further stories of hope...

it's so wonderful to be part of a wider foundation, especially one as amazing as the thembalitsha foundation, we are so proud of our six other projects and have been excited to see the new videos which capture the different aspects of work that each of the projects are doing here in south africa.

we think the village of hope video will be uploaded sometime next week but today we are pleased to share a further two thembalitsha videos which were uploaded onto youtube earlier today, these are those staring frances and laura as they share about the work they do at bosom buddies and the school of hope.

please take a few minutes to watch these stories of hope maybe go grab a coffee and a box of tissues and click on the following project names to follow the links to each of the youtube pages.

bosom buddies for ovayo's story

school of hope for khumbula's story

for those that have been uploaded for a few weeks or months follow.

thembacare athlone for unam's story

themba training for jenifier's story

thembacare grabouw for vivan's story

our graceland preschool and village of hope stories are still to be uploaded so keep an eye on this blog for info when they will be available.

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 village continues to bring ho ho hope!

santa and his sleigh before we left the village of hope

it has been another amazing year here at the village of hope, we continue to see God's provision to us as we seek to serve the community of grabouw especially focusing on those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, all of which are rife in our town.

we could spend a whole blog post about the wonderful things that have happened this year, all the stories of the children that we have helped to find a stable family to go home to live with or those that we are still seeking to help via our children's unit, we could talk about the provision of a new building provided by the students from stuttgart university or the people carrier bought with funds from our friends in england and the dutch charity 'wings of support'. we could provide a long update on the sports outreach which has grown from strength to strength, now engaging with more local mentors who have been supported by the students from the HAN university in holland but all that would take such a long time, so we urge you to venture through the previous posts on the blog to find out what we have been up to during 2012.

children excited to see santa coming to their street

however what we would like to share is the fact that our incredible team of permanent staff (our house moms and maintenance team) and our willing band of volunteers, both longer termers, short term mission teams and individuals, have continued to offer hope in what can sometimes be seen as hopeless situations and this culminated in our annual sleigh ride into the areas where we work day in day out.

it was great to see the children and members of their families that we work with enjoying the sight of father christmas being towed through the town, up the main street and then into each of the communities, many of whom live in little wooden shacks with no water or electricity. the whole community seemed to be out on the street and although we did bless them with a few sweets and apples that wasn't the reason we run this event.

kids chasing santa and his sleigh 

the main reason to do this again was to bless them with the chance to see santa coming to their streets and for that to provide another sign of hope as we celebrate the most amazing story of hope, that of a little baby coming to earth to show us how to live, to love one another, our neighbours and even our enemies, as we love ourselves, to look after the widows and the orphans and proclaim the good news that he can provide hope in the most hopeless places. thank God for Jesus and we thank him for inspiring us to do what we do each and everyday here in this little town in south africa.

happy christmas and may you see hope in 2013 as we enter another year of opportunity to serve those less fortunate than ourselves......

HOPE2012 and our world AIDS day event it's nearly here

for those of you who haven't heard we are hosting an amazing music event called HOPE2012 here in grabouw this coming saturday....what has been billed 'the biggest south african world AIDS day music event' will be taking place at the elgin country club with major south african bands, the parlotones and watershed headlining an afternoon and evening of quality music just down the road from two of our projects, the village of hope and thembacare grabouw, which have picked up the challenge of the AIDS pandemic in south africa.

our friends at goodhope fm have taken up the batten partnering with us to raise the profile of the work that thembalitsha are doing across the western cape and with the support of our round table (who will be running the beer tent) and local vineyards who will be serving some of the amazing wine that is produced right here in the beautiful overberg we hope that people will see the good work that is going on in our lively little town.

for those of you in south africa who haven't bought their tickets yet then you best get your skates on and visit the computicket site to ensure you don't miss what will be a truly memorable day.

we understand that there are many of you who live overseas and who won't be able to join us at the HOPE2012 event, however there is an opportunity to get involved with fund raising by joining our wonderful team at thembalitshauk as they host an evening of music and comedy at the aylesbury vineyard centre which also takes place this coming saturday, for more info about that event then please visit the vineyard web page or facebook

lets pray for some great weather and lots and lots of people who will not only have an wonderful day but also be exposed to the plight of millions of people infected by HIV and the work that thembalitsha are doing to provide new hope to those via our health care centres.

providing new hope to another child in need...

the first meal for our new child, given
by our house mom at the village of hope

some days the day to day chores that come with running a home for 9 children infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB, along side our daily sports and health awareness programmes into the local formal and informal settlements, can become so overwhelming that we have little time to really stand back to see the ways in which we are really making a difference to the people we have been called to work with..

...however there are some days where our eyes are opened to the amazing work that is undertaken at the village of hope, and today is one of those days as we successful see the fruits of the work of placing stabilised children home with families.....what do i mean by that?....

...well due to the recent successful placements of some of our longer term children (see their stories by clicking here, or here, or here) we have been able to create some more bed space to provide accommodation for more needy children, and today we are back up to our full compliment as we have welcomed another 2 year old girl into our home.

this dear little girl will be loved and cared for by our wonderful house moms and we hope that she will soon be back home with her family after we work with the local day hospital in addressing her immediate medical needs.

new vehicle of hope!

mommy maz bringing the kids home from school
in the new H1.......

over the last few months we have been in desperate need of a better larger vehicle to enable us to transport our children, both those who live with us at the village of hope and the children in the community, especially those who we pick up for our weekly rainbow smiles support group and our sports mentors as we complete our sports clubs at the local farms.

rainbow smiles kids with the new van this afternoon.

our 12 year old VW kombi had been giving us problems for quite a while and with it's temperamental backwards gear box and other quirks it proved to be more trouble than it was worth.

we need to thank both amanda and karlien who completed their ride from the village of hope to the lighthouse at cape agullas, our friends in england via the donations made to thembalitshauk, our dutch friends and the guys at Hyundai in somerset west that we are pleased to announce that we are now the proud owners of a H1, 9 seater vehicle, which is a real God send.

the children are really happy to be traveling to school in style, and everybody seems to want to do the school run now.

we welcome back mel kidd this weekend and we hope that she will be able to learn to drive a manual gearbox and she can join in the fun as well!

saying goodbye....

lauren, jess, kat and ashlyn with some of our
thembacare staff who they have been working with

over the last few months we have been blessed to have the help of a plethora of volunteers who have been working with both the village of hope via our children's unit, sports outreach and rainbow smiles club, but also with our sister project thembacare grabouw.

this afternoon we held our regular wednesday 'church service' at thembacare, which was lead by our wonderful team from midcities in the usa, more of them later in the week, but this was the last 'service' for four of our volunteers, jess, kat, lauren and ashlyn.

we want to thank and honor them for all their hard work, commitment and willingness to give so freely of their time to help those that we seek to support. we will really miss each and everyone of them and whilst some have really got their teeth into their own project, like jess and the support she has been to rejoyce and the other team members at our rainbow smiles HIV support group, or katia with her medical side, the others are invaluable and play a big role in 'just being big sisters' to the children that live here with us and those we work with in the community.

so we say a sad farewell but each of them knows that they will always have a place at the village of hope should our paths cross again in the future.

as per a previous post entitled 'an alternative view' please visit jess' and kats blogs via that link and laurens but clicking on this link

finishing touches

new bathroom mural and words.

since our children's unit received a wonderful repaint from the infocus team our longer term volunteers, ably lead by katia, have been busy installing the murals that were painted over. one can never recreate what was lost but we are so pleased with the work that kat and her team of industrious volunteers have achieved.

we have a wonderful underwater scene around that bath and nappy changing area, complete with two nemo's an amazing octopus who oversees the words for bath and toothbrush etc which are written up in english, afrikaans and xhosa to encourage the children to learn the names of things.

katia creating our family tree!

in the living area we now have a family tree complete with leaves and flowers with the faces of our discharged children whom we are keen to remember as part of the history of the village of hope.

we also have a new poster with the thembalitsha charity details on which hopefully will encourage over visitors to donate once they have seen the work that we are doing with these children who are infected or affected by HIV, AIDS or TB.

thanks kat you are a real star and have blessed us so much with your artistic skills.

two of our girls looking for themselves
on the new poster!

our 23rd miracle quickly follows!

saying goodbye to her little village of hope
brother, so sweet!

what a couple of weeks it's been and all down to the hard work of maz and the local social workers who are seeking placement for our children. today we have the amazing news that so soon after our 22nd child being placed home we have our 23rd to celebrate.

this little girl has been with us for over a year, she was identified to us by our local ARV doctor who had concerns over the compliance of her medication and during her time with us she suffered some major trauma with her being hospitalised on a couple of occasions due to the bought of TB meningitis which hit her soon after she arrived with us. in fact if she hadn't been placed into our care there is a likely hood that she would have passed away due to the seizure brought on by the meningitis.

off home with uncle tim b

however that's all in the past and with some great commitment shown by her mother, who has visited every day for the last two months to build up that bond and to be taught by our team about caring for a child with an chronic illness, we confident to be able to place her home with her mother who will receive support from our thembacare home based care team to ensure that this reunification is fully successful.

please hold onto your seats for our next child to be returned home which should be at the end of this week with another following to a foster mom next week as well. things are really moving on with our children's cases and we want to thank God for his answer to our prayers for these children who are loved and cared for by our amazing team here at the village of hope but our desire is for them to be placed back home with a loving family after they have been stabilised by us and that is happening for so many of our children at the moment!

a flying visit....

we always love to welcome people to visit our various thembalitsha projects around the western cape, be it for a few days, a couple of weeks or even a longer term placement however we don't have many people who come for just a couple of hours but on monday it was my pleasure to be able to show brendon around two of our projects, thembacare grabouw and the village of hope.

i love to take people to see the work we are involved with in our local community, many of you will know that the village of hope is much more than our 9 bed children's unit and that thembacare serve more than the 7 people that stay in their inpatient unit receiving hospice care from our amazing team.

our work extends far beyond those boundaries, like the 7 sports outreach clubs we run each and every weekday afternoon during school term, or the rainbow smiles support group which meets every friday, along with our home based palliative care team who visit over 450 patients in the community who are living with HIV...we even venture out into the local businesses providing HIV, TB and blood sugar testing via our mobile unit, which is pulled around by my dependable bakkie.

during brendons short visit to grabouw he was able to pick up some of the sights, sounds, feelings and cultures that make up our wonderful little town, he was able to visit some of the poorest of the poor whilst still seeing the hope that is being provided by the likes of thembalitsha through our outreach programmes.

please visit brendons blog post, entitled, 'postitive about cape apples', to read what he thought about his short time with us, obviously things aren't always what they seem but i think brendon has picked up on the key reasons we do what we do here in south africa, i hope you will be encouraged and also challenged by his post.

can you fill these spaces?

could you be sitting here this time next year?

as you may be aware the village of hope is run by staff of 13 full time paid workers, ranging from our house moms to a maintenance team but these key people are supported by a team of full and mid term volunteers who oversee the management of the project, run sports outreach, invest in the house moms, do the finances, write policies around the care of the children, complete the school and shopping runs, take the children to their medical appointments and assisting in running our adolescent HIV support groups, the list is almost endless and this all takes time and dedication to undertake the running of such a large project which is also linked to our sister project, thembacare grabouw where there are other opportunities to serve.

these mid and long term volunteers also oversee the short term mission teams who join us for 10-14 days throughout the year and who are an invaluable resource to carry out the larger tasks much like this weeks team from augusta have undertaken with the repainting of the children's unit.

we have never been short of volunteers and with the amazing support of the HAN students from holland we are able to undertake the day to day running of the project most of the time.....however we currently have a couple of opportunities for the right people to come and join our team for a mid to long term period.

our sports outreach is growing and with our 40 week programme now in a format which can be rolled out into other areas we are seeking a longer term volunteer/s who can help run and coordinate our sports outreach programme which currently takes place in 7 different areas of grabouw each and every weekday afternoon. this could be an opportunity for an intern or recently qualified student, however before you get too excited there are a few things that you must consider, firstly you must be able to drive a 4x4 vehicle, this is how we transport most of the sports equipment to the clubs, many of which are run in areas where a normal car wouldn't be able to access, you would also be able to lead and stimulating an existing team of willing local mentors (volunteers), and finally and most importantly you would have a passion for children, especially those aged between 9 - 15 years, who we work with bringing life skills, health awareness and the love of Jesus via sports!

...there are other opportunities around social work and our wider children's work, this post or posts would involve supporting the current children who live with us at the village of hope as we seek to place them back into their homes in the community, most of our children have complex medical and social issues which means that this is a job with lots of pressure but is also so rewarding when it comes together with a successful reunification back into their families. with this in mind there is a need for this person/s to complete home visits to ensure the 20 or so children who have already been placed home are still healthy and being looked after by their carers in the community. helping out with support groups and stimulating the children who live with us at the village of hope is also a key area of this role.

if you are interested in coming to live in grabouw, south africa, and are keen to help support our work with those infected and affected by HIV, AIDS and TB in an area which is rife with these health issues, if you are someone happy to share their lives with our other volunteers in the self contained volunteer unit, and are self motivated and have a love of kids and empowering people then we would love to hear from you!

May News

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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




Up and Coming Events


Head’s Up For Father’s Day 19th June

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

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

• British 10k London Run

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

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

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

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

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

How You Can Help
We are never short of ideas on how you can help us out!!!!
• Become a regular monthly giver - Regular givers are like gold dust to us!!!
• Fundraise – Commit to shave your head, host a quiz night, do a sporting event!!!!! – The possibilities are endless and can raise R10000s with enough enthusiasm!
• Pray – need we say more?!

For more information contact us fundraiser@thembalitsha.org.za


Volunteering
We rely heavily on committed volunteers to do the stuff here in South Africa. It can be a fantastic way to give (and receive!) However, we do have some criteria you have to meet in order to apply. For more information on volunteering for Thembalitsha please check out our website or email us at volunteer@thembalitsha.org.za

Also, please do NOT book ANY flights before your application form has been accepted. Thank you!

community works

healthy meals......happy patients
.......helpful volunteers

it's hard to convey just want we do do via the them thembalitsha foundation's projects here in grabouw, maybe you think that our work is confined to our village of hope children's unit and thembacare hospice work (both inpatient and outpatient) but a lot of our time is given to work in the community. this can be seen via our sports based outreach to over 200 children a week or our rainbow smiles club which our volunteers help with every friday afternoon, all of which remain within the foundations scope by providing healthcare, education or training, but with so much need on our doorstep and a plethora of volunteers who's hearts are broken for the poor and needy its really hard to remain focused and therefore limit our work to those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

however as part of our support to the community i (tim) sit on the community police forum (CPF), and although it's hard to remember how one gets involved in such a wide way i do believe that God has placed us here to work with and assist the local community in various ways and with the basic education, provided by my secondary schooling in aylesbury that we so often take for granted, we have the skills and abilities to help in many different areas.

last week under our CPF 'projects' banner we were able to take over the daily task of providing a basic healthy meal to the 50 or so people who attend the day hospital to take their TB medication. the meal is vital for the medication to be effective and the day hospital are grateful to captain noble and a team of volunteers from his church who undertake this task each and everyday.

for us it was a once off and we were not only able to hand out this meal, which was made by one of our volunteers (pauline) and my mum, but also a leaflet informing people of some simple facts to enable them to live a safe and healthy life supported by our local police service. i was joined by a couple of the CPF members and four of our thembalitsha volunteers (three shown in the photo, which appeared in our local paper, plus katia) who got up early to hand out the food and documents, we prayed for each patient and found that we had so much food that we were able to bless all the patients who were attending the ARV (antiretroviral) clinic as well.

if you would like to get involved in our work either via prayer, volunteering or giving regularly enabling us to reach more people with practical and effective care then please visit our thembalitsha foundation web site

heart breaking again and again...

working and living in south africa is never dull and just when you think you have seen it all life comes up and kicks you in the teeth again........even though we are working in some of the poorest areas of grabouw, and indeed south africa and see life in all it's different elements via our village of hope and thembacare projects.

boys mom, in his school shoes
with remnants of their home behind

today we resumed our sports outreach programme at iraq informal settlement, one of the seven different areas where we work each afternoon, and although i had heard that one of our boys families had been affected by a shack fire over the weekend i was unaware of the devastation that it caused.

it wasn't until the end of our sports session that he mentioned that he and his family had lost almost everything in a fire which not only burnt down his whole home but as his older brother had been in the home when it hit and he had been killed.

the only things that the family managed to save were a single divan bed, an old single bedstead, a small kitchen unit and the boys shoes, upon further questioning i found out that he hadn't gone to school today as he had lost all his school clothes, books, pens etc and couldn't attend without them.

creation of a new home.....to house 7 people!

my heart was moved to go and purchase him some replacement uniform, a shirt, jumper, jacket and trousers but this seemed so little when i took them to him and saw the effects of the fire for myself. the sight of his mother digging the foundation to the new home, which they had constructed out of a simple timber/tin structure, in his school shoes nearly bought me to tears.

the family has been supported by the local community who have helped with the building of the new home, in the downpours that we experienced over the weekend, and they, his mum, dad, sister and three other siblings (7 in total) have been sleeping with neighbours, however they will be moving into their 'new' home tomorrow.....

i'm not sure why i was so shocked, i have seen the effects of a fire on more than one family before, i have seen poverty, death and disease on a number of occasions.....maybe it was due to the fact that none of this will be reported to the wider world, be that via the wider TV and internet media or a simple mention in a local newspaper.......maybe it was the fact that if it had happened in a western home or town at least it would have bought up a topic of debate about the dangers of living with open fires/paraffin stoves in our homes.....

...or maybe it was the realisation that this wasn't the only event that affected this small and tight knit community this weekend that went unnoticed, be that someone dying of AIDS in their home alone, a child being abused but an alcoholic relative, a baby being born into a family living below the bread line, the list could go on and on and that is why i think i feel so bad.........

.......yes we were able to do our little bit but.............there's more to it than that and that is what i'm  battling with.

hope is here

if you have been following this blog for any amount of time you will know of the strong link we have with the wonderful band from the every nation church in somerset west called 'wholehearted' and you may also remember that at the end of last year we were blessed to 'tour' the uk with them as we visited churches and schools to share about the work we do in grabouw via our thembacare and village of hope projects.

just before we made the trip we were involved in the shooting of the new music video to accompany the bands new song 'hope is here'. the video was shot in a couple of the informal settlements where we work, with people and children that we know and serve on a daily basis and whilst the song is very powerful the images on the video give it some depth and meaning.

as you can imagine seeing those people on a screen with the band playing the song 'live' in the background bought me and maz to our knees, tears flowed and our hearts were humbled to think that (through the work that we do) we have had a positive impact on so many people since God called us to serve in south africa.

lots of people came up to us after the gigs to ask when they might be able to see the video and download the song, so we are very pleased to be able to share the 'unofficial video' with you now. please click on this link to see the video and if you would like to find out more about what the song and wholehearted are about then click on this link, both will take you to youtube.

we hope that this song will inspire you to either support the thembalitsha foundation financially, get involved physically via our volunteer programme or hold all of the staff up in your prayers as we seek to bring the love of Jesus to those in physical or spiritual need via our thembalitsha health projects.

for more info on how you can get involved follow this link to the thembalitsha foundation web site. and for more info on the wholehearted band please follow this link to their blog site

for your info everybody in the film was happy to be involved, no one was paid and the band give genersuly to the thembalitsha foundation to enable us to make a bigger impact with those infected or affected by HIV, AIDS and TB.

world aids day event/s

if you have been following our blog for the last few years you will know that today, 1st december, is special day in our year.....working with people infected or affected by HIV and AIDS is what we do here in south africa and today is world AIDS day and we invite you to join us in raising the profile of our work in what is still a disease with a huge amount of stigma.

whilst we (tim and maz) are over here in england we have an opportunity for you to come and join us in aylesbury this evening where we will be hosting an event with the wonderful south african band, wholehearted. for more info on the event then please follow this link to both their facebook site and tour blog.

for those of you unable to join us then we are also hosting a day of prayer with the wider thembalitsha foundation where we are asking you to pray for the work we are doing with those infected by this disease.  please follow this link to the news and media page on our website for our prayer requests.

or should you wish to donate to our wonderful work then follow these links to the donation pages which link to giving sites and accounts in south africa, england and even the USA!

walkers tour update.....

we (tim and maz) have enjoyed a busy week here in england speaking at various events around the country, doing radio interviews and sharing our story about the work that we are involved with in south africa.

to give you a flavor of where we have been and who we have seen we thought that it would be good to provide a short update with some further news of future events where you could come and hear us speak.

last sunday morning we spoke at holy trinity ashby de la zouch with our good friend tim phillips and his wonderful church. we had the pleasure of catching up with an old volunteer from the village of hope, harry hoggarth in loughborough in the afternoon and then stayed the night with tim and sarah where we shared some time with their youth group, 'spagbol'. on monday morning we made the hour long trip down to st mary's primary school in aston le walls and shared at their school assembly.

on tuesday evening we spoke at a cluster group at holy trinity walton street and enjoyed a quick massage on wednesday morning with marianne elias before meeting up with grace perret who will be volunteering with us for 3 months from february.

we had the pleasure of speaking at a student alpha meeting with harry back in loughborugh, which we thought went really well and then journeyed on to spent the night with liz and shaun at cliff college in derbyshire. on friday morning we made what should have been a very scenic drive through the derbyshire dales, however it was a typical late autumn day and the fog kept us from seeing further than a few feet in front of the car.

on friday lunchtime we recorded an interview at UCB radio in stoke with paul hammond, which will be broadcast on his show on the build up to world aids day on the 1st december. we were able to promote the wholehearted tour and left their CD which we hope he will play on his show.

it was great to catch up with my (tim) old colleagues at bartuf in leeds before we met up and shared with jess trigg who's family made us very welcome at their home where we shared with her friends and vicar in mirfield, jess will be volunteering with us for 6 months from january and i am sure she will be a great asset to our team.

saturday morning we made the long trip down to spend time with trefor and mandy, stopping in to meet up with vicky ball, her husband fred and daughter becky who kindly donated some funds to enable us to complete the new german home....

....highlights for the coming week or so.

tomorrow morning we are speaking at the bridge (southcourt baptist church) aylesbury.

monday morning maz is sharing at the school where she worked in whitchurch and in the evening we are really looking forward to catching up with the thembalitshauk board at our board meeting.

tuesday we are going down to bath to see our son chris, claire and grandsons, arriving back in waddesdon to speak at pete and rachel's home group, thursday i (tim) am going to meet up with some old friends at a local pub and friday evening we are sharing with a church in long crendon with our good friend tessa.

we will provide you with another update before we fly out to germany and holland where we will be meeting up with the stuttgart team who will be coming out to build us another accommodation block in early 2012 and the HAN university who provide us with interns at the village of hope.

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!

staff party

the village of hope team, less me, looking fine and dandy!

last friday we held our 2011 staff party at the wonderful erinvale golf estate in somerset west, each of the 7 thembalitsha projects were present, in total around 130 people including our 10 wonderful house moms, johan our maintenance coordinator, mel kidd, me and maz.

the day started with a delicious hot and cold brunch, followed by update reports given by each of the projects, it was great to hear from each of the projects, it gave us a real feel of family and highlighted the amazing work that thembalitsha are doing to help the most needy people and children in the western cape.

we really wanted the staff to feel special and for them to see a lighter side of the management, therefore after the reports we were entertained by some of the project managers who performed a little ditty, me and maz tried our best to ruin ABBA's 'i have a dream'...maz looked wonderful in her 70's gear complete with blonde wig and tight hot pants....you don't wanna know what i was wearing and thankfully there will never be any pictures published of that on this blog anyways!

after the entertainment we had a short awards ceremony, some awards were very serious such as a long service award and johan received ours for 'all the hard work he puts in to save us money with his ingenious ways of mend and fix', our house mom franjoleen received an award as 'most competitive mom at the children's parties'....yes some where a little less serious!

it was great that all of our staff could come together and celebrate all the wonderful things that each of the projects have achieved over the last year, it is a privilege to be part of this foundation and to work with some of the most inspiring people on this earth.

sad goodbyes, but happy futures await....

saying goodbye (with an apple in hand!)

on wednesday afternoon maz took our two brothers to their new home in khayelitsha, once again this day was full of mix emotions. as you can see we just love having the special children that need our care, be that medical or social, however we are just part of a bigger story and it is our aim to have the children placed either back with their own families or foster/adoptive care.

maz works so hard to find the right homes for our children and these two precious brothers are the 19th and 20th children that we have successfully placed back into the community since we opened in april 2009. Although we still have a few issues with some of the placements, we are so glad that we are able to be part of their growing up, stabilising them on their medication and finding them a family who will be able to love and support them during their lives.

we pray for the two boys, especially as they will now be sharing a home with their little sister and another 3 children and we also pray for their new parents that they will be able to cope with the children that they are taking into their home.