sports outreach year ends at the beach....

kids eating pancakes at strand

our rooidakke and iraq clubs at gordons bay

the children who attend our sports outreach programme are now on their summer holiday's and to celebrate the end of another amazing year we have taken around  70 of the 250 children who attend our seven weekly clubs to the beach over the last four afternoons...

...i know that sounds idyllic but to have the worry to ensure that not only do the children travel safely down the long and winding mountain pass that we have to negotiate between grabouw and the seaside town's of strand and gordon's bay but also make sure that they all have a great time playing in the water, which for some it might be the first time they have ever visited, then its not all plan sailing!

beach 'water' football!

however everything went well, the weather was fantastic, the sea a perfect temperature for the kids to enjoy a dip and food provided by the dutch students, pancakes (pannenkoeken), which for some children were the first time they have eaten such a delight was all very special.

our amazing HAN students yoram and annemeik did such a good job throughout the last five month and it was great to share this time with you guys, we will miss you both loads! thanks must also extend to our longer term volunteers, tim and jacque who made sure that the children enjoyed their special days.

digging holes to holland!

it was a great end of the year for our sports mentors as well, we have been working hard with these guys as they serve us so well through the year, you guys rock.....we will now be taking a well earned break from the sports outreach until the middle of january!........

pancakes on the beach!

....more news will follow then as we seek to extend the work we do into new areas to bring 'new hope through sports' into our poorest communities of grabouw.

making pepernoten

girls busy making pepernoten

yesterday our social work student, marlies, took some time to make a traditional dutch biscuit, called pepernoten, which are made around this time of year, with our older girls. they really enjoyed making and baking these biscuits which were to be their present from sinterklaas and swarte piet who give out gifts on the 5th december in holland....its all double dutch to me but they had fun all the same....

a new child and new student

it's always exciting for our house moms to
welcome little ones into our care

this seems to be a season of new things, today we bring you the exciting news that we have been able to provide a new home to a little boy (around 16 months old) with a very complex home situation. unfortunately his home (tin shack) was burnt down with a fatality and the young mom is unable to cope with everything during this trying time.....it is wonderful to be able to provide a place of safety for this child whilst his family situation is sorted by our local social workers.

marlise our new social work student

speaking of social workers we are pleased to tell you of our most recent dutch student from the HAN university who will be with us for 10 months as we host her as a placement for her social work studies. the help and support that we receive from these students is invaluable and we look forward to the work that marlise will be providing the children who stay with us at the village of hope and also those who attend our rainbow smiles HIV support group.

helpful volunteers

stijn the builder

over the 3 years or so that we have been open as the project 'village of hope' we have been blessed with a plethora of volunteers, whether they have served with us for a day or committed to a life changing move to be with us for a longer period of time their presence here is much valued.

during the last week we have said our sad goodbye's to simon, a volunteer from england who was with us for 3 months and we want to wish him well with his next placement in tanzania, if you wanna keep up with simon then please follow this link to his blog which also picks up on some of the things that were going on at the village of hope whilst myself and maz were in europe!

the new water tank holder

over this christmas period we have been joined on the project by a young dutch man who has thrown his self into building us a new water tank holder, this is a somewhat tedious and lonely task, although he has been helped by our new grounds maintenance coordinator, heinrich.

we want to thank stijn, yes that's really how you spell his name!, and those like him who have served us so faithfully during 2011, we have some further sad goodbye coming soon with some of our dutch students but we are also forward to welcoming some new volunteers in just a few days time, its a bitter sweet time!...we will keep you updated with news on them right here on the village of hope blog.

community day

we have been working with some of the dutch students (from the HAN university, who are on a placement in grabouw) on a community day for some weeks and yesterday we all worked very hard to ensure that the local people of grabouw had a day to remember.

the idea of the day was to bring together people from all over the town to firstly have a great time, but with the intention to get the message of HIV and AIDS over to them in a fun way. the day was split into three categories, culture, in which we created a space for local artists and schools to perform, either dance or song...this was held on the back of a flat bed lorry, the second was health, were we arranged with the local day hospital to release some of it's HIV testing team to come and work for the day, and sport, which is where i sorta fitted in...we held a soccer competition for 2 age groups and a netball tournament...the dutch students also set up some 'traditional dutch games' which included knocking a nail into a piece of wood and trying to get a nail into a bottle with it attached to your belt by a piece of string!....

the day went well, the weather was wonderful, the kids enjoyed themselves and we hope that we got the message across about knowing your HIV status..