rainbow smiles for a rainbow nation

as you can imagine the news of nelson mandela's passing on thursday evening has dominated the thoughts of all here at the village of hope, the news feeds, not only here in south africa but all around the world are full of thoughts towards him and the name he was, its quite strange being part of the national outpouring of love and support that this country is going through at the minute and we are aware that that will probably heighten during the next few days as we lead up to his funeral this coming sunday.

yesterday morning we gathered with the rest of the congregation at elgin united church to hold a special memorial service for nelson mandela and we had the privileged to hear from two men who were very close to him following his release and creation of the new government. the stories they told really captured the essence of the man the world has come to revere and as a nation we are now standing at the precipice of a new era, he has gone but as he so rightly said in one of his amazing speeches 'the future is in our hands now' and we need to build upon the work he so freely gave his life to.

its at times like these when we realise that the work that we are involved with at the village of hope and the wider thembalitsha foundation comes even more in line with mandela's fight for the rights of the poor, the overlooked and those who have or are missing out on basic healthcare and education that that most of us reading this post would take for granted and its amazing to be deeply involved in an organisation that has the essence of freedom at its heart.

rainbow smiles children enjoying the time at the beach
(photo by susie erwin)

therefore it was continued vigor that we set out after our regular morning meeting on friday as we sought to continue to bring new hope to those we are called to serve. the day (as with many of our days) was a busy one with runs to drop of the weekly rubbish, collect and distribute the soup to the two communities we support, the picking up of the sports mentors from their training week away in tokai, however the highlight must have been was our year end rainbow smiles event which ended up with a trip to the beach followed by a meal at the spur restaurant in strand.

for weeks the excitement around the trip had been building and as last friday came closer and closer these HIV+ children, who attend our weekly support group, were almost climbing off the walls. by 1.30 (it should have been 1pm but TIA) we completed the collection from their homes in the two thembalitsha bakkies and set of over the mountain to find the nearest beach. upon arrival we found some much needed relief from some breeze and changed into our swimmers and enjoyed some time splashing around in the sea and playing some ball games on the beach.

it was great to see these beautiful kids, who we have come to love and see as friends since starting the rainbow smiles group a few years ago, just having fun and it was an honor to join emma, johan and andiswa, in this special afternoon.

the highlight of the trip must have been seeing the children's faces when they received the christmas presents that emma had so thoughtfully bought and gathered together for each of them, it was a wonderful and humbling afternoon and quite a fitting end to an eventful day for all here at the village of hope.

mandela day at the thembalitsha projects in grabouw!

always cleaning windows

today we celebrated nelson mandela's birthday in style, south africans are encouraged to engage in 67 minutes of social responsibility, and as a charity who work with our communities in many different ways thembalitsha are always inundated by people, schools, organisations and companies and or their employees who are keen to help out for their 67 minutes.

maz shares our vision with the team from parliament

as we posted on monday our mandela day started early with a visit from the ACVV old age home but today not only did village of hope benefit from visitors our sister project, thembacare grabouw, also received some willing volunteers.

who's enjoying their 67 minutes the most?

the first to arrive at thembacare were some children from the local high school who had come to clean the windows, they even bought their own water from school!....

they were soon followed by a team of over 20 people from the south african parliament who had read about thembacare and the village of hope on the internet and were keen to come and see what we were involved in. after a visit to the inpatient unit some of the visitors took a trip out into the community to make a home visit with sister portia (our outpatient sister who is also responsible for the medical care of the children at the village of hope)...the rest of the team came up and played with the children (and their toys, see the picture of tutu playing on the trampoline!).

sr joyce receiving the gifts of bedding for thembacare

we then returned to say our goodbyes at thembacare where the team made a wonderful donation of some much needed new bed sheets and pillow cases with the commitment to continue to work towards some ongoing support for the projects which they were truly blown away by.

upon our return to thembacare we met the local grabouw rugby club who had provided the food for us to provide the hot meal which our patients enjoy as part of their nutritional diet on their road to recovery or as we support them in their last days of life.

cwp managers discussing who we can partner
during their mandela day visit

in the afternoon both projects received a visit from the CWP (community works programme) managers who were not only interested in viewing the projects during their mandela day 67 minutes but were interested in how both parties can benefit from the work that we are involved in to provide employment to the poorest of the poor who are on their government run programme.

thanks to all who came, for your wonderful gifts and also the promise of continued support, whether that be physical, financial or the promise to pray for us as we give our 67 minutes each and everyday!....and last but not least happy birthday nelson, God bless you not only today but for the legacy that you have left for the people of this country.