fathers day follows youth day

it seems slightly ironic that over the weekend south africa remember it's young people with a public holiday on saturday and yesterday we joined the rest of the world to honor our dads on fathers day. ironic because here in south africa we have one of the highest rates of fatherless children in the world, and the fact that some of those who fought to have their schooling taught in their mother tongue have either succumbed to the HIV pandemic or failed to be the fathers that their children need.

south african men are no different to many others around the world, black, white, coloured, indian, who are failing their children by thinking of themselves rather than their responsibilities towards their children, yes a relationship may have broken down, or in some cases never started in the first place and that comes from either side, but our failure as men to provide the role model that our young people need, especially the boys, is hard to accept.

so we do honour those who stood up for their rights way back in soweto in june 1976, of which we remembered on the youth day holiday that we had on saturday but we also call them, and all fathers around the world, to become the fathers that i believe God calls us to be to the next generation no matter what has gone on before.

fathers day gifts?

a pig, not your dad!

if you are anything like me, no not in the way that i am a tall long haired hippy who lives in south africa but some one who finds it really hard to find a suitable present for fathers day, then we have the answer to your problem.

the amazing uk marketing team (yes those 3 part time volunteers) have come up with a wonderful way to save a long and unsuccessful trip around your local town centre and have put together some very imaginative presents for you to purchase for your dad to help him realise he is someone very very special.

..now we must state that your dad won't actually receive the present, we will!, however if he wants to check he could get on a long flight to cape town to come and visit, which we would love for him to do, but we will promise that with the money raised from the sale of the items that appear on our thembalitshauk facebook site will go directly to the children that we are helping.

if you follow the link from our facebook page you will then see the items ranging from a soccer ball, or a packet of seeds to a lovely little piggy, you can then purchase them via the ebay site thus making your quest easier and giving your dad some satisfaction in the knowledge that he didn't get another novelty gift that will sit on his desk, by his bed gathering dust but that he is really really make a difference to children living with HIV and AIDS here in south africa!