its hard not to take offence!

the remains of our security fence!

yesterday we discovered that for the second or third time since we installed a 'security' fence around the village of hope that around 8 of the posts which were set in concrete to hold the fence had been stolen. after the original installation we were unfortunate to have around 200 meters of the fence stolen so we undertook to install a new barbed wire fence in it's place, fixing that to the posts, and in doing so spraying the posts with red paint so if anyone thought that they could take those posts we would know who did it and speak with them about it.

the fence isn't going to stop anyone getting onto the property but we thought it would serve as a deterrent, giving a visible and physical boundary to our land. yesterday i spent around R1,000 purchasing replacement wire, which had been cut to free the posts, which is money that you generous givers have donated towards the work we do with the children!.

in the afternoon i ventured into the township to see if i could spot any of the posts, and yes i found one, holding up someone else's fence around their home in the community......what to do now?....

...i know that this is the season for giving but its really hard to be forgiving!

please pray for safety and wisdom as we seek to take this matter further, we live in a very poor neighborhood and people are trying to provide for themselves and their families, however we need to make sure that people understand that they are stealing from their selves when they steal from us.

more birthdays and more fence stolen!

two year old girl, her mother, our house mom and
other children enjoying a game of pass the parcel

we have been able to celebrate two birthday's this weekend, yesterday i celebrated my 44th birthday with maz and arron, they took me for a wonderful birthday lunch at the guardian peak vineyard near stellenbosch and then we enjoyed an evening of cheese and biscuits with our wonderful volunteers....however that wasn't the main party that we had a the village of hope this week!

on friday we were delighted to have a birthday party for one of our newer children, she came to us a few months ago and has been very ill since she has been with us, ending up in hospital with TB meningitis  however it was great to celebrate her second birthday and also welcome her mother, who is also quite sick, to the party. as usual our house mom's and volunteers did an amazing job with lots of party games such as pass the parcel and lots of yummy food.

unfortunately we did suffer another loss of fence and fence posts from around the edge of the property on friday, this is a real pain in the neck and we are wondering what to do to prevent more being stolen. we are trying to make those that steal it realise that they are actually stealing from themselves as we have to spend donated money to replace that which is stolen rather than helping those in need through our two projects (village of hope and thembacare) here in grabouw.

fence and post stolen again

what was left of our security fencing!

have you ever heard the term 'don't bite the hand that feeds you', well that's exactly how we were left feeling over the weekend as we once again found that our fence and posts had been stolen from the southern edge of our property.

the people we serve have desperate lives, which drive them to seek out anything that they can sell for food, drink or drugs to take their mind off the existence that makes up their lives...however what is very hard for us is that it seems like we give with one hand and they bite the other.

i am sure that this is nothing vindictive, but the money that we will now have to spend on replacing the fence, which we installed to provide us and the children we look after with some protection, could have been spent on staff wages, kit for our sports outreach clubs or food for the children!...it's a tough call and a tough world...

where did our fence go?

in june last year our home at the village of hope was burgled, our laptops and cameras were stolen, included on them was a lot of history from the building work stages and opening days from the children's unit......therefore to prevent further theft we installed a 1000meter x 2meter high fence around the village, mainly to define our land from our neighbours and to let people know that if they crossed the fence they would in fact be trespassing..

...on tuesday afternoon whilst i was showing our new volunteer, harry hogarth from england, around we found that over 70 meters of this fence had been stolen......the thieves stolen the fence but left the poles and the razor wire which sat along the top of the fence.....looking at it they must have come over the river and up the steep bank to steal this....

....as you can imagine this is somewhat frustrating and a little worrying as we had hoped that the fence would offer some protection against theft instead it has itself been stolen!