newsworthy stories...

it's always nice to have the profile of the work we are doing raised in the media and last week the village of hope project, and the work we are involved with via the thembalitsha foundation, made the news in two papers around the world.

for those of you who don't live in grabouw the story of our fifth birthday celebrations made the news in the elgin grabouwer, see photo attached and for those who live outside of the aylesbury vale (the area where myself, maz, rob, emily, barbara, emma and josh hail from) we appeared in the local newspaper, the bucks herald, and if you would like to take a look at the electronic version of that piece then please click this link.

  

soup run hits the news, again.

page 4 of this weeks elgin grabouwer

last week i was able to take our local photo journalist, peit marais, on our weekly soup run. as reported in page four of the elgin grabouwer, see image, peit captured the fact that although this is a service provided by the village of hope it really is one mans way of connecting those who are able to help with those that are in the deepest of need.

the soup run was really birthed out of a conversation had over a beer with a local restaurant manager and has blossomed over the last few years, where each and every friday we now collect soup which has been lovingly made by two of our local farmstalls, who also provide us with bread and pies and distribute it to three creches in the rooidakke and iraq areas of our town.

it really is a simple way of serving but really does show the local community that there are people out there who care for them, supplying a valuable meal to those poorest of children or people who need to take specialized medication on a full stomach.

we know that time is an important thing and we are blessed to be able to serve people in this way but for those with little time but a big heart this is a way for them to really feel connected to those that we serve each and everyday via our thembacare and village of hope projects here in grabouw.

for more photos of 'the soup run' then please visit the elgin grabouwer facebook page by clicking here!

in the news....

stuggart students in local paper

thought you might like a short update on the work that the amazing team of student from the university of stuttgart are up to here at the village of hope, i could go into the long working hours that they are keeping (at least a 12 hour shift, 8am till 8pm) or the crazy designs that they have created for both the extension of our children's unit or volunteer accommodation  i could speak about a workshop that was held with some green/ecofriendly capetonians over the weekend but i would be here all day explaining so what better way than let others do that explaining.

therefore if you would like to see some recent photos then visit the ukuqala web page by clicking here, or to see how the newspaper reported our recent break in against a back drop of outreach and support then click on the article for a better look.

assi touching people from around the world

click on the article to read
pastor neils thoughts around assi

we always knew that our little assi was a world changer, but it's been incredible to see that amount of people who have either posted on our facebook pages or sent emails with regards to the impact that he had on their lives. these people aren't confined to just grabouw, or the western cape, or even south africa, we have had literally messages from the ends of the world....from norway in the north, new zealand in the south, korea in the east and the USA in the west, he really did impact everyone he met.

the thembalitsha foundation have put together a short story of his life, which appears on facebook but i understand that even if you haven't got a facebook account you can read his amazing story by clicking here!

the news of assi's passing even appeared on the front page of our local paper with a short thought from our vicar, neil meyer, on page three, who highlighted that assi touched people across racial, religious and political views and united people from many various nations and languages...if only we could be as tolerant as this dear little 12 year old boy, maybe the world you be a much better place.

visits from local dignitaries

thembacare grabouw make the front page

sorry that we have been so quiet since we returned home, but for those of you that follow us via this blog or have visited the village of hope project here in grabouw you will know that our days and therefore weeks seem to run away with us. added to that but just before we returned from england my (tim) laptop's hard drive gave up the ghost so i have been without my own internet connection which has hindered my prolific blogging!....however that is a poor excuse so whilst maz is enjoying an evening at the school of hope awards i thought i would share a bit of news, prior to the october newsletter which will be out soon, this majors around our appearance on the front and middle pages of last weeks local newspaper, the elgin grabouwer.



major visit with the HAN and UWC delegation at the
village of hope (in the rain!)

i say we appeared as in the royal we, meaning both thembacare and the village of hope, but news is news and we are so closely linked to our sister project that the we is really we....anyway the front page news was the fact that following their mandela day visit to our two projects in grabouw staff from the cape town parliament felt led to purchase a much needed hoist to help our staff manage the lifting and movement of the patients in our inpatient palliative care unit.

the major and maz

the other news, which took up the middle pages, and included a nice little article about the work that our former volunteers, daz and lisa, are doing with a little creche, was all around the visit of our major, chris punt, to the town. the visit was initiated by the HAN university team to showcase the work that their students are involved in.

the village of hope are currently proving placements for 2 sports students and a social work student, as well as a past HAN social work student who is volunteering with us at the moment and therefore a visit by the HAN delegation and therefore the major was always on the cards.

the delegation also included tutors and facilitators from the university of the western cape who we not only showed around our children's unit but also informed about our work in the community via our sports outreach and thembacare home based care team...the major also enjoyed lunch with us and had a long chat with myself and maz around the needs of our town and the ways in which the thembalitsha foundation are helping local and national government, and their departments, to provide much needed help in the health and education sector.

although some photos were taken for the paper it is very hard to see maz so therefore i have added a photo with her and the major together.!

it all comes together with sport

now how did this go together again?!

on saturday morning we held our latest sports saturday at the elgin country club, the event was made possible by our wonderful volunteers, the HAN students and the german architect students who took some time off of their busy building schedule.

we host these sports saturdays for the 7 different groups of children that we work with throughout our daily sports outreach projects in the different communities and farms in grabouw and elgin valley. it was with deep regret that we had to restrict each of the teams to 8 players, meaning that some of the children were unable to attend but due to limited resources, in transportation and kit, we were still able to provide over 150 children with a fantastic morning of sport.

the 'set up team' arrived at the country club under grey sky's with drizzle in the air at 8am and by 9am the two 65 seater coaches provided by our local transport company, gaffley's, were making the trip around the townships to pick up the teams arriving with 129 joyful and expectant children at about 10am!....(it's amazing that we had just one seat left on the buses, only God could provide just what we needed)......the children from our farm outreach were already there waiting with the managers who greeted us from the buses.

finalists of the over 13's football

after introducing the children to their managers we were then set the task of distributing the kits for each of the teams, all the children were so well behaved, they listened to their managers really well and by 10.30 we had opened in prayer and the games began.

as the morning went on the weather improved and we were more worried about sun stroke than waterproofs........the girls played a netball tournament with 5 teams, some had more than the 8 players so they shared the games with substitutions and whilst they were waiting for their games they could also play a game of volleyball......the boys were split into under and over 13 age groups, a total of 10 teams, once again some with more than the 8 players we had wanted, played until a winner was found.

the children played so well, it was great to see some of the skills that we have been working on, both in the netball and soccer games and also in the way that they treated and respected each other.....the lifeskills programme is such a success and an article written by one of the HAN students appeared in the local grabouwer newspaper captures that...maybe click on the image to have a read about his experience?

report about village of hope sports
outreach in the local grabouwer

for record 'site view' beat 'remhoogte' in the final of the under 13's football, a mixed group of girls from 'remhoogte and rooidakke' won the netball and once again the boys from 'waterwerks' informal settlement beat iraq on penalties in the over 13 football tournament.

the day was a huge success and culminated in the guys from the round table providing the children, and helpers, with hot dog rolls and cool drinks.....it was a truly multicultural and international event with our referees from canada and south africa (our local sports mentors), managers from south africa, germany, holland and england...and we even welcomed some norwegians who were showing their support on their visit to grabouw.

the children made their way home at around 2pm and after a long clear up operation the dutch and german students (with a little help from the canadians) had a game of football together, our sports mentors also made up the teams with holland putting last years defeat behind them to over come the german international team 4-1 with 3 goals from michael from our waterwerks sports mentor programme!

it just shows that if we put our differences a side we can all come together and have a fantastic day which benefits everyone on different levels...thanks guys for your help and support and to the children you truly are amazing and demonstrate what a real rainbow nation could look like!

soccer balls supa quick!

front page news, along with worries about
the water shortage in cape town!

over the last few years we have been blessed with a constant supply of soccer balls, we have received them from various different sources, FNB (first national bank), BP (petrol station) and various donations from volunteers, this has meant that we have never been in desperate need. however with around 150 children benefiting from our sports outreach programme each week we do tend to need a huge amount of balls, especially if we are doing drills where each child has their own ball. with that and the fact that we do like to bless our most regular kids with a ball that they can play with on the days we aren't in their area, so our 'stocks' tend to deplete very quickly.

at the back end of last month we were discussing whether we needed to set aside some of our cash to go and purchase some balls from the local sports shop to restock our bags but as i was buying some tyres from the local supa quick in grabouw i got chatting with the manager there about how they could help us as we seek to support those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, he quickly got on to the area manager and within a few weeks had called to say that they had some balls to donate to us.

last monday willie and his family made a visit to the village of hope project to hand out the balls, which we will use in the local community in our training sessions and he also handed out some goody bags to the kids who live with us in the children's unit, the story made the front page of the elgin grabouwer, which you can view by clicking on the image.

thanks willie and the supaquick grabouw team.

bruno gone but never forgotten!

our little bruno is missing!

yes that's right our wonderful little jack russell, bruno, has gone missing. a week last saturday he went out on a 'run' with one of our volunteers, and never returned. we think that he followed a bike race which was taking place in the mountains around the village of hope and ended up at the elgin country club, where he was seen on saturday afternoon.

what happened next we don't know, did someone take him home, did he get lost on his way back or did he get into trouble with a snake or a snare?...we have put a 'wanted' article in our local paper but we haven't heard anything since that came out last friday.

whatever it seems like we have seen the last of him, which is a real shame cause he was a real character around the place, the children in the unit loved him and he was the first dog that i had ever owned...and i miss him :-(

ukuqala on the back page

this weeks back page of the elgin grabouwer covers the story of the ukuqala team here at the village of hope, there are a couple of lovely photographs which accompany some text which you can view by clicking onto the image.

the team are certainly creating a stir here in grabouw and the guys from solar zone, also a german company, along with a representative from the german embassy have also made a visit to see how the team are getting on in south africa!

rose and bull doing souper work!

ok i am sorry about the play on words in the title of this post but it happens to be true!

this weeks grabouwer picks up on a wonderful story that we have been involved with for over a year now. every friday a local restaurant at the marsh rose mall, called 'the rose and bull' make up a wonderful pot of soup which we then deliver to one of the soup kitchens that we have relationship with in rooidakker informal settlement.

the work that this soup kitchen (and all the others around our town) does is amazing, not only do they provide a hot meal for literally hundreds of poor and needy people each day, but by providing that food they also enable the ARV (antiretroviral) and TB medication to do it's job properly as much of those meds can't be taken on an empty stomach....

the relationship with the restaurant came whilst we were in the bar watching some sport over a pint, and when asked about the work we were doing in the community it was easy to see how we could encourage them to get involved. the manager of the restaurant was happy to make the soup each friday but had no means or relationship in the community to ensure it got to the right people...the village of hope is just a conduit between the two parties but last week shane (the manager) came to visit the soup kitchen with us and was really touched to see that what he provides really can and does make a difference to hundreds of people.

that is our story, we might not be able to help everyone, and our main call is to help those infected by HIV and AIDS (especially children) but we can bring together those that have with those who have not and then let the relationship develop from there.

santa hits the big time!

for the second year running the village of hope hit the front page headlines in the christmas edition of our local newspaper, the elgin grabouwer. see story as image and click for a larger version.

but this year santa has gone one step further by appearing on youtube, see link here . emily house, our wonderful film tech guru, put this clip together to give you all a flavour of the event, include the assembly by johan, decoration by tim and rob, our santa played by tim's dad, and elves fran, kate, jess and mel giving out sweets from the sleigh, unfortunately you don't really see arron, josh, chris or dan who were playing crowd control!!!...hopefully you will see the joy that was bought to hundreds of children who can be seen running after the sleigh in the waterwerks squatter camp.

next year we will have to go one step further, but for now we want to wish you all a very happy christmas from the team at the village of hope, grabouw, south africa.

kayak day makes the news

as you may have read last week we took 50 children who have been the most regular at our weekly sports outreach clubs to the local dam, read story here. well the story has been reprinted in our local paper, see image to the left and if you would like to read further click onto it for a larger copy.

roundtable headlines in grabouwer

last saturday's sports outreach has been covered in this weeks 'elgin grabouwer', one of the highlights of the day were the new tee shirts which were provided by the local roundtable and this story has been chosen for the paper.

we want to thank all the guys from the elgin grabouw roundtable for their continued support of our work and the way that they give so selflessly when we call upon them.

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.

village of hope makes waitrose news

we have been working at a local farm for around 6 months, running our sports outreach programme each thursday and including them in our sports saturdays. the farm provides fruit, mainly apples, to a supermarket chain in england and the work we do there has been picked up by their newsletter. see attached.

final newspaper articles from world cup

well we now know that the spanish football team won the FIFA world cup south africa 2010 but here in grabouw our newspaper thinks that there were a few others that made a real impact during the 2010 football world cup.

it is wonderful to be singled out but without the help of all of the team at the village of hope and especially the guys from YWAM harpenden we wouldn't have been as successful and received as much publicity as we/i did....thanks team, we really did win for grabouw.

see the front, 2nd and 5th pages from the elgin grabouwer.

2nd july headlines, middle and back page

i know it seems like we are in the paper each and every week these days, but we hope that it shows that the local community are recognise the work we are doing with the children in our town. this week we appear on the front, middle and back pages with our various projects including the visit of the dutch ambassador and the sports we have been putting on with the help of the YWAM and task team

michelin chefs cook up a storm in grabouw

today we have had a wonderful dutch filled day, not only did we have the chance to show the dutch ambassador to south africa, mr rob de vos, around the village of hope but we also were blessed by the visit of some of the top chefs from holland on their culibus, visit their site here.

the chefs are touring around south africa following the dutch football team and are visiting projects like the village of hope, where they are providing a five star meal made from local produce, ours were provided by elgin learning foundation who we are working with on our food gardens.

the local and dutch press were also present and we were able to take them and the chefs up to the village of hope as we had to base the bus at the elgin country club as the access road to our project was much to unstable to take the 1million euro bus!

please keep your eyes out for publicity at the following site www.zuidafrika2010.net, which klaas deknatel has been running for the buildup and duration of the world cup.

to cap a busy day we were also visited by wings of support from klm who came to have a look at our project.....

...roll on saturday!, oh no its another sports saturday so no peace for the wicked, that's us by the way!...

(photos show the size and extent of the bus and one of the chefs, onno kokmeijer, with one of the boys that the village of hope has successfully placed back into the community).

ywamers make front page

it seems that we are making headlines each and every week at the moment, this week we share the front page of the elgin grabouwer with the news of the YWAM team, with further news on page 8. the article picks up on the work the team are doing in two local schools and includes a thankyou from the town. click on the images for a read.

sports saturday makes headlines again

an article about the sports saturday which we ran last weekend has appeared in our local 'elgin grabouwer', i know it's not bbc headlines as yet but any publicity about the work we are doing is most welcome.

you will have to click on the image/picture to download article which shows a photo of the children enjoying a dance session run by a local NGO.