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!
Showing posts with label october newsletter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label october newsletter. Show all posts
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Monday, November 8, 2010
October Newsletter
OCTOBER NEWSLETTER
November is Spring time here in South Africa and is always a glorious time in Grabouw. The apple trees are just flowering, the roses are having their first flush (yes that’s what it’s called!), the local farms and vineyards open their doors to the public to show off their wonderful gardens, and the prospect of a summer of hot and dry weather is just around the corner (sorry to rub it in folks!).....however not everything is so rosy in the valley as many hundreds if not thousands of families struggle with unemployment, lack of adequate housing and major health and welfare issues....thanks to your support we are making a real difference in the sleepy rural town of Grabouw. Read on to find out what we have been doing this month:
Our 9 bed childrens unit has once again had 100% occupancy and with 15 children already placed back with their families in the community we are kept on our toes as we provide a loving environment to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in the home and support those families who we have successfully placed the children home to.
All this takes a great deal of time, money and self motivation and we cant explain how much we are benefiting from the arrival of Mel Kidd, who has joined us from Dallas for at least one year. Mel was part of a mission team last year and fell in love with the project and the children, she is now assisting Maz to create some much needed discipline and structures in the children’s daily lives, her arrival has also freed up Lisa to become more involved in caring for those we have already placed home.
It looks like we have successfully found a home for our eldest (9 year old) girl with a loving family in Khayelitsha, this home is run by an amazing charity called ‘Home from home’, we are hoping that this will be the first of many placements and we are also looking to work with them in the future as we seek to set up our first ‘cluster home’ in Grabouw....all exciting stuff but we will be a very sad to see her leave.
Our sports outreach has taken another exciting turn as we have started to work in two local schools providing sports clubs as after schools activities, unfortunately during the month and transition period we have lost contact with some of the children that we were serving in our communities, however the numbers are growing each week and we are seeing new faces, we now think that around 200-250 children attend our life skills-based bible clubs each week, which is great news.
Last Tuesday we were joined for the afternoon by Matt Walker, Matt came out prior to and during the FIFA World Cup, Matt a real London (pronounced Lunn dunn) boy is fantastic with the kids, unfortunately during the session that he was running he fell and twisted his ankle and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the local government run day hospital in Grabouw...which was a bit of an eye opener, but the service we received would put many western hospitals to shame...get well soon Matt!
Arron has been in Uganda for a couple of weeks with Big Shot Cricket so we have missed his input on the sports side, however Johan has been doing a great job around the farm and we have now got the irrigation system working which has allowed us to plant our first crops (we want to thank Elgin Learning Foundation for their support in this by providing much needed labour to till and prepare the land.
Tim and Daz were also able to bless one of our children’s families with a new roof!, well not quite new but after a conversation had by Tim and a local yachtsman we were given some old sails which we installed over this tin home to keep the spring rains at bay.
October was another busy month for volunteers, we hosted the wonderful mission team from Dallas, ably lead by Krissy Clarke, this is the third time this team from Trinity Church have stayed with us and we are continually blown away by their servant hearts and the way that they not only embrace The Village of Hope but also the work that Thembacare are doing in Grabouw.
Rob and Emily House, along with their children Rosie and Isaac, returned to support our work for the next two years, Rob will be heading up the International Fundraising side of the Thembalitsha Foundation, so don’t be surprised if you hear from him asking for your help in raising much needed funds for not only the Village of Hope but also the wider Thembalitsha projects that we run. Emily will be focusing her time on the new Thembalitsha website and also providing materials to help with fundraising both here in South Africa and wider. Emily is also heading up our volunteer programme so if you are interested in visiting our project then you will be hearing from Em!
We have also benefited from the time that Barbara Wood has spent with us, she has been helping out wherever the need arises, whether that be with the finances, the weekly food shop for the unit (not a job for the faint hearted) or the Friday soup run, we will be sorry to see Barbara leave to return home to sunny England next week.
Another returning volunteer is Fran Black who arrived with her ‘boyfriend’ Spencer, Fran will be staying until Christmas. Unfortunately Spencer was only over for a couple of weeks but we trust he had a good time as he visited homes with our nurses and got involved in the sports outreach. Fran is a diamond and we enjoy her just being around.
During the month we were blessed with our first donation that came through the sales of the wonderful Wholehearted Album, if you haven’t purchased it yet then please visit their web site at www.wholehearted.co.za or visit itunes or cdbaby for more info. The CD also includes a bonus DVD with a video of one of the songs which we shot in our local township and an interview with Tim, well worth the money!
We were also visited by Jo and Josh who came over from England to bring much needed supplies, Jo found us via the Stuff your rucksack, see link here http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com/charity.php?id=118
A Cracking Quiz Night for World AIDS Day
When: 01 December • 19:00 - 22:30
Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchill Avenue, Southcourt, Aylesbury
For those of you who don't already know, 1st December is World AIDS Day. As you can imagine it is a key date in our diary as a charity and we thought it only right to mark the occasion!
So bring you friends along, join us for a fun-filled quiz evening and find out how we are working for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
There will be a bar and a raffle too....what more could you ask for on a gloomy winter's Wednesday?!
Tickets are £5 and include a free drink (£15 for a family ticket).
So roll up, roll up!!!!
Buy your tickets or find out more information from the lovely Ellie Carman (07912 888298) or the lovely Jess Stratford (07738 831507)
We hope to see you all there!
PS If Aylesbury if a tad too far for you to travel then why not host your own quiz night on World AIDS Day or another date? - We have a ready made package for you to make it nice and easy for you to organise. Email us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information or inspiration!
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
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!
November is Spring time here in South Africa and is always a glorious time in Grabouw. The apple trees are just flowering, the roses are having their first flush (yes that’s what it’s called!), the local farms and vineyards open their doors to the public to show off their wonderful gardens, and the prospect of a summer of hot and dry weather is just around the corner (sorry to rub it in folks!).....however not everything is so rosy in the valley as many hundreds if not thousands of families struggle with unemployment, lack of adequate housing and major health and welfare issues....thanks to your support we are making a real difference in the sleepy rural town of Grabouw. Read on to find out what we have been doing this month:
- Children's Unit
- Sports Outreach & Community Work
- Other News & Volunteers
- Events
- How You Can Help
- Volunteers
Our 9 bed childrens unit has once again had 100% occupancy and with 15 children already placed back with their families in the community we are kept on our toes as we provide a loving environment to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in the home and support those families who we have successfully placed the children home to.
All this takes a great deal of time, money and self motivation and we cant explain how much we are benefiting from the arrival of Mel Kidd, who has joined us from Dallas for at least one year. Mel was part of a mission team last year and fell in love with the project and the children, she is now assisting Maz to create some much needed discipline and structures in the children’s daily lives, her arrival has also freed up Lisa to become more involved in caring for those we have already placed home.
It looks like we have successfully found a home for our eldest (9 year old) girl with a loving family in Khayelitsha, this home is run by an amazing charity called ‘Home from home’, we are hoping that this will be the first of many placements and we are also looking to work with them in the future as we seek to set up our first ‘cluster home’ in Grabouw....all exciting stuff but we will be a very sad to see her leave.
SPORTS OUTREACH & COMMUNITY WORK
Our sports outreach has taken another exciting turn as we have started to work in two local schools providing sports clubs as after schools activities, unfortunately during the month and transition period we have lost contact with some of the children that we were serving in our communities, however the numbers are growing each week and we are seeing new faces, we now think that around 200-250 children attend our life skills-based bible clubs each week, which is great news.
Last Tuesday we were joined for the afternoon by Matt Walker, Matt came out prior to and during the FIFA World Cup, Matt a real London (pronounced Lunn dunn) boy is fantastic with the kids, unfortunately during the session that he was running he fell and twisted his ankle and we spent the rest of the afternoon in the local government run day hospital in Grabouw...which was a bit of an eye opener, but the service we received would put many western hospitals to shame...get well soon Matt!
Arron has been in Uganda for a couple of weeks with Big Shot Cricket so we have missed his input on the sports side, however Johan has been doing a great job around the farm and we have now got the irrigation system working which has allowed us to plant our first crops (we want to thank Elgin Learning Foundation for their support in this by providing much needed labour to till and prepare the land.
Tim and Daz were also able to bless one of our children’s families with a new roof!, well not quite new but after a conversation had by Tim and a local yachtsman we were given some old sails which we installed over this tin home to keep the spring rains at bay.
October was another busy month for volunteers, we hosted the wonderful mission team from Dallas, ably lead by Krissy Clarke, this is the third time this team from Trinity Church have stayed with us and we are continually blown away by their servant hearts and the way that they not only embrace The Village of Hope but also the work that Thembacare are doing in Grabouw.
Rob and Emily House, along with their children Rosie and Isaac, returned to support our work for the next two years, Rob will be heading up the International Fundraising side of the Thembalitsha Foundation, so don’t be surprised if you hear from him asking for your help in raising much needed funds for not only the Village of Hope but also the wider Thembalitsha projects that we run. Emily will be focusing her time on the new Thembalitsha website and also providing materials to help with fundraising both here in South Africa and wider. Emily is also heading up our volunteer programme so if you are interested in visiting our project then you will be hearing from Em!
We have also benefited from the time that Barbara Wood has spent with us, she has been helping out wherever the need arises, whether that be with the finances, the weekly food shop for the unit (not a job for the faint hearted) or the Friday soup run, we will be sorry to see Barbara leave to return home to sunny England next week.
Another returning volunteer is Fran Black who arrived with her ‘boyfriend’ Spencer, Fran will be staying until Christmas. Unfortunately Spencer was only over for a couple of weeks but we trust he had a good time as he visited homes with our nurses and got involved in the sports outreach. Fran is a diamond and we enjoy her just being around.
During the month we were blessed with our first donation that came through the sales of the wonderful Wholehearted Album, if you haven’t purchased it yet then please visit their web site at www.wholehearted.co.za or visit itunes or cdbaby for more info. The CD also includes a bonus DVD with a video of one of the songs which we shot in our local township and an interview with Tim, well worth the money!
We were also visited by Jo and Josh who came over from England to bring much needed supplies, Jo found us via the Stuff your rucksack, see link here http://www.stuffyourrucksack.com/charity.php?id=118
A Cracking Quiz Night for World AIDS Day
When: 01 December • 19:00 - 22:30
Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Churchill Avenue, Southcourt, Aylesbury
For those of you who don't already know, 1st December is World AIDS Day. As you can imagine it is a key date in our diary as a charity and we thought it only right to mark the occasion!
So bring you friends along, join us for a fun-filled quiz evening and find out how we are working for those infected or affected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa.
There will be a bar and a raffle too....what more could you ask for on a gloomy winter's Wednesday?!
Tickets are £5 and include a free drink (£15 for a family ticket).
So roll up, roll up!!!!
Buy your tickets or find out more information from the lovely Ellie Carman (07912 888298) or the lovely Jess Stratford (07738 831507)
We hope to see you all there!
PS If Aylesbury if a tad too far for you to travel then why not host your own quiz night on World AIDS Day or another date? - We have a ready made package for you to make it nice and easy for you to organise. Email us at office@thembalitshauk.org.uk for more information or inspiration!
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
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!
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