thoughts from volunteers and mission teams!

the infocus mision team at the very 'country
club' that shana speaks of....

living in the day to day 24/7 world of the village of hope is an awesome experience and it's amazing to think that our small actions are having a huge impact in our community. we are obviously aware of the plight of the poor, we work with them each and everyday, however there are days when we forget that we still live in a very parallel universe, on one side are 'the haves' and on the other side are 'the have not's'.

we are blessed to be able to host volunteers at the village of hope, these come in all shapes and sizes, they can be individuals who have felt the call to serve for three months or more, or can be larger groups of short term mission teams, mainly coming from churches who are linked to the wider foundation.

it's interesting to watch the dynamics of these teams as they see for themselves the impact of our work via our various missions in our town and have an opportunity to meet the people we serve, it's also interesting to watch each individual as God moves them as they spend time with us.

we do try to give a broader view of our work on this blog but it's always good to read how other people see things during their time with us. over the last few weeks we have hosted a couple of mission teams, one from dallas and the other from the infocus church in augusta, georgia, who kept a blog about their time with us, we would encourage you to read their blog by clicking here and to see the things that impacted them during their time with us.

one of our longer volunteers, shana cox, has also been busy blogging and her latest post really picks up on the plight of our sports mentors, we are sure that you will be as moved as we were when we read this well constructed post so please sit down grab a coffee and or a tissue and follow this link to her blog and her post entitled 'opposite hillsides'.

we want to thank these teams and individual people for the impact they made and the skills that they shared with us.....it really does make a difference.

June News

Well the building works continue! Although the children’s unit is now complete there is still a lot of remodeling to do. The house where Tim and Maz were staying is becoming the long-term volunteer accommodation and Tim and Maz are going to be moving into what was the old volunteer’s building but will now be a flat for them as well as some offices. We’ve also been able to get the walkway completed around Ukuquala 2 so that short-term volunteers can get around their house without getting stuck in a bog!

The children and House Moms have been able to remain warm and cosy in their new unit and are getting to grips with the new layout. They feel much happier and secure in this new environment – We have stronger doors and locks and also have a security guard on night watch.

We are now on the Department of Heath’s schedule for monthly visits from an Occupational Therapist. This is a fantastic new extra we are able to offer the children in our care. The therapist will be training up the House Moms on specific exercises and routines that they can put in place for the children. We already have some new movements we can do with the little girl who is struggling to walk from this first visit so we are looking forward to seeing improvements!

Sports

With the winter weather setting in our sports programme has been a bit sporadic. We’ve had A LOT of rain already and any wet weather stops play because the kids don’t have nice warm houses or hot baths to go to after a session. The club in Iraq is proving particularly challenging due to the lack of pitch (because the municipality have reclaimed it for building works).

Other News

Volunteers -
We’ve just waved goodbye to our most recent Dutch students. Marlise was our social work student and Eric our sports student. Once again we’ve been very blessed by these two and we are sad to see them go but excited for what they will do next. We’ve also been able to say hello to Barbara Wood. This is her third time with us, this time with a commitment of a year! We are so excited to have her back and know she is going to be a fabulous addition to the team. She is already getting stuck in, using her background in catering to coach the House Moms. By next month we will also have another returning volunteer, Emma Podmore, who is a trained social worker and will be able to pick up where Marlise has left off.

Shannon, our volunteer from the USA has also asked to stay longer so is extending her stay to at least December. She is now our in-house worship leader extrordinaire and we’ve also got her coordinating our weekly HIV support group for adolescents, Rainbow Smiles. She is doing a great job and really investing in the kids.

Get #Active4Hope –
You may have seen in our blog posts earlier this month about the new #Active4Hope campaign. If you didn’t you can read more about it here. You can choose how far you get involved in it but if you would like to sign up to some sporting events organised by us then we’ve got two suggestions for you: Go The Distance For Hope and Cycle To The Sea. Check out our Facebook page for all the details.

Hope@PaulCluver-
This is another initiative which is able to happen thanks to the generous folk at Paul Cluver Wines which is a local wine estate. Please see here for more info: (www.paulcluver.com) We are so excited about this opportunity and any profits made will come directly to us and our sister project here in Grabouw, ThembaCare Grabouw. Emily is in charge of organising the venue from now on so she is going to be a busy bee!

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 acce

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!

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!