Thembalitsha currently operate a small 18 bed clinic for
babies and young children infected with the Aids virus, which is an amazing work
and one that is proving to be very successful with the placement of over 150
children back into the community over the last couple of years. Thembalitsha
then continue to work with the foster parents on ensuring that the children
continue to receive the right medication and nutrition required to ensure that
the virus is kept from spreading into the body. One problem we have highlighted
is that due to the rapid spread of Aids within the black and coloured
communities (commonly called Townships or informal settlements) there are very
few people willing or able to take these children in. Over 5.6 million people
live with Aids in South Africa, the highest percentage rate in the world,
therefore a whole generation of 20-40 years has been decimated and the children
from the clinic cannot be placed out into the community as quickly as we would
like.
The situation is described in a
recent News24 web page which highlights the need for workers - around 50,000 of
the 100,000 children born in South Africa this year will die before the age of
2, not directly due to the disease but because there is no-one to look after
them..!
South Africa's Forgotten Children
This problem is causing a bottleneck in the Thembacare
facility in Cape Town, meaning that ‘healthy children’ are taking up specialist
care places in the facility and new sick children cannot be brought into the
clinic. Our vision therefore is to open a ‘Village of Hope’ in the local
farmland town of Grabouw, about 45 minutes outside Cape Town where Thembalitsha
already have a 7 bed adult Aids facility. Grabouw is a town of 50,000 with no
overnight hospital and over 34% of the population living with Aids. The
Thembalitsha facility is a blessing to the local community and we want to add
onto the work that they are already doing.
The ‘small holding’ that we have been fortunate enough to
purchase will become ‘The Thembalitsha Village of Hope’ where we will not only
provide a stable home environment for the children who have ‘come through’ the
Thembacare clinic, but also provide an opportunity to work with the local
community, employing local Mums and Dads to come and care for the children with
the vital knowledge of their customs and culture.
We hope that you will join with us to pray for, and
support financially, this vision. Amazingly the land is on a old farm called
‘Hope Dale’, this sits well with the Thembalitsha name as ‘Themba’ means Hope in
the local Xhosa language! God has blessed us amazingly with a successful
purchase - the story of how this was achieved is reported in the other updates
on this site and is an incredible testimony itself. Having bought the property
we are now excitedly going forward with the next challenge which is to make the
necessary changes to the buildings. This will be organized through the new
charity Thembalitsha UK that we have set up to co-ordinate the growing UK
fundraising and other supporter activities.
Thanks for all your support and we trust that you will
capture this vision that God has placed on our hearts. Remember Jesus’ last
parable in Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats - we are called to give a meal, a
cup of water, a coat or shelter to our fellow man, not because of Jesus but for
Jesus. He says that when we did that act for the least we did it for Him. Have a
read it’s compelling stuff!
How Can You Help?
We have set up an on-line donation site with
Justgiving - if you feel that you would like to support the work we are doing in
South Africa with these babies and young people infected or affected by HIV AIDS
then please do so via this link:
Online Now!
