sports outreach ventures overseas!

tim training the community leaders

we are sorry for the lack of posts over the last week or so, much of that was down to the fact that tim and maz were taking our sports outreach programme to madagascar where they trained 21 local church leaders in the nuances of the sports outreach that we have been running from the village of hope since late 2008.

community leaders learning the sports outreach via
training games

this post serves as a simple update on that trip and provides news about the new clubs that have already started since tim and maz returned to south africa.

'we flew into madagascar via a two stop flight in south africa and then on via a further one hour internal flight to the coastal town of toamasina which lies on the east coast of the fourth biggest island and what some call the eighth continent in the world.

new saturday club set up near 'love n care' base

our days were busy serving with a project called 'love n care ministries' who had visited our thembalitsha projects earlier in the year and where the relationship was formed. 'love n care' run a wonderful little school on the outskirts of the town, have a ministry in a local prison (more of which later), run campus ministry and provide food for street children in the dock area of toamasina. they are also establishing an orphanage in the bush area along the canals which pan out down the indian ocean.

community leader running a new club at the bethany school

the main reason for the visit was to share the sports programme which we have run over the last five years here in grabouw, the programme is loosely based on the ububalo model which uses football as a base to introduce lifeskills and bible teaching, we have adapted it to suit our needs in grabouw and it was great to share it with some enthusiastic leaders in madagascar.

we held the training an the grounds of a local Presbyterian church and the training ran over two days and provided their leaders with the materials to set up their own projects. as we said the course was attended by 21 local leaders, two of whom travelled from the bush village where they will be setting up their own club.

theo sharing a lifeskill and bible story following
a sports outreach with the children

one of the highlights of the trip was to play a match between those that had been on the course and the inmates of the local prison where 'love n care' have set up a permanent church building in which they hold sunday services, mid week bible studies and skills training with the prisoners. unfortunately our mishmash of a team lost 0-2 but the prisoners were so happy for us to come an play a game against them that the score line didn't really matter.

madagascar sits within the top (or bottom dependent on how you view the stats) 10 poorest nations in the world, there is so much need there and people really do live a hand to mouth existence. it really was a privilege to go and share some of the skills that we have with these very open but somewhat held back people and to see them get excited about using sport as a means to engage with the poorest of the poor children in a positive, non threatening way whilst building relationships into the community and taking the church outside the building.

since we have returned the guys have already started two clubs, some of the photos show them with the children, and we are looking forward to hearing how the village of hope sports outreach programme will provide new hope to more and more children as more clubs are set up during the next weeks.

mentors bafana bafana trip and retruning HAN student as volunteer

teams line up for the national anthems

on sunday evening we were able to take our 15 sports mentors to watch bafana bafana, the south african football team, play against nigeria in the group stages of the african nations championship which is being hosted in cape town throughout the month. the trip was a christmas present for the mentors from myself and maz however as the national team were on the end of a 3-1 thumping the mentors probably didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped!

sports mentors take up a whole row before the game
(sive, 3rd from left, looks really happy, not, and that was
before they lost!

saying that it's great to be able to take these amazing young people to special events like that, its definitely not something they would ever be able to do and as with similar trips we have made before to see norway and manchester united play its a sight to behold to see the joy on their faces and the excitement in their eyes as we walk through the v&a waterfront in cape town and enter the stadium to watch their hero's.

as well as the mentors we were able to bless a few of our volunteers with tickets to the game, and although they were working, helping us keep an eye on the boys and girls is somewhat similar to herding cats, especially after the game when the crowd is at its height, they say that many hands make light work and we hope they enjoyed their time.

emma, shana and jasper enjoy the pre-match atmosphere

over the weekend we were also blessed with the return of our first long term volunteer from our partnership with the HAN university in holland, jasper spent 6 months with us in 2011 and its great that he has decided to join us full time for two and half months, we are really looking forward to him helping to develop our sports outreach, mentor our mentors and generally assist shana, bonny and josh, when he returns, each afternoon at the clubs we run in the local community.

and finally can we ask you to please lift our mentors in prayer, lots of them are going through some tough times at the moment, what with them moving to new classes, or new schools, some have major social issues which make it hard for them to commit to our outreach as often as they would like. thanks

August News

August has been a month of contrast weather-wise. Although we've had days of 29 degree sunshine, we've also experienced 0 degree days that have brought wind, rain and storms and caused a lot of discomfort and damp to our friends living in the community of Grabouw. The rivers are overflowing and although we have to be thankful for the rain for the farmers here we sometimes feel frustrated that we can't help to relieve the problems that it causes for the majority other than delivering a small drop of soup once a week - which often just doesn't seem enough....It's then that we have to remind ourselves of the starfish story!

Children’s Unit
We have to remember that we are able to make a difference to a few and this children who we care for in the unit here have somewhere safe and comfortable to be. Last week we were about to celebrate our smallest child's first birthday and have taken great delight in seeing him physically progress in the short time he has been with us.

Another one of the boys has recently turned 3 so is now able to start at the local preschool. His first day was a success, although came with the usual dramas of being left in a new environment! -Thankfully one of the older girls who we are looking after attends the same school so at least there was one familiar face!

Sports

We are very excited to welcome Shana Cox to our team. She has come to serve as an intern for 6 months and has just recently completed studies at Loughborough University (one of the top sporting institutes in UK). She is a fantastic addition to our team and, although she only arrived last week, has already been working with Josh helping to refine some of our policy documentation around the Sports Outreach Programme. Unfortunately she arrived in a week of very wet weather and, although she was itching to get out to do sports, has been unable to until this week.

Earlier in the month you may have read that we took the mentors along to a tournament held in Worcester (a town about an hour north of Grabouw). This was a wonderful experience for the whole team and Shepherd received the accolade of Player of the Tournament! - A very proud day for us all. Read a full match report here.

Other News:
Landscaping:
We are continuing to landscape the land in and around the project buildings and it is great to be able to start to tame some of the wilder bits. We've had to do a lot of water diverting at short notice because of the heavy rains to stop the water submerging pathways. We now have some new rivers (or perhaps canals!) as well as small lakes!

Within the landscaping we have been defining the entrance to Village of Hope and, thanks to a generous donation from local funder we are in the process of installing proper (lump-free) driveways and parking areas, which is beginning to look very proper! We have also installed a nice new fence around the Childrens' Unit play area - we are just waiting for a dry day to finish of the painting of it.

Supporting Other Community Projects:
We are trying our best to use our skills and experience to assist community projects that need help getting to the next level – so that they can apply to register their centres and potentially receive government funding etc. We’ve been assisting with doing surveys and research to uncover the need in the community and filter that into existing projects like crèches. We have also been able to help match funders with needy community projects, like Masiphumelele crèche who are now the proud owners of a new converted container extension with bathrooms and office space! It is such an honour to be able to assist in this kind of community development and make the most of all the time consuming lessons we have learnt in our work here so far.

Volunteers:
We have already mentioned Shana's arrival but we also had a quick visit from past volunteers Debbie and Jeff Trigg and Tony and Hazel Allen (who this time also brought one of their daughters, Rosie, along for the ride). They were here for 2 weeks and got really stuck in especially helping with all the painting that needed to be done -which can be a niggly job but a HUGE help.


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!

winning in many ways...!

the team, and supporters before the big games

the 9th of august is a special day in south africa when we think about the wonderful women of the country, it's a public holiday and many things are done to celebrate women, however for myself, josh, seb and our sports mentors there was no lay in as we were up by 6am collecting the mentors from their homes in the formal and informal settlements before we made the hour long journey to worcester where we were taking part in a soccer tournament organised by solid rock.

kick off!

we arrived ready for registration at 8am after a fantastic drive through the snowing mountains and by 9.30 the event was well underway with teams from the whole of the boland area competing in various age groups from under 9's right the way through to under 19's. we had entered a team made up of our under 17 mentors with a few supporters joining us for the ride!....unfortunately we were placed into the under 19 competition but this didn't deter our team of five players with two subs, who were wearing some new football boots donated by tony allen, who relished the challenge of competing against the older boys (men)!

the ground with snowy mountains in the background

during our first two games we looked very nervous and although we led both games we ended up drawing those 2-2 which was a little disappointing, however it was a round robin tournament which meant we were going to play another six games against the other teams.

over the next six games we went from strength to strength, coming back from 2-3 down to win 4-3 and then thumping the next three teams 5-1, 6-1, 7-2, we finished off the tournament against the two strongest (other than us) teams and won those 3-0 and 2-0 respectively. it was a truly wonderful display with the team playing so well together with sterling performances from the goal keeper through our back line up to our amazing goal scorers.

our star player of the tournament 

there was a very strange scoring system which in principle worked well, where teams we given beans instead of points, ten beans for a win,  five for a draw and one for turning up (losing!), however there were other ways to 'win/collect' beans, such as collecting litter, sitting in straight lines for lunch etc, as i say the principle of the system was great, however the application left a little to be desired and we some how missed out on winning the whole competition via this system.

that said our boys were complimented on their sporting behavior and although i am biased we were the team of the tournament in all aspects of the day and i can only praise the way the boys took the news that they hadn't won the prized kit which we were playing for.

there was a silver lining to the day as we did come away with one highlight which was the fact that our youngest player was voted senior player of the tournament, not bad for a 16 year old pitting his skills against 20 year olds, however his skill levels were outstanding and it wasn't a surprise that he won the overall prize!

a great day was had by all, the day was well organised and although we arrived back in grabouw over 12 hours later, most of the boys slept all the way home, it was great spending time with them and seeing the skills, both football skills and the lifeskills that we encourage each and every day during our outreaches coming to the fore.....a big thank you josh for joining me in the driving, you were really a star!

September News

It’s less than a week to go until our fearless leaders (Tim and Maz) return from their 6 week break. We are thanking the Lord for getting us through so far without too many hiccups! Although we have had some rather frustrating technical issues with our water system (which has to go through lots of hoops, gadgets and gizmos to make it clean before it magically comes out of our tap) we are still standing!

Our trusty volunteers doing their thing!

Children’s Unit
The children have been enjoying some more pleasant weather and it makes everyone’s lives a little easier when they have opportunity to let off steam outside! They are looking forward to a short, one-week school holiday too. Let’s hope the weather is good to us then too!

Last week we had a new admission of a cute little two-year-old girl. She is settling in really well to our strange little family here and certainly is happy to hold her ground around the older children! You may have read our blog post about her but we have recently found out her mother died due to TB. It is very sad but we are hoping there is a possibility for her to be placed with her grandparents soon.

We are still rather worried about a recent decision that has been made by the courts for one of our children. It is not appropriate to divulge the detail but please pray that God protects the little girl in question throughout the process and that His will be done.

Our football pitch - perfectly flat as ever!

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Sports in the informal settlement of Iraq now has a couple of challenges. We arrived last week to find that our ‘pitch’ (and we use the term loosely in the first place) had been attacked by a digger and had huge chunks taken out of it. The boys managed to play around it but it has severely reduced the space they have to play and makes it a bit of an obstacle course! Of course, we are more worried about it than the boys! We are also battling a little bit with all the younger children who come to watch the club. There are more of them that there are children to teach. A lot of them are younger siblings of the kids who are in our club. As much as we don’t want to tell them to go away – especially when we know they don’t really have anything to do or anywhere to go to – it is really distracting and makes it hard for the mentors to teach the sessions. When we have the manpower we can offer a babysitting service but this isn’t always possible and quite often there is a lot of in-fighting amongst the little ones. We need to pray about a good solution! They are so cute and need love and attention too but we can’t always do everything!


Other News
Volunteers:
This month we have been able to welcome two lovely all-american gels to the team. Kathryn and Martha are both from Texas and heard about our work through our church links there. They have been fantastic at getting stuck in and are great self-starters which is always helpful when we are short-handed. Both the girls will be with us for a couple of months and it’s really nice to have some refreshment to the team again.


Cycle To The Sea:
Our terrific team of 10 who cycled themselves silly for us managed to raise in excess of £2500. When we asked them for a report on their efforts this is what we received:

Too tired for prose but in brief my report is:
-          Great success
-          Splendid route
-          Stunning weather
-          Perfect lunch stop
-          Good crack
-          Varied fitness!
-          Very welcome overnight
-          Impressively generous donations
-          Most are keen to repeat next year


Thanks so much guys. We appreciate every penny. And to hear that they want to do it AGAIN makes our hearts swell!

You can still add to their total here: www.justgiving.com/CycleToTheSea2012


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!


Up And Coming Events
For further details check out our Facebook page:
www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation


Wholehearted New Album Released 1st October

Our friends at Wholehearted are launching their new album, Fearless Love, which will be available on iTunes very soon. If their previous offering is anything to go by then you are not going to want to miss out on this. It also includes Hope Is Here which was written with Thembalitsha in mind! Check it out! http://wholehearted.co.za/

HOPE 2012

Top SA bands are going to be making some noise for us this World AIDS Day (1st December).

If you are going to be any where near Cape Town then diarise it and get your tickets before they sell out!

They are available on computicket now. A steal at R150 a ticket. Please support us and get the word out to your friends/family/school. The more people who know about this event the better!


Get your tickets at www.hope.org.za/2012

new sport support from the HAN students

new sports students with the kids from
site view and snake park sports club

over the last few years we have been blessed with a plethora of sports students who have been placed with us at the village of hope sports outreach project, it has been my honor to be the 'practical supervisor' for these students from the HAN university in nijmegen, holland, and we have not only been able to continue but also expand and extend our sports outreach, via better planning schedules and documentation, thus ensuring that the project continues long after the dutch students have returned home. this has been due to the work that we have developed for our sports mentors (peer educators) and this is something that the new students will continue to work towards.

this afternoon we held our first sports outreach with the new students, yoram and anna, who will be working with us for the next five months. the field was packed with children, some of them much too young to be able to understand the topic for the day, which was all based around planning for the future and how being prepared is an important lifeskill to learn, however the 24 boys and 20 girls aged 9-15 who attended the club had a wonderful afternoon.

the photo was taken right at the end of the session when at least half of the children, and our wonderful care worker, lindi, from thembacare who comes to help run the netball with the xhosa speaking girls, had gone home. however i hope you can see the joy on the faces of the children that we work with on a monday afternoon from the site view and snake park areas of the townships here in grabouw. the photo also shows themba, standing to the top left of the photo, who is our peer educator for that club....unfortunately michael (our other mentor) was late home from school and could make it today!

tomorrow we will be working in iraq with our further clubs taking place in rooidakke, waterworks, and the two farms on wednesday and thursday afternoons. please keep an eye out for the future news of the sports outreach we do in grabouw.

May News

Well winter is definitely on it’s way and we are thankful that we have log fires to keep us warm on the colder days. We are also very thankful that we have our own supply of wood here on the farm thanks to our small plantation which has always been enough. The maintenance team (as they are now known!) Tim Berger, Heinrich and Johan have been kept busy cutting trees to keep our wood store replenished.


Children’s Unit
Chicken pox has been making its way through the children’s unit!! It’s never ideal for any child to have to deal with such an illness but we were worried that the HIV positive children would really suffer. Thankfully they all seem to be coping very well with it and most of them have only had it mildly. Well done to our House Moms for getting though it too!

Another month generally means another birthday and this time it was for one of our girls who turned four. This particular girl has been with us for over a year and has had no contact with her mother for over six months. The social workers are trying to track down her mother for the purposes of assisting in acquiring a birth certificate so that a foster home place can be found for her. It is crazy that a child can be four years old and still not have been registered! The mother suffers with alcohol addiction and at the moment we have no idea where she is staying. Despite her difficult social situation the birthday girl had a fantastic time celebrating in the traditional way with Maz, Mel and our newest volunteer Lauren organising a lovely party for her. We love spoiling the kids here and being able to love them. We know it doesn’t always make up for a lack of a real family but at least they know that someone is there for them. In the time she has been with us she has really come out of her shell and become a confident, delightful child. We are trusting God for the best family for her, whatever that might look like.

Although we are often battling with frustrating social work cases, it is good to be reminded of those situations which are being resolved and we have a fantastic story of reunification this month. The mother to one of our three year old girls has been told that she will be allowed to have her child returned to her if she can prove her responsibility by following a strict set of guidelines set by the social worker. These guidelines include visiting us every day to learn how to take care of her child and learning how to administer the medication. We are pleased to say that the mother is responding well, adhering to the guidelines and are we are very confident that, in a few weeks, the social worker will agree to the child returning home! The mother is also taking responsibility for her own medication and the Day Hospital are real pleased with her progress. It is always our prayer that a child can go home to a loving and caring family member and for it to be the mother too is just the icing on the cake!

We have also received news that one of the little boys who returned home a few weeks ago is doing very well. His mother, who was defaulting on her HIV medication, has become compliant again and is working hard, along with the grandmother, to improve the house – by putting cardboard on the walls and carpet on the floor -  and keep it clean and tidy. This is truly fantastic news and goes to show how Thembalitsha can make a difference. Watch this space!

Sports Outreach and Community Work
A highlight of this month has to be the fact that we were able to take our eight sports mentors to Cape Town Stadium to watch Cape Ajax v Orlando Pirates. It was fantastic to be able to invest in these boys who are willing to get involved and regularly commit to our weekly sports outreach in their local areas. Many of the boys have been involved in our clubs from a young age and realise the difference they can make. We made a day of it and took them to see some of Cape Town’s sights either side of the match. It was truly a precious experience to share in their first viewing of a proper football stadium and we could see that it was something they would hold in their memories for a long time to come.

This month we also assisted in the Community Police Forum’s (CPF) feeding programme where, for one day, we took over the daily task of providing a basic meal for patients of the TB clinic in town. This meal is essential for the TB medication to work effectively. Providing this meal for fifty was no simple task but we were able to enlist our volunteer, Pauline and Tim’s mum to prepare the food and then use our volunteers to help in the distribution. The food was certainly well received and we had enough left over the take to the ARV clinic too! Our hats go off to Captain Noble and the team of volunteers from his church in Grabouw who usually provide this service – at least we could give them a day off!!!

You may have read in ThembaCare Grabouw’s news about the inpatient who is regressing. Sadly she is the mother of two boys, both of whom attend our clubs. The older boy assists the mentor for our club in Siteview (an area in Grabouw) and the other attends our Rainbow Smiles HIV support group. Please hold them in your prayers. Although it is good that these children are known to us and we can look after them it is still a very sad situation.

Other News
Volunteers:
As another month passes we have to say goodbye to two more volunteers. Heather Moore and Grace Perret have both served here for three months and have been invaluable members of the team. As always, the goodbyes are bittersweet as, though we are sad for them to leave, we are so excited about what is going to happen in the next chapter of their lives. Thank you girls! We can’t wait to hear about what you get up to next!
We were also happy to receive our newest volunteer, Lauren Carmen. Lauren is another Aylesbury (or should we say Quainton) lovely! The Carmen family have been long-standing supporters of the Village of Hope and this is Lauren’s second visit. She is already getting stuck in and brandishing her own form of humour in the team. We can tell we are going to be in for a fun three months.


Ukuquala Two:
Our new building from the Germans has been in need of some TLC whilst it dries out. It was noticed that the walls were starting to sag so we have taken the advice of Ian, our friendly structural engineer and arranged for some bracing to be attached. This was carried out by a team of loyal workers at Rustic Homes. Thanks guys! – we appreciate your skill!! The new bracing will become a feature once the walls are dry and plastered and a bit reminiscent of a tudor house!

Hope2Light:
We cannot end the newsletter without saying a huge thank you to Amanda Nortje, our funding manager, and her friend, Karlien Scholtz who have just completed a cycle from Village of Hope to the Cape Aghulas at the southern tip of Africa. They completed this mission over 4 days in an attempt to raise awareness of the Thembalitsha Foundation but also to raise funds towards a new minibus for us to be able to transport the Village of Hope, Sports and Rainbow Smiles children back and forth. They certainly were pedaling with a purpose and we appreciate all you have done for us, girls!




Up and Coming Events


Head’s Up For Father’s Day 19th June

Last year our alternative gifts for Father’s Day were a real hit so we are going to repeat it again. So, if you would like to buy your Dad a gift that counts instead of a comedy tie or pair of socks follow this link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290717510664

• British 10k London Run

We have six places available and the run takes place on Sunday 8th July. This really is a fantastic race – you get to run past major London landmarks like Big Ben and St Paul’s cathedral. It costs £30 to enter and you need to be willing to commit to raising at least £250 for us. So, whether you are new to running and looking for a challenge, or an old hand looking to beat your personal best, this is a great opportunity to get into training and to run for a great cause. Contact us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information.

• Thembalitsha Bike Challenge 
Can you cycle 10 miles? 100 miles? Either way we’d love you to join us on Saturday 8 September as we challenge ourselves to cycle whilst raising money for Thembalitsha.
 The challenge:

8  - 16 Miles: A there and back again route from Aylesbury on picturesque lanes in the Chilterns, suitable for all kinds of cyclists and all ages and including families, you just need to be able to cycle comfortably for around an hour at an easy pace. Entry fee is £5 for adults, £2 for children.

100 Miles: A wonderful route through the Chilterns and the Thames Valley before lunch at a riverside inn, then on to the South Downs and the sea at Brighton. You’ll be rewarded with a stopover at a farm and a hearty breakfast before being driven home the next day. Suitable for regular or more experienced cyclists, you need to be able to cycle at a moderate pace for most of the day. Entry fee is £25, which includes overnight accommodation, breakfast and return transport.

Whichever personal challenge you choose, our challenge to you is to raise as much money as you can for Thembalitsha in sponsorship. Are you up for it?!
Contact us: office@thembalitshauk.org.uk to sign up!

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!

supporting mentors...ajax come so close

view from signal hill

its hard to put into words the sights, sounds, feeling and or just the experience that we had yesterday evening as we took our 8 mentors who help with our sports outreach to watch cape ajax v orlando pirates at the green point stadium in cape town. we were also joined by some of the dutch students and a few of our volunteers who came along for the ride (more about that later).

our first stop was at signal hill, the back side of lions head mountain which shares the cape town backdrop with the world famous table mountain, from our lofty view the boys had a great vista across their city and were amazed by the sight of the stadium far below. as we drank in the view the mist from table mountain rolled in front of us, causing the stadium and roben island to appear and disappear from the scene....one of the boys commented that it looked like a dream, and in a way he was right, it was a long way from the realities of his daily life filled full of worries about the basic things of life that we all take for granted.

the wow of the stadium

from those lofty heights we ventured down into cape town and made our way to the victoria and alfred waterfront where the boys were wowed by the street performers and overwhelmed by the amount of people enjoying the sights and sounds of africa (not the real africa but a good introduction to the the continents many tourists!).

after a long meal at the mcdonalds overlooking the harbour, where the boys enjoyed and even lingered over their big mac and fries, we made our way with a few thousand other vuvuzela blowing fans to the stadium and other than a few minutes getting through the not so tight security we found ourselves walking up the steps to the awe inspiring stadium which was fully lit against the cape town skyline.

to see the faces of the boys as they saw the view of the pitch for the first time was one of the most amazing things i have had the pleasure to have share, their eyes opened wide at the spectacle that presented its self before them, not only were they dumb struck by the vastness of the stadium but also with the presence of their famous footballing stars right before their eyes.

our intrepid volunteers

many of the boys come from homes with no running water, let alone electric to power a tv, for some of them these legends were only seen via the newspapers or soccer magazines telling of tales of heroism and glory. tonight they were going to share in the highs and lows of their team, and even if 'their team' wasn't playing they would cheer and clap at every move of these modern day gladiators. (i've be waiting to write a report like this for years but after the 2010 debacle that england played on this very pitch against a poor algeria side, and the fact that that night the stadium wasn't a riotous colour of african fans but just the same old random blokes from london, huddersfield or manchester who were in south africa to watch their hero's fail once more, (this time in africa (rather than south america or europe as has happened so many time before), it didn't seem that fitting until now!

only god can help his team!

the game was fast and furious with cape ajax taking a dissevered lead around 20 minutes, however that lead only spurred on the pirates and their large allegiance of supporters which out numbered the home support by at least 2 to 1, and they leveled 3 minutes later with what was to be the last goal of the game.

we were surrounded by home, away and even neutral supporters who all aligned their support of their clubs, pirates, ajax, cheifs and stars fans chanting their songs, calling upon their god's support of their teams...the riot of colour, the cacophony of sound filled the stadium and although the game ended as a 1-1 draw each fan, each child and spectator took away their own thoughts and dreams such as i have seldom seen before.

boys enjoying after game celebrations at the waterfront

after a short walk back to the waterfront, posing in front of the 'ferries wheel' we found our faithful combi to join the queues of vehicles making their way back to their homes, for us it was grabouw  but along the N2 we said our goodbyes to those from the townships of langa, athlone, kayhelitsha, maccassa and lwandle.....

...dropping the boys off in the informal settlements of grabouw proved to be a quiet affair with the majority of friday night party people in their homes when we arrived at 11.30...and as we dropped off our last of our sleepy mentors we received a phone call from 'the girls', our volunteers had broken down half way up (or down dependant on your stance) sir lowry's pass in our newly acquired audi A4....argh....another two hours waited us as we firstly returned to the village of hope to secure our toyota hilux to provide the much needed pulling power, but found that the car was fixed fast and only a tow truck would suffice to bring the car to its return to grabouw.

the audi on the tow truck...eeek how much will
that cost?

an amazing and long day came to an end at 1.30am with thoughts of new sights and sounds, new friendships made and the thought of an expensive repair bill filling my mind!....

...for me today is another day, the stresses and strains of running a project which engages with people infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB, but for the boys a new day has dawned where they have seen the stuff of dreams.....such is the life we lead here in grabouw, its a real conundrum but thanks for taking the journey with us.

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!

sports clinics

behind the goal during shooting practice in iraq
informal settlement in grabouw 

i think monday and tuesday afternoons are my favorite times of my week, although we run sports clinics for the children in grabouw each and every afternoon in 6 different areas monday and tuesday's are the only two days that i can commit to.

yesterday we had a wonderful time in hillside with around 50 children, both boys and girls, coming to play soccer (sorry football) and netball, and today we had about the same number in the iraq informal settlement. the kids we work with are so precious, many of them come from very difficult family situations, often living with many people in a single room tin shack or breeze block home, but the smiles on their faces when they see our team turn up is what makes the days so special.

this afternoon we were able to share the bible scripture about using the whole armour of God to protect ourselves against the evil that is part of our daily lives and i was able to pray for one little guy who had really bad tooth ache, we stood together and asked God to heal this guy, i pray that our prayers were heard and that his faith in Christ will restore what has been making his life a little tougher.

we see sport as a great medium to engage with the children, this enables us to get along side them, show them respect and teach them in a holistic way ideas that will help their educational, emotional, physical and spiritual growth.....

soccer in lwandle

arron and djuri giving a half time team talk

on saturday morning we took 15 of our local boys, mainly made up of arron's winning rooidakke team from the last soccer saturday that we held at the country club, plus a couple of boys from the iraq team, down to play their first 11 a side match against a team from the lwandle township just outside somerset west.

the whole event was a real adventure of the boys, the first time playing an 11 a side game, against a very well organised team, run by my friend mbetha, who used to play for cape town ajax in the south african premier league. the game was played in the middle of the township (mainly made up of black african people and what with our boys being mainly coloured and all the coaches being white europeans this was quite a mix!)

it was somewhat shocking to realise that many of our boys, 5 of the 15, didn't have sports shoes, some had trainers, others second hand football boots but some either came with their school shoes or bare feet...at our sports saturdays we always play bare feet so that no one feels out of place but to see our guys turn up without the basics of a kit was a shock.

free kick to lwandle, do you like the grass!

we never struggle for soccer shirts, but we played in a mix of blue and white hooped tops, shinny green shorts and yellow and or blue and white socks, we did look quite a sight!...however as my dad always told me 'it's not the player with the best boots or kit who is the best player' and we proved that by creating some good goal scoring opportunities in the first half and should have been 2-0 up before they scored the only goal of the game.

the boys played out of their socks, literally, and came away with a credible 0-1 loss to a team who had played together many many times before...they all really enjoyed themselves and were a real pleasure to take on this first adventure.

if you are living in and around cape town and do have access to old soccer boots, sized around 2-7 (that's old english sizes i think) then please let us know and we can really really bless our boys who don't have anything to play in...thanks

another successful sports saturday

last saturday we held our last sports saturday of the 2010 year, an eventful year for sport in south africa and not one that we have let pass by either.

this final sports saturday took place at our new venue the groenberg (green mountain) high school in grabouw, where we hosted around 100 children for a morning of soccer and netball competition.

the teams were made up of the two new schools project we have started, KMP (katharine murray primary) and pineview primary, who previously made up our hillside and rooidakke teams, along with our established community teams from iraq and waterwerks as well the farm team from remhoogte. the boys were split into under 13 and under 15 age groups with lisa organising the girls as she felt fit!....

all the boys had to play in bare feet as not everyone had sports shoes but we were able to provide football shirts to all teams, including bristol city, reading and coventry city, shame there were no QPR tops but they remain top of the football league championship in england so we're not really moaning.

we played on 4 pitches with referees from the HAN university helping out to keep control and after some stiff competition, the u13's was won by a team from waterwerks, the u15's by the boys from iraq and the netball by remhoogte, the school teams performed well and really enjoyed playing in their first real tournament.

after the games we were treated to a wonderful braai (BBQ) which was provided and cooked by the guys from the roundtable, who also sponsored our new 'village of hope sports outreach' tee shirts.

if you would like to sponsor a sports saturday which costs around £100 to run with drinks, food and prizes then please contact us!

the myths that surround HIV

living in grabouw we are part of a wider community heavily affected with the HIV virus, one in three people in our town live with this disease and many more are affected by it's prevalence. that said we don't see thousands of dying people walking our streets, living with HIV isn't a death sentence and what with the work we are doing via the village of hope, thembacare and the other NGO's in town we are seeing people not only stabilised but living a 'normal' life.

yes there are the drugs which must be taken every twelve hours to keep the virus from spreading and becoming full blown AIDS, but once a person is on the ARV programme life continues, with it's daily struggles and chores.....i was reading an article on the BBC web site about ladies living with HIV in zimbabwe who play football, the perception of 'the world' is that of people lying in hospital beds or dying in their tin shacks, however as the article states these ladies want their status to be known, for their lives to be as normal as possible, playing sport, working, raising a family is all part of life, with or without being HIV+.

we know and work with so many infected people, do we treat them any different to anyone else? no and neither should the world look down on or despise such people, we need to love them, embrace them and give them a hope and a future.