shedding a tear or two....

i feel enormously proud and honored to be part of the thembalitsha foundation, each one of our projects is doing some amazing work as we seek to provide new hope via our healthcare, education and training projects.

today i would encourage you to take 10 minutes to sit down in a quiet space and watch the new video that has been put together for our sister project thembacare athlone....click here to follow the youtube link....

my words cannot express the way this team of doctors, sisters and careworkers have impacted the lives of literally thousands of children who are infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB since they opened 10 years ago, so i will let the video do the talking, but please be inspired by the work, put your hand in your pocket to pledge to give or your hands together to pray for this work and the work the wider foundation are involved in.

and lastly i am sure you will find it hard not to shed a tear or two when you see the appearance of a certain little man at the end of the video, his life really captured the essence of the work that is done at thembacare athlone!...God bless him!

the passing of our wonderful assi...and facebook page

words can't really express the feelings i have as i write this short post but i'm sure many of you will now be aware that our wonderful little assi passed away at our sister project thembacare in athlone last friday morning.

assi was not just your ordinary young kid, those who came into contact with him will forever have been touched by this little life, it was a blessing for me to have known assi, to have laughed, cried, fought and played with him was a true privilege.

the whole of the thembalitsha foundation also had a huge soft spot for assi and his passing will not only be mourned by us here at the village of hope, but also at thembacare grabouw who had the opportunity to impact his life on many occasions and we thank thandi and especially joyce for the work that they did with him. however it will be thembacare athlone where his presence will be most missed, he spent time with noma and her amazing team both prior to his stay with us at the village of hope and he obviously passed away under their care last week, bless you noma and your team from providing a loving home for him there during his last days.

obviously there are loads of people who have fond memories of assi and we are sure that they would like to say their special goodbye's maybe share a memory or two via photo, video or just using words, so we have set up a page on facebook for them to do so please follow this link to assi's virtual memory board and lets tell the world about this amazing young man and in doing so thank God for his life.

God bless you assi, missing you already, but knowing that you are now at peace and maybe having a little too much fun up there....hope you got a lekker moooto (bakkie) and are enjoying an endless feast of inyama (meat)...see you soon....uncle tim x

11 year old returns again....

the wonder boy returns.

if you have ever visited the village of hope, or if you have been following our blog for any amount of time, you will have heard stories about our wonderful 11 year old boy who captures every-bodies heart. without going into too much detail he has some very complex medical conditions which are really playing havoc with his little body and he has spent a lot of time in the red cross children's hospital as they battle to understand and contain the illness which is overwhelming him.

he loves the village of hope, the house moms who love him as their own and especially mommy maz, who he continually asks for when he is away from 'his home'.......

yesterday we had the great news that he was stable enough to be placed back with us, following his hospitalization and care at our sister project, thembacare athlone. it is good to have his back with us, but because of his medical situation we have to continually monitor him and he is still on oxygen full time, however his smile and lightness of spirit lifts the atmosphere and he brings joy to the lives of all he meets.......thanks for all the thoughts and prayers that were raised up for him and we continue to pray for his full healing.......welcome home!

a happy christmas from the village of hope

johan as santa as we prepare the bakkie to tow
the sleigh into the community!

we just wanted to thank all of our wonderful friends for their support this year, whether you are family, have volunteered (which automatically makes you family as well!), given funds, arranged an event, hosted us during our trips to europe, you know who you are and we really do appreciate you.

the children who live with us at the village of hope will be going to spend christmas with our house moms, thus giving the moms an extra few days with their families, the children a bit of a holiday and the volunteer team a little time to chill and enjoy the festive season.

so from the village of hope team, the house moms, the children in the unit and those in the community we want to wish you all a very happy christmas and a peaceful and prosperous new year.

unfortunately we can't post a photo of us with the children, but if you would like to receive one then we would be more than happy to email you one, so please get in contact, either through the blog or facebook and we will arrange that for you!

please could we ask you to remember our little 11 year old boy who is out of hospital but still very sick, he will be staying at thembacare in athlone over the weekend and we pray that he will soon be well enough to come back to stay with us, his family, here at the village of hope. thanks.

precious 11 year old boy returns to village of hope

arron carries in the oxygen machine as our
11 year old boy returns to the village of hope

for those of you who have been following the story of the village of hope since the beginning or if you have ever visited our project you will know of our wonderful 11 year old boy who seems to capture every ones heart. his story is one that could be made into a movie, he has complex medical condition (which has been documented in an up and coming book about paediatric palliative care) and since arriving at the village of hope in may 2009 from our thembacare unit in athlone he has been in and out of the red cross children's hospital in cape town with various problems.

yesterday myself (tim) and maz had a 2 hour meeting with the various paediatric, infectious diseases and pulmonary doctors at the red cross hospital who are still very concerned about his condition but were happy to allow us to take him 'home' for his ongoing palliative care. he still needs to be given oxygen 24/7 but we feel that we can maintain his medical needs and are so happy that he is back with us.

he said his sad goodbye's to the wonderful team at athlone and jumped into the car to make the hour long journey up the mountain to grabouw. he never stopped talking and can even say 'grabouw', as we arrived we could hear the other children singing his name and he was greeted by all the house moms and the 9 other children who stay with us. it was an emotional return, the other children were waving from the unit window and as soon as he entered the door they came up to him and gave him big hugs and kisses.

we are so glad to have him home and would ask you all to join us in our prayers as we seek to provide a loving home for him and the rest of the children we look after.

first day at school (for our 4 year old)

its a long way on your own!

this time last year we were able to providing a home to two brothers who had been staying at our thembacare unit in cape town, there was hope that these two could have been reunited quickly with their sister, who is staying at another care home, however as with many of our children's cases these things don't happen as quickly as we would like. their mother is now very very sick and it looks like we might be responsible for these two precious boys for a lot longer than we first thought.

as we didn't expect to have them for so long we held back from placing the oldest one at the local preschool as we didn't want to take up a space that could be used by another child who would be in greater need, however with the change of events maz felt that it would be best (not only for the 4 year old boy who is getting extremely bored by having to stay at home at the village of hope all morning with all the babies when the other older children are at school, but also for our house moms as they were finding hard to keep him from crawling up the walls!) that he was found a place at the school.

well yesterday he had his first day, tyler our longer term volunteer took him to school, and although he looked so grown up with his new school bag and flask full of juice once he knew that he was going to be staying the little guy was totally overwhelmed and burst into tears....shame.

however on his return at lunch time he was full of beans and was excited to tell people about his first morning at school.

assi in again....

sorry that these updates aren't about better news but we must remember that most of the children that we provide a home to here at the village of hope are either infected with HIV and or TB, others like our wonderful 11 year old boy have even more complex medical conditions.

unfortunately the news on assi isn't great, after being discharged from the red cross children's hospital on his last visit, he was placed at our thembacare unit in athlone, cape town, which cares for more chronic cases, however his health has deteriorated so much that he has been readmitted to the hospital for further care and tests.

we are now in a place where we are asking what is the best for his future and although we never want or wish for any of our children to pass away we must ask God to hold him in His hands as we are coming to the end of our understanding of his case and we don't want him to suffer much more.

please pray for us and for assi who is a dear dear boy...