December News

Children’s Unit
The end of the calendar year also sees the end of the school year here in South Africa so we’ve been busy with various end of year events for the kids. Some of our children are finishing pre-primary and moving into primary school which is a real landmark.

We have also been able to discharge one little boy back to his parents and our little girl with cerebral palsy is doing fantastically – she can now walk with just one stick and her balance is improving every day.

Our relationships with the social workers are continuing to strengthen and Emma now has weekly touch points with them to keep abreast of all the situations.

We’ve been working hard at doing lots of paperwork and getting more policies and procedures in place as well as sorting budgets for next year. Although this is sometimes monotonous and mind-boggling, it is very worthwhile and necessary!

Last week we took the staff to the Caledon Spa for their end of year treat. The destination was a surprise but they all loved it and it was a really fun day. We were thankful to have competent volunteers who could take charge of the children’s unit for a few hours so that all the staff could join in.


Sports
We’re very happy to welcome Greg who has arrived from France to assist with the sports outreach for six months. He’s dived straight in and is a real hit with the mentors. We’ve been partnering with the local day clinic and have been using the sessions over the past few weeks to educate the children on the need for immunisations as well as making them aware of the dangers of diarrhoea - which can fast become a killer in the challenging environments where many of them reside.

Rainbow Smiles –HIV support group for adolescents
Rainbow Smiles is coming on leaps and bounds:

• We have developed a relationship with the Grabouw day clinic, they will be sending a Councillor to the club once a week and will hopefully be involved in planning and moving the club forward.

• We have managed to find some adult education for our 17 year old young leader and are hoping he can start this in January.

• One of our club members wanted to go to a school prom and could not afford to go, so she asked if we could help her in making things so that she can sell them to raise the money. This is really positive that our young people are not just asking for hand-outs but are looking at ways they can try and solve problems.

• The young people also wanted to give back to the community by singing at an old age home. We did this on Friday and we were extremely proud of all the children who sang, danced, played the drums and wrote and read poems out loud. They all did very well particularly as the audience was not very responsive.


Other News:
Volunteers:
As well as Greg we’ve been able to welcome Katie from the UK. She is a youth pastor so has a wonderful knack with the kids!

Last month also saw a visit from our extended family from InFocus Church in Augusta. We love hosting these guys and each time they come the do wonders for us both practically and emotionally. And Helen from the USA board popped over to visit too which is always lovely!

Emerging Leaders:
The Leadership for Hope course that took place in October seems to have had a really positive impact on the community. Those who were on the course were asked to share what they had learned and they are all very passionate about it. One of our House Moms attended and shared it with her brother which inspired him to decide to complete his education and Tim has been approached to see whether it can be rolled out to all the employees in the local municipality. It looks like the community have finally been given some training which they can apply to their lives which is very exciting so watch this space!

Skydive for Thembalitsha:
If you are slightly crazy and live in the UK, Ii is now possible to take part in a skydive to raise funds for Thembalitsha.
This is the chance of a lifetime – the only way to experience a skydive without spending thousands of pounds becoming a free-fall parachutist.

• Jump and training completed in one day

• Harnessed to an experienced parachute instructor at all times

• Jump from at least 10,000 feet

• Free fall 5,000 feet, falling at 120 mph

• Landing controlled by instructor

• Choose from 1 of 25 British Parachute Association approved centres across the UK.

Cost of challenge:
You don't pay anything; but you will need to fundraise a minimum of £395 in sponsorship money. We can provide you with lots of fundraising support. A minimum of £115 will go directly to Thembalitsha and the rest covers the cost of your jump. Anything raised over the minimum target will also go to Thembalitsha, providing healthcare, education and training to South Africa's poor.

To book your jump, click here: https://www.skylineregistrations.co.uk/parachuting/booking.aspx?&charity=73962

For more information contact Carol at carol@thembalitshauk.org.uk

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!

October News

Feeding the horses at Paul Cluver Wines

The past couple of months have not been lacking in drama here in Grabouw. This was particularly highlighted with the service protests in the community that descended into days of violence. The protests left us without any of our usual staff of House Moms as they were not able to get into work safely and the school-age children remained home because the schools had to close.

Although these few days were challenging, we received wonderful ‘back-up’ from the rest of our Thembalitsha family and were left with a reminder of what wonderful ladies we have in our House Mom team – being Mom to 13 kids is a tough job!

As well as the days off because of the protests it has also been school holidays which gave us an opportunity to arrange some outings for our children. Paul Cluver Wines kindly allowed us to come and visit the Zebras that live on their land. Unfortunately we did not see the Zebras up close but they allowed the children to feed, ride and stroke the horses which the children loved! We also took our older children on a 2.5K bike ride in the mountains. The children who taught themselves to ride their bikes loved the adventure! We were extremely proud of their efforts and they had a great time.

We are making slow progress on some of the children’s cases but slow progress is better than none! Some of the kids have been able to have weekend visits back home which is a great step towards reunification and it has been wonderful to work alongside the families and social workers to make this happen. We hope that some of our children will be reunified with their families before Christmas.

The mentors with a captivated audience of eager listeners

Sports
Sports is going well. Although we have missed Josh Houltram’s assistance, the Sports Mentors have been doing an amazing job and even ran each club on their own whilst Tim was away. Our relationships within each of the nine groups are growing each week and we can see that the life skills training is really having some positive impact on the behaviour of the children.

Bonny is doing some great work with the younger children and it's perhaps time to seek some longer term help to ensure that he isn't overwhelmed by the hundreds of children that attend his clubs which are aimed at children aged three to seven years.

The winter weather has challenged us to provide sports every afternoon. The children who attend our clubs often only have one set of clothes and they are for school, especially shoes. If they get wet then there is nowhere for them to dry them out before going to school the next day. The other challenge was around the strike action that took place where we were unable to safely go out into the community. It was so disappointing to hear that some of the children were either caught in the crossfire or used almost as 'human shields' between the rioters and the police who were firing rubber bullets!

Rainbow Smiles –HIV support group for adolescents
The Rainbow Smiles group was another casualty of the protests and we had to cancel our weekly meeting that week for safety reasons. It was sad to hear that some of the children had been involved with throwing stones in the protests but it was a good opportunity to discuss the issues behind the protests and to talk about different ways to respond. We were impressed by the children's honesty and openness.

There is a boy in the group whom we’ve appointed to join us in leading. He spends one day a week with us helping with planning. Last month we were able to send him on a leadership course which he thoroughly enjoyed and did us proud with the way he listened, behaved and contributed during the course. It also enabled us to understand that he responds well to learning with adults. As he is almost eighteen we have been able to look at an adult learning class for him to finish his education. This is great news as we have been trying to get him into a school for over a year now. He will undertake assessments to ascertain his level and to ensure he is started in the right class and is supported in the correct way.

Emma has also attended a course on running an adolescent support group which provided us with a great teaching resource and enabled us to connect with other professionals as well as learn new skills and gain more knowledge to assist us running this club.

Other News:
Volunteers:
This month has seen the arrival of three lads from Austrailia. Seb, Matt and Chris who are stopping off on their round-the-world trip to do some volunteering with us. We are also hosting the mission team from Trinity Church in Dallas. Trinity send a team to volunteer every year and it’s great to see some familiar faces as well as new ones.

Finally we are looking forward to welcoming a volunteer from France. Greg is going to be arriving to help with running the sports outreach and we are looking forward to the extra help.

Hot Wheels Car Club:
This club from Cape Town collected donations of food and clothes to Grabouw last weekend.

Emerging Leaders:
Trevor and Jane Waldock are basing themselves at Village of Hope as they explore how and where to deliver their grass roots training programme, Emerging Leaders, in South Africa. Having already established this successful programme in many other developing countries around the world, South Africa is next on their list and last week citizens of Grabouw were able to benefit from this training. The training was particularly pertinent in light of the recent protests and encourages everyone to be a leader and to take ownership of their community. It’s been a privilege to learn from their wisdom and to assist them in organising the workshop.