us later in the year...see the just giving page here.

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!

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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!

pray for our 10 year old....again

please could we encourage you to pray for our 10 year old boy who has been readmitted to the red cross children's hospital in cape town with another lung infection, you may remember last august that we almost lost him but thanks to your prayers he has had another 6 months of fulfilled life, in that time starting his new school, enjoying christmas with a local family and being loved by everyone who visits the village of hope.

please also pray for us as a team as we seek to have a carer with him at all times, cape town is a good 2 1/2 hour round trip and we will have to do that twice a day for the duration of his stay.