March News

As ThembaCare Grabouw have probably mentioned in their news, we have had a dramatic month here in Grabouw. There has been a large amount of unrest in the community which culminated in violent protests a couple of weeks ago. We are thankful that our project is not immediately in the township so we weren’t caught up in anything directly, however it impacted our staffing for over 24 hours because it was not safe for our House Moms to move back and forth. Thankfully we are currently blessed with lots of very capable volunteers who stepped in to fill the gaps and they did an fantastic job of keeping the children stimulated and the routines running.

Children’s Unit

Peek-A-Boo Easter Bunny

With the Easter Holidays now in full swing, the House Moms are being kept on their toes. Nine children to entertain all day, seven days a week can be quite full on! To add to this we have been looking after two extra little boys in the day as well. The boys are staying with ThembaCare (because we don’t have any spare beds) whilst they wait to go into hospital for TB treatment. Thankfully we have the distraction of a new trampoline. The frame was a second hand donation a while back but the pad arrived perished and sun damaged and no good for hardcore bouncers. Tim’s parents brought out a new one with them from the UK using some money that was donated and now trampolining is a new major past time. We have also got Jess, Grace, Heather and Katia on hand to do some Easter crafts with the kids to keep them entertained.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Two weeks ago we had one of our Soccer Saturday events at the Country Club. We had a fantastic turn out with over 150 children attending from the seven different areas we work in. All credit to the volunteers and Dutch Students who arranged it. It all ran very smoothly and the kids had a fantastic time. The German building students came along to lend a hand and be ‘managers’ for each of the teams and then later on the Dutch and German students went head to head in a match of their own. We are very grateful to the Elgin Round Table who came through again with food and refreshments for all the children. We stood back and realized that at one stage with had volunteers from England, USA, Canada, Holland, Norway, Germany and New Zealand helping out…Village of Hope really is going global!

It really was also great to see investment that we have been making in the sports mentors paying off. They conducted themselves really maturely and were an asset to our day. We are exploring how we can invest more in our mentors off the pitch too by seeing whether we can offer a scholarship to one of them to help to develop them and give them hope for a better future.

Other News
Volunteers:
The whole team was very sad to say goodbye to Niall this month. He had five weeks serving at ThembaCare Grabouw and with us and had become a true father figure in the volunteer unit. We are confident it’s not the last we will see of him but we are already missing him. Lance and Travis, our Canadian duo also said goodbye – things are certainly very quite around here without them!

On the flip side we were able to say ‘hello’ to Katia and Heather. Both of them are serving with us for three months and have already got stuck in! Katia is a Nurse from New Zealand and is assisting in the children’s unit and we have been enlisting Heather with lots of admin and petty cash. Not always the most glamorous of jobs but the help is always very much appreciated. We have even loaned her skills out to the Day Hospital who have needed help with their mountains of filing.

The New Building:
….Is complete! (well very nearly!) Yes, the Germans have now left, leaving us with another lovely straw house. This one is a two-story affair but is very similar to the house they built last year. The whole team worked extremely hard to get it completed as far as possible working late into the night and early in the mornings. We are so blessed to have another building which we hope will help us cater for more volunteers in the future and eventually lead to us being able to expand the services we can offer in the children’s unit. But for now it’s the same process as last year: we need to wait for the straw to dry out before we can plaster it and then begin to use it and with the rains on their way it could take a while.


Events
With Easter just around the corner, why not give a chicken this year rather than an egg?! We have a great alternative gift for you just visit eBay to get yours! http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290691216752

It’s that time of year again when we are recruiting runners to for our 10k 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 £500 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.


How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

February News

‘Hope is Here’ is the new single from Wholehearted and is inspired by the work of the Thembalitsha Foundation.

If you caught us when we were in the UK you will have had a sneak peak. The single in available for free download (click here) and the video, that was filmed in Grabouw, shows some of the work of Village of Hope and ThembaCare. Those that are subscribed to our email newsletter (sign up here) get an exclusive preview of the video which will be released officially later on this week. We will post here and on our facebook page when it's released. Make sure you check it out - You might even recognise a few faces!

Through everything that we do as a Foundation our main aim is to bring New Hope and we hope that the video gives you a taste of just that. You can also see more stories of hope within our news this month – because we have been very busy and have lots to share! We hope the stories inspire you to join us in our quest to create positive change in our communities.


This month has very much been the month of birthdays with many of our staff, volunteers and children celebrating another year. It’s at these times we really do come to appreciate life and what a blessing it is – particularly when it comes to the children in the unit, whose lives could look quite different if they weren’t here with us.

Children’s Unit
We had one little boy turning two. He has been staying with us while we stabilised him on his ARV and TB medication but we are very excited to be placing him back home with this Mother. His Mum has been in to get all the training and advice she needs to look after her little boy and we are very hopeful that this will be another successful placement. On the flipside the other birthday we celebrated was for one of the girls who has been with us since we opened three years ago. She became four this month and her case has been a lot more complicated to work out – and is still on going.  It is hard to know when she will ever move on to find a home of her own. Of course, she has been with us for so long now that Village of Hope is the only home she knows and she had a fantastic time celebrating with all the German students (28 of them!) coming in to sing to her. Her face was a real picture! We are also pleased to welcome back our two year old girl from hospital. She has been in under observation whilst she was put onto her ARV medication. This little cutie has TB too so it was important she was monitored because TB can flare up when combined with the HIV medication and last time we had a real scare. This time we are pleased to report that it all went smoothly and she is happily settling back in here at the Village of Hope.

Our House Moms are also looking very pleased with themselves at the moment thanks to some new uniforms. The uniforms are in the Thembalitsha colours and, along with the nice new name badges, certainly bring an air of professionalism to the unit! They were provided by one of our old volunteers, Jennifer Hunt, who has visited the project a number of time. Thanks Jenn!  The attire is comfortable to work in too - which is a necessity when working with little ones.


Sports Outreach and Community Work
Our community outreach is still going strong. We have welcomed our two new interns from the HAN university in Holland, Angelique and Marijn. It’s the first time we’ve had two girls but, of course, they don’t seem to be phased by the football (and the boys have been very welcoming as you can imagine!) and seem to be at home with their roles already.

The girls already have two new boys who are keen to make the commitment and train to become mentors. This is really exciting because it shows that the strategy that Weike and Stephan set up is working: the older boys in the clubs are seeing how rewarding it is to be a mentor and wanting that for themselves.

The other exciting news is that we have been approached by the Waitrose Foundation, who visited the project earlier in the year, to see how we can role out our sports programme to all of the farms that they invest in. We are so pleased to see that Waitrose see the value in the work we are doing and are keen to be able to share the programme with as many people as possible. It’s still early days and we have a lot of logistics to sort out before anything can become definite so please pray that God shows us the right way to go about this.

Rainbow Smiles, our support group for HIV+ teenagers is doing well too. Our volunteers, Jess and Grace are doing a brilliant job of pulling activities and ideas together along with the support of Tim Berger and Johan. ThembaCare are also providing their wisdom in how to educate the kids on HIV and this month Jess and Grace have been roping in all the adults to become antibodies (or ‘soldiers’) to dramatise the battle that does on in the body when the HIV virus attacks!


Other News
Volunteers:
Our volunteers continue to do sterling work. Jess and Tim are settling in well and since then we have welcomed Grace Perret and Niall O’Loghlen from the UK – Grace is here for three months (and is a link from Aylesbury) and Niall for five weeks. We’ve also welcomed three young men from Canada: Travis, Lance and Andy. Andy is only with us for a week. He is actually Tim Walker’s cousin and it’s always good to meet more of the family, however briefly. Despite the brief stay, he has still managed to come face to face with a puff adder and a hornet’s nest! He also led the mid-week church service at ThembaCare so I think we can safely say he’s had a good glimpse of Africa! Travis and Lance are staying on till mid March and are getting stuck in on the farm, felling trees and chopping wood and also exercising their sports skills in our afternoon outreach. It’s good to have them here – even if they did have to bring their own emergency stash of Cheerios all the way from Canada!

Although Niall is staying with us, he is here to serve ThembaCare and will be training them in how to use syringe drivers for the next five weeks. Please check out ThembaCare’s blog (click here) to read all about the difference he is making – it is so exciting and he does know what he is doing because he’s a doctor! It’s nice to be able to host someone who is here to bless another project and good for us at Village of Hope to feel like we are working more closely with our ‘sister’ in town.

The New Building:
Well it’s all go, go, go on site. If you have been reading our blog you will be up to date with all the details! The German students are all here and getting well and truly stuck in – this time with hard hats (which is a relief!). The two-story building is coming on quickly and they already have the door and window frames in. As well as the building the students are also working more closely in the community by providing some shading area for a crèche. The shade is an intricate pattern cut out of a old sail and it is a very complex jigsaw to complete – each piece is unique in shape taking ages to mark and cut out and then having to (some how) bring it all together. We can’t wait to see it finished and we are sure the staff and kids at the crèche will be blown away!


Events
It’s that time of year again when we are recruiting runners to for our 10k 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 £500 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.



How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

December News

Can you believe that Christmas is just around the corner?!

Every month here continues to be an adventure, especially because this month the B team have been in charge of the project! Tim and Maz are currently touring their socks off speaking at various fundraising events around the UK, Germany and Holland. They have been away since the end of October and are not due to return until mid-December so we (Rob, Em and Mel) have been trying to keep things running smoothly (well, as smoothly as they ever do here in South Africa!) So far, nothing horrendous has happened so we are patting ourselves on the back with one hand, whilst desperately praying that it remains that way with the other!

Children’s Unit
Mel has been spinning all the plates for the baby unit whilst Maz is away with the medical support of Sister Portia. Our 11-year-old boy continues to be a worry for us and his health seriously dipped a couple of weeks ago as he battled with another infection. We are in a constant tension with him, trying to maintain his comfort and trying to keep him out of hospital unless absolutely necessary. It’s hard to try and maintain the right balance, but at this stage there is very little the hospital can do and he is much happier in himself if he can remain in familiar surroundings. Thankfully, since he has been put on yet another course of antibiotics, he has bounced back somewhat and we are able to get smiles out of him again. We are praying that he remain stable from now on and still trusting God for a miracle for this precious boy.

Sadly we have to say goodbye to one of our lovely House Moms, Nothini. She is leaving because her mother-in-law can no longer look after her children and she can’t find anyone she can trust to look after them. Whilst we are pleased that she is putting the care of her children as high priority, we are sad to see her go. However, we remain thankful that God has swiftly provided us with a great replacement and we are confident it won’t take her long to learn the ropes.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Our Dutch interns continue to do a great job in developing the programme we deliver. Weike has recently commenced a Mentor Training Programme. This is a six-week course for the four mentors who are young people from the community who help us with the clubs. At the end of the course they will receive a certificate to prove they’ve attended the course. Although the mentors are only half-way through the course they are already showing significant development which is fantastic. We did originally have five mentors but one of them, Reggie, has had to leave because he’s got a job. This is understandable and great news for him, but sad for us as he was great with the kids. Nevertheless we wish him all the best.


Other News

A New Rainbow
This month we have started a new venture in partnership with Abba (A Christian Counseling service here in Grabouw) and the Day Hospital. This is a support group for 9-15 year olds who are HIV positive and who have the added challenge of dealing with their status on top of the usual teenage issues. Although in it’s infancy, it is already proving to be very successful. Currently 16 kids meet every Friday afternoon at a church in the community and have a couple of hours to hang out together, listen to talks, play games and encourage each other. We believe that it is imperative that a group like this is available for HIV positive children to access. It has been noticed that this age group are the most likely to default on their medication because, as they enter adolescence and become more conscious of the impact HIV can have in their lives, they are choosing not to take it, perhaps because of the stigma that’s still attached to HIV and peer pressure. This is the kind of group that we hope the children who are currently staying at the Village of Hope will be able to join when they get older so that they will have somewhere to go to for support.

The children have chosen a name for their club (Rainbows Smiles) and it’s all thanks to the efforts of our wonderful volunteer, Molly Tokaz, that the group has taken off. Molly has since returned to the United States but has left it in the capable hands of our volunteers, Heather and Simon as well as Johan and Rejoice (who works for Abba).

A New Green-Fingered Friend!
We are also very excited to welcome Heinrich to our team. He has been recruited as our new groundskeeper and will be helping Johan to get our land here at the Village of Hope under control. He has already made good headway in the tidying up of the garden but he does have his work cut out as a lot of what we have here is currently ‘natural landscaping’ (or in other words, lots of overgrown grass and weeds!) Now that we have someone who is able to tend the land we are looking to revisit our vegetable garden and tame the plot into something more respectable! Perhaps one day we will have our very own version of the Garden of Eden – but hopefully with fewer snakes and more clothing!

Volunteers:
Well, we would be in a very tight spot without our volunteers. It’s all hands to the deck with the bosses away. Currently we have three volunteers with us. Katrin, the diplomatic Swiss, who has  been volunteering since June; Simon, who arrived from England in mid October and Heather who joined us from Austrailia, via the USA a couple of weeks ago. These guys are such a blessing and help to fill the gaps with competency and enthusiasm.  Heather is being ‘trained’ by Katrin to take over her responsibilities because Katrin is leaving in less than a week. We will be very sorry to see her go.  Thankfully, she isn’t going far. She and her fiancé are moving to Cape Town and will be starting a family – so we can go and visit whenever we like! Simon leaves just before Christmas but he’s been keeping a blog whilst he’s been here (http://simonthursz-gapyear.blogspot.com/) and Heather is with us until January so will spend Christmas with us.

This month we also had other short-term volunteers: We had a two-week visit from the lovely Liz Dillon. Another Aussie! She was great fun and took everything in her stride. It was also special for us as she was a member of Every Nation in Hammersmith, London and had helped to fundraise for the jungle gym a couple of years ago. Along with Liz we had a mission team from America, the Infocus Church from Augusta, Georgia. They bless us every year with a fantastic group of people and achieved so much in a short space of time working both here and at ThembaCare Grabouw. Thanks guys!




Events

Tim and Maz on Tour
Tim and Maz are now in the UK (and Germany and Holland!) and will be there till mid-December. They are touring the country speaking at churches, small groups and schools. If you want to try and see them along the way then check out their tour dates under this blog post: http://thembavillageofhope.blogspot.com/2011/10/tim-and-maz-on-tour.html to find out when they are going to be near you.

Wholehearted
The South African worship band, Wholehearted, will be accompanying Tim and Maz for a week in December. They have an amazing ministry and if you have the opportunity to get to one of the gigs. Check out their facebook page for all the gigs to find one near you. (http://www.facebook.com/WholeheartedMusic?sk=events) . We were lucky enough to see their warm up gig earlier this month and can safely say that you won’t want to miss out! They will be in Bath, Aylesbury and in various areas of London.


Christmas
Well, it’s just around the corner!.. and we have the perfect solution to those hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives. You can purchase physical Christmas cards for different values that contribute towards things like food, clothing and fuel for Village of Hope. Please email jess@thembalitshauk.org.uk if you are interested. We also have e-gifts available to purchase through eBay. Follow this link for a full list (http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/monte_at_home/m.html?item=290630186720&viewitem&_trksid=p4340.l2562)  or check out the event on the Thembalitsha facebook page for more details (www.facebook.com/thembalitshafoundation)



How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (http://www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

October News

Once again we find another month flew by here at the Village of Hope, Maz’s sister, Viv, and brother in law, Mark, have been visiting the project on a sort of ‘holiday’ so Tim and Maz have enjoyed a few days away in the Cederberg mountains with them, which they tell us was beautiful....maybe because of the lack of mobile reception!?

This month our headline news must be the final completion of the house that was built by the team from Stuttgart earlier this year. Rob and Emily are thrilled to finally be in. We are also pleased to announce the appointment of a Nursing Sister to assist with the medical side of the children who live with us. Sister Portia will be shared between us and Thembacare Grabouw, where she will oversee our Home Based Palliative Care Team. She comes highly recommended and we are already seeing the benefits of having a professional nurse around the place.

The wider Thembalitsha Foundation held their ‘staff party’ at the Erinvale Golf Club, in Somerset West, and all of our staff were able to attend that. We enjoyed a hearty brunch and were entertained by some of the project managers who performed a variety of songs and skits...Tim and Maz ‘performed’ a version of ABBA’s ‘I have a dream’ with Maz in full 70’s regalia and Tim dressed up as an Angel, prancing round with his halo and wings!.....say no more.

Children’s Unit
Our little ones continue to challenge and amaze us. This month one of our little girls was readmitted to Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town, with suspected Hepatitis, brought on by her immune system being suppressed with the HIV that she suffers from. Maz was trying to register one of our other little girls into a local crèche and found out that she didn’t even have a birth certificate. These things are sent to try us but we take each day as it comes and amazing things seem to happen. We thank God for these little miracles because without Him I am sure we would all give up!
The children enjoyed a week off from school, their spring break. This is always a taxing time for our House Moms who work a 12 hour shift (7am – 7pm) however we were blessed by having some help from our volunteers from the USA who tried to make their lives a little easier by entertaining the children in various ways.

Mark and Viv didn’t sit in the sun all the time, we did keep them busy with a few tasks. Viv helped out in the unit when the team enjoyed their staff party and we were blessed when Mark and his faithful assistant, Viv, turned his hand to the construction of a wooden sand pit, complete with a wishing well style roof to protect the children (and the sand) from the sun...Thanks guys it’s already a hit with the kids.

Sports Outreach and Community Work
During the spring holidays we took a day out to run another ‘Sports Saturday’ which is always a bit of a challenging day for us to organise but to see the smiles on the children’s faces always makes it worthwhile, especially as we held it on a Monday (!) which meant that they had a full day of activities on what can become a bit of a boring time away from school. The event was held at the Elgin Country Club, quite a contrast to the areas and living conditions that these children are used to, but it is so good to be able to bless them with those things that we so often take for granted. Over 130 children joined us for the event, in which we bring together all the different teams/areas that we work with on a weekly basis, we had 11 soccer teams and 6 netball sides and the children played so well in all the tournaments. For the record Hillside boys won the Under 14 soccer, a first for that area which they were so happy about, Iraq won the Under 16 tournament with some stiff completion from our newly found club from Site View. Rooidakke girls won the Netball tournament but were given a good run for their money from Hillside.

We were also able to take a team of under 14 boys to a soccer event held at Santos Football Club in Cape Town, this was part of the South African Police Force campaign ‘sport against crime’. We had a team made up of children from all around Grabouw, each of the teams/clubs /areas that we work with were represented. Whilst it was great to see the children from different colours and cultures come together to represent our town, it was sad to see other teams ignore the under 14 age limit, which meant that our boys lost all 3 of their games. It’s a hard lesson to learn but having good ethics and being truthful often means that you don’t win.......life skill 1...!

Our Dutch students, Wieke and Stephan are proving to be a real blessing and we thank God that he bought them to us at just the right time. They are helping to document the life skills, bible and health awareness programme which we run every afternoon in the community and this will be an amazing resource to pass on to our mentors when they return to Holland in January. They and the other HAN students helped out at the sports day which we were truly thankful for.



Other News
The Straw House:
As we mentioned in our headline news Rob and Emily have moved into the new long term volunteer accommodation, it has taken a little longer than we thought it would but with some designated funding that we received to complete the building we have finally managed to get them into their new home.

Volunteers:
We were blessed with the week-long visit from two of our long term friends from America, Helen and Jen. They joined us here at the Village of Hope and also blessed our Care Workers at Thembacare Grabouw with their fun and sense of humour. We have also been joined by Simon, a young man from England who will be with us until the middle of December....welcome to the team Simon.


Events and other stuff!
Prayer Day:
Our day of prayer this month was very well supported. Thank you each and every one of you who gave up some of your Saturday to lift up our project in prayer. It really means a lot to us to know that we are being supported in this way. If any of you have any feedback from your prayer time please do let us know.

Tim and Maz on Tour:
Tim and Maz are going to be in the UK (and Germany and Holland!) throughout November and some of December. They are going to be touring the country speaking at churches, small groups and schools. If you want to try and see them along the way then check out their tour dates under this blog post: tim and maz on tour to find out when they are going to be near you.

Wholehearted:
The South African worship band, Wholehearted, will be accompanying Tim and Maz for a week in December. They have an amazing ministry and if you have the opportunity to get to one of the gigs (listed in Tim and Maz’s tour dates) then don’t miss it.

World AIDS Day - December 1st:
This is a significant day for our project. Wholehearted will be doing a special gig at Vale of Aylesbury Vineyard Church for us. If you can get there please do. Also, if you are interested in raising funds for us on that day, why not suggest to your local school that they Wear Red for World AIDS Day and each student can choose to donate £1/£2 to be out of uniform? Quite a simple idea but it could be very effective. If you would like any help with fundraising materials please get in touch.

Christmas:
Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat, please put a penny in Thembalitsha’s hat! We will have alternative gifts available to buy on ebay by the end of this week. These gifts are ideal for hard-to-buy-for relatives this Christmas and start from £5. If you can’t wait to purchase email us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk to find out more, if not, keep your eyes on the blog and on facebook for more information.

Thank You:
Finally we just want to say a big thank you to High Cross Church in Camberley (again) for raising more money for us from their quiz night. High Cross Church have chosen us as their charity to support for the next three years and we are really noticing their impact. You guys are amazing!


How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Give - Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer. Or nominate us as your charity of choice within your church or business.
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (www.thembalitsha.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

September News

Please consider supporting this day by giving up 30 minutes of your Saturday, on 15th October, to pray for the project. Signing up is easy: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/prayer66 and we will be posting prayer points very soon.

In the meantime here's all our other news......

News
Phew! Is it nearly October already?!

This month has been happily hectic but here are the highlights:
We have some wonderful news to share about our two brothers (see the Children’s Unit update), Maz is thankful that Mel is back, Arron has been away completing his sailing training, we’ve welcomed two new Dutch students and said goodbye to Britton….

The boys with their sister and foster Dad

Children’s Unit
Our children’s unit continues to be the main focus of attention here in Grabouw and each and every day presents itself with its own challenges. However this month we can share some amazing news: Our two little brothers, aged 4 and 2 years, now have a new family to care of them. This new family lives in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town with around 1.5 million people living in little more than a shanty town, however there are some wonderful people who live there and to find two of them, a Mom and Dad, is great news! We originally took the boys in last year because their home was found to be at risk by social services – Their parents were alcoholics and using drugs and one of the brothers is HIV positive. We were only supposed to have them for a few months, but as often happens here, the courts couldn’t come to a resolution until now. The new home for the boys is run by another NGO who we work closely with and we will make regular home visits to ensure that the boys settle well. The other fantastic news is that they are also going to be living with their baby sister, whom they hadn’t met before because she was removed at birth to another emergency care home. God is good!

Our other remaining children provide us with challenges. Many of them are HIV+ and that always means that we are kept on our toes and our house Moms, led by Maz and Mel, do a fantastic job ensuring nothing gets missed and that all the children are well stimulated both physically, emotionally and spiritually.

It seems that we have had birthdays galore but with 9 children, 10 house moms and a team of volunteers that isn’t surprising. It’s always a good excuse for us to spoil the children, which we love doing!

With the two brothers gone they were our 20th (yes 20th can you believe it?!) placement since we opened.  We now have space to offer hope to another little one and Maz is busy informing those that place children with us of that fact. One thing’s for sure, in a town like Grabouw, the space won’t be open for long.


Sports Outreach and Community Work
We are very excited to receive our two new Dutch students from the HAN university in Holland. Stephan and Weiker will be with us for 5 months and they are already having a major impact on our sports outreach clinics with fresh ideas to encourage the children that we work with. They’ve also been inspiring us and the local mentors who make up the team providing this ‘service’ to the 5 areas in Grabouw: Hillside, Iraq informal settlement, Waterwerks, Site View and Rooidakke (Netball only) as well as our outreach onto a farm in the Elgin Valley.

The amount of girls joining us to play netball, especially in Iraq, continues to encourage us and as we said last month it is wonderful to be able to provide these girls with a bit of ‘them’ time as they spend a whole day at school and then have to complete ‘chores’ when they get home. This could be collecting water from the local standpipe with 25liter buckets or preparing the meal for the family and often means that they arrive late. But to see them enjoying the games that we prepare for them is such a blessing and encourages us to ‘keep going’ as we seek to build valuable lessons into their tough lives. Last week we were able to pray specifically with some of the children who were feeling unwell or injured. Quite often they turn up with burns or blisters on their arms and legs where they’ve spilt boiling water when cooking.

Our Under 14 boys will be taking part in a soccer tournament run by Santos (a premier league side in Cape Town) in October. We will be playing against other teams from around the Western Cape and our team will be made up of the different cultures and tongues which make up the town of Grabouw. Most of our boys don’t own school shoes let alone football boots, therefore we are still looking for second hand soccer boots, sizes 2 – 7 (UK), which we will use for this tournament. If you have access to an old pair and live within kicking distance of Grabouw/Cape Town then we would love to hear from you. You could always post them too!

Our outreach into the community doesn’t end with sports. We are also involved in delivering soup from a local restaurant into a couple of soup kitchens and crèches each and every Friday. Last week we were able to bless around 50 children with a hand knitted teddy made by the local ‘teddy bear club’. For some, even younger teenagers, this would probably be the first teddy that they have ever owned. It was such a privilege to be able to provide these children with a little bit of love.


Other News
We shall miss Britton, who was with us for 3 months. She has returned to America to complete her studies, but we hope to see her (and maybe her new husband?) next year! Kat continues to provide Maz and Mel with support for the children in our unit and helps out with some of our sports outreach in the afternoon. We were joined by a young lady from Brazil for a couple of weeks and she is keen to bring some more of her friends over to work with us in the future.

Unfortunately our two pigs had become so greedy that we don’t have enough scraps to feed them, so we had to send one away to the butcher! But we know that the children will once again look forward to their bacon sandwiches!

The ‘German home’ is coming along very well and with some designated funding we have employed some local guys to come and help sort the kitchen, finish the lime, straw and sand mix walls and enable us to finally get into the home. We can’t wait to show you some photos of the finished building which we are so grateful for.


Events
Thanks to all of you who came and supported Rock for Thembalitsha in Aylesbury, despite the rain! Thanks also to Melissa Bassil, the organiser and all the bands that gave their time to play at the event as well as the other volunteers who lent a hand.

Also, thank you to the folks at Highcross Church in Camberley who raised £750 through a sponsored walk as well as two members of their congregation who asked for donations to us instead of presents for their Golden Wedding Anniversary.

Not forgetting Viv Knight who’s raised £350 through a cake sale! Thank you all you fabulous people for your efforts.

VILLAGE OF HOPE DAY OF PRAYER
As we mentioned before, please support our prayer day on Saturday 15th October. Our previous prayer day earlier this year was really fruitful and we very much appreciated being lifted up in prayer for 24hrs. It reminded us that we needed to keep prayer at the top of the agenda. Sign up here: www.SignUpGenius.com/go/prayer66. We will be posting prayer points very soon.

NOVEMBER: Tim and Maz back in the UK
Yes, you will be treated to another visit from the Walkers! They are going to be in the UK all of November. Please let us know if you would like them to come and visit you! They are available for church talks, house groups, schools. They really do have amazingly inspirational testimonies from their life in South Africa and would welcome the chance to share them. They will also be accompanying Wholehearted.

DECEMBER: Wholehearted band on tour
If you haven’t already heard of Wholehearted or read about them on our blog then where have you been?! Not only do these guys have a great sound but they are fantastic supporters of our cause and are going to be touring England for a week at the beginning of December. If you are keen to hold a Wholehearted gig at your church or school then please email emily@thembalitsha.org.za as soon as possible. When you book Wholehearted you will get a Tim and Maz appearance in with the deal! You can find out more and hear their sound at www.wholehearted.co.za
If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.

CHRISTMAS:
Yes, well it isn’t far away and we have the perfect solution to those hard-to-buy-for friends and relatives. You can purchase Christmas cards for different values that contribute towards things like food, clothing, fuel for Village of Hope. Please email jess@thembalitshauk.org.uk if you are interested. We will also be running the alternative gifts again which you can buy through ebay so keep your eyes peeled!


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!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk

Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents under the ‘Support Us’ page on our website (www.thembalitsh.org.za). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

June News

Tim and Maz were away in Europe for two weeks during the month where they not only had chance to meet their new Grandson, Elijah, but also took time to visit the building/architect students in Stuttgart, along with their professor, which was great.
The remaining team headed up by Mel, Rob and Em did a fantastic job of ‘holding the fort’ but had to face some tough challenges especially with one of our children who was very sick.

Children’s Unit
During the month two of our nine children have been in hospital for long periods of time. Our wonderful 11 year old boy had a relapse and ended up back in the Red Cross children’s hospital in Cape Town where he received wonderful care to stabilise his lung condition. Unfortunately for us we felt it unwise to bring him back to the Village of Hope in Grabouw, based on our colder winter weather and higher altitude that could affect his health, but he has found a temporary home at Thembacare Athlone, which is one of our other Thembalitsha projects so we keep good contact with him and are working with ThembaCare to find a more long-term home for him.

The other child, a little girl of 18 months, suffered a seizure bought on by TB meningitis. This was rather scary for all involved but thankfully, through the good work of our team, she was transferred to the Tygerberg hospital where she is receiving treatment which we hope will mean that she will be back with us very soon. Her story is a sad one as her mother is also very sick at the moment and also in hospital.

The two little brothers who are with us at the moment celebrated their birthdays this month. They turned five and three and, as usual, we threw a party for them which is always a good excuse to bake a sticky cake for the kids (which the moms and volunteers appreciated too!!)

Sports Outreach and Community Work
Whilst Tim was away Arron, Shane and the Dutch students took a team of 13 players to Caledon (a town about 45 minutes drive away) to play a full 11 a side game against two teams from that area. The teams were once again made up of children who we work with each week from around our town. It’s great to see children from different areas, cultures and backgrounds come together to play. The report back was that the boys played very well and we won the first game and drew the second...Well done guys!
Our sports clubs continue to expand and we have been approached by another farm to introduce the life skills and lifestyle programme to their children, which we are looking forward to. This further expansion means that we are looking for a full time Sports Outreach intern who can come and work with us for a year. If you know of anyone then please contact us for further information. Strangely enough, the farm who has approached us is intending to use money that was given to them by a Waitrose social investment scheme. It’s great to see that these UK schemes are actually working and making  an impact on the people who need it here in SA.
We still have a huge need of second hand soccer boots, sizes 2 – 7 (UK), which will enable us to keep a stock for when we play what we hope will be more regular games against other clubs in the local area. If you have access to an old pair and live within kicking distance of Grabouw/Cape Town then we would love to hear from you. We are also on the look out for soccer balls as our supplies are being worn down and worn out as well as netball bibs for the girls with all the positions marked on them.

Other News
The Straw House:
The new house is nearly ready for it’s outer coat! We will be busy mixing up the lime-based plaster over the next few weeks and once that has been sorted we will reinstall the kitchen which was removed to allow us to reskim the floors, both inside and out. We can’t wait to get into the house now but we know that this will be a slow process.

Volunteers:
We are very busy with volunteers at the moment. This month we have welcomed two Rebeccas, who are friends so it’s very confusing for all of us! They stayed with us for a fortnight in their year out before uni and were a great blessing to us as we found out last minute that we had to send lots of our House Moms on an intensive three-week first aid course. As a result we were very short staffed and the Rebeccas did an excellent job filling in in the Children’s Unit. It would have been a real strain without them.
We have another volunteer from the States, which means that there are now more American than English volunteers staying with us (slightly scary!). Britton is actually working with our sister project, ThembaCare Grabouw, assisting with their Voluntary HIV and TB Testing Unit.
We said goodbye to Shane (or Sugar as he became known to us!). He has returned to America. We were sad to see him go and will miss him a lot.
Over the next three weeks we are going to be full to the gunnels as we receive two mission teams in succession. There is a sneaky feeling that they might have to turn their hands to plastering the house!!

Alternative Gifts:
This month, with the help of our lovely marketing team, we have launched a trial range of alternative gifts called Gifts of Hope which are available to buy through Ebay. To see what is on offer go to our facebook page and check out the Events section. There are a variety of gifts to suit all budgets and we can guarantee that they will be very much appreciated by us and the lucky recipient. If they prove popular we will make them a permanent feature and extend the range to include other Thembalitsha Projects. At the moment you can buy a chicken, veggie seeds, a football or even a pig!

Events
Please support some dedicated and crazy people who are going to great lengths to raise funds for us. Andy Gilbert and ex-volunteer Harry Hogarth are cycling from Calais to Lausanne (sponsor them here http://www.justgiving.com/cycle4hope) and Claire Gomulak, Liz Eades, Jess Stratford, Brady Roberts, Dayna Roberts, Sophie Child as well as Naz Bhana are running the London 10k Run for us (sponsor them here http://www.justgiving.com/10kThembaTeam2011  http://www.justgiving.com/Nasreen-Bhana)

If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know as we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and desperately need more people to be doing stuff for us. We will do our best to support you in making it successful.


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!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk
• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (http://www.thembalitshauk.org.uk/). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

February Newsletter

We can’t believe that a whole month of the New Year has passed already, December was a very busy month for us and we will try to collate over 60 days into this short newsletter!

Tim and Maz had their family over for Christmas. Their sons, Chris (with his wife Claire and baby Alfie) and Josh joined their youngest son Arron, with Tim’s Mum and Dad over. Chris also bought his Father and Mother – in – law (Sue and Paul) and Dan Williams also visited.

Menu

• Children’s Unit

• Sports Outreach & Community Work

• Other News & Volunteers

• Events

• How You Can Help

• Volunteering

CHILDREN’S UNIT
We had the wonderful news with the placement of our eldest 9 year old girl into a wonderful foster family in Khayelitsha run by an organisation called Home from Home. She seems to have settled very well and we wish her all the best for her new life. We have now placed 16 children back into the community and are now able to open up a new space for another child infected or affected with HIV who needs our specialist support.

The children in the unit broke up for summer holidays in early December till the middle of Jan so it was a busy time for our staff and volunteers, however with the lovely weather the children have been able to play out on the jungle gym and also splash around in the paddling pool provided by Claire (Walker)’s school in Bath (quite appropriate don’t you think!).

All our children remain healthy, which is a real testimony to the right medication and nutritional diet, along with stimulated play and development plans which the House Mom’s (over seen by Maz and Mel) ensure are carried out each day. The love that these precious children receive is a real blessing and we pray for their continued healing.

Willing House Mom being buried in sand!

We spent the afternoon at the beach with the children in early January, it was great to see these little ones taking their first steps on the sand and watching their faces as they splashed around in the sea. It is a real privilege to be working with these children and each day we thank God for his amazing provision for us to carry out this work.

SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK
As the summer term came to an end so did the regular sports outreach into the local schools, it has been a real blessing to have some time out to take stock of the work that we have been doing, evaluating its impact and working out how we move forward in 2011.

With the limited numbers (around 150 children, we call that limited!) who attended our schools based clubs, the feel that we have lost a little bit of contact with the children in the communities and the fact that the current Dutch students from the HAN university are returning to Holland at the end of January, we are looking pause our schools based work and re-establish the community based clubs at Rooidakke and Hillside. The children who attended our schools clubs will be encouraged to join us but with the whole Municipality having a look at how to implement our ‘life skills’ based clubs in more areas we feel that this is the right decision as we look to set up a longer term/full sustainable model for sports outreach in Grabouw.

kayaking on the dam

We did have the chance to bless our most regular sports club attendances, with a wonderful afternoon playing on a local dam in kayaks, and we also took the children from the Iraq squatter camp to the beach where we enjoyed time playing in the water, organising a soccer match and catching jelly fish!

One of our younger mentors who help out at our sports clubs, Jason, aged 18, was stabled twice in the chest on Christmas Day evening, it is a miracle that he survived as both lungs were punctured and he arrived in hospital battling for his life. Thankfully he is making a swift recovery and is hoping to help Arron at his clubs which start again this coming week. We thank God for his protection over his life and pray that he will go on to be a blessing to many of his own community as he seeks to help with the life skills and bible study programme.

OTHER NEWS & VOLUNTEERS

Transport:
Unfortunately our new (second hand) VW Microbus broke down twice in the last two months, not a great start in its replacement of our ever reliable Toyota, the first time Tim and Rob replaced the alternator belt on a bank holiday Friday afternoon and the second the 5 gear stripped whilst coming up the mountain pass!....oh and Tim had a lovely puncture when he was taking the children to school....however we are still praying for a nice new Toyota Quantum but as I said in our last newsletter God knows and has a plan when this will arrive!

Food Garden and Walking Food!
Our Food Garden is providing much needed produce for our children’s unit, we have harvested fresh beans, broccoli and cabbage, with our butternuts and potatoes readying themselves for harvest. On another front Arron has successfully procured 2 lovely fat little piglets, which we are feeding up on our kitchen waste, it won’t be long before we are enjoying our own home grown bacon and pork chops!

Staff:
Unfortunately (for us) one of our house moms has given in her notice and we are now working out a way of covering her for the short term, and Daz and Lisa Muir have decided to follow God’s call on their lives and start their own ministry to the poor and needy in one of our local communities, we wish them all the best for their new venture and thank them for all their hard work for the last two years as we sought to set up the Village of Hope.

Mel, Fran & Jess

Volunteers:
As you know Tim and Maz had their extended family over for Christmas, and Rob, Em and Mel were joined by Jess Strafford, Fran and Katie Black, who once again (Jess and Fran on return visits) proved to be such an asset to the work we do. They left in late December and we have now been joined by Ligia (from Brazil) and Lizi Allen (another one of Tim’s ex-crusaders). Mike and Jeanette Hulcoop from Southcourt Baptist Church (and good friends of Tim and Maz) also popped in for a week following a mission trip to Zimbabwe, it was great to catch up with all these amazing people who now have a heart for the work we are doing.

As we mentioned above we have said our sad goodbyes to our latest Dutch sports students, Nick, Bart and Irene who have helped out at our sports clubs and looked into developing our public open spaces into sports areas for our children to play in. We wish them well with their further studies and hope that they will visit again soon.

EVENTS

We are hoping to have something happening every month this year. We are starting with a day of prayer in February.

We are asking you to consider whether you might be able to commit to praying for us just for half an hour. If you feel this is something that you might like to do, we will sign you up for a slot as start filling the day up. To sign up email us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

We are also planning our annual Cycle for September and we still have places available for a the 10k London Run in July. Please get in touch if you would like more details.

If you have an idea for an event that you would like to organise for us do let us know, we would love to have more things planned in the diary for this year and we can do our best to support you in making it successful. 

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!!! You can download a standing order form from our website – don’t forget to sign a gift aid form if you are a UK tax payer

• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise £1000s with enough enthusiasm! We also have annual walks, runs and bike rides. For more information contact us office@thembalitshauk.org.uk

• Pray – Sign up to the prayer newsletter. Prayer is just as vital to us (if not more so) than money! We can’t have enough people committing to pray persistently for us. Sign up at prayer@thembalitshauk.org.uk

VOLUNTEERING

We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff out 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 the Village of Hope please download the INFORMATION FOR VOLUNTEERS documents from our website (www.thembalitshauk.org.uk). Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!