parting christmas parties

our 3 year old and his granny

it is the season to be jolly (tra...la..la...la..la..la...la...la..la..la..etc) and on friday lunchtime we were able to celebrate with the children who are currently staying with us, with some of those who have been discharged and with their carers. it was great to see some of the little ones who had spent time with us at the village of hope doing so well and to be able to bless their moms, aunties and grannies with a festive feast (kindly donated by chanttel and her husband)....'father christmas' (aka josh holtrum) made his annual (josh's first) appearance and handed each child and their siblings a present.

clicking thumbs for the last time!

the party had its ups and its downs as we knew at the end of it two of our longer term boys would be going home to stay with aunties and grannies for good. the aim of the village of hope has always been to provide a safe environment for vulnerable children to stay whilst their medical and or social issues are sorted and maz and her team have now successfully placed over 40 children back with their families or into long term foster or adoptive care, however saying goodbye is never easy and we will constantly think of and pray for the dear ones who we have cared for over the last five years.

please take time this christmas season to think of those who are less fortunate that ourselves and should you wish to donate or make a pledge to the work we are doing then please follow the links to our giving pages by clicking here!

staff party

the village of hope team, less me, looking fine and dandy!

last friday we held our 2011 staff party at the wonderful erinvale golf estate in somerset west, each of the 7 thembalitsha projects were present, in total around 130 people including our 10 wonderful house moms, johan our maintenance coordinator, mel kidd, me and maz.

the day started with a delicious hot and cold brunch, followed by update reports given by each of the projects, it was great to hear from each of the projects, it gave us a real feel of family and highlighted the amazing work that thembalitsha are doing to help the most needy people and children in the western cape.

we really wanted the staff to feel special and for them to see a lighter side of the management, therefore after the reports we were entertained by some of the project managers who performed a little ditty, me and maz tried our best to ruin ABBA's 'i have a dream'...maz looked wonderful in her 70's gear complete with blonde wig and tight hot pants....you don't wanna know what i was wearing and thankfully there will never be any pictures published of that on this blog anyways!

after the entertainment we had a short awards ceremony, some awards were very serious such as a long service award and johan received ours for 'all the hard work he puts in to save us money with his ingenious ways of mend and fix', our house mom franjoleen received an award as 'most competitive mom at the children's parties'....yes some where a little less serious!

it was great that all of our staff could come together and celebrate all the wonderful things that each of the projects have achieved over the last year, it is a privilege to be part of this foundation and to work with some of the most inspiring people on this earth.