July News

In July South Africa celebrates Madiba Day to honour this remarkable Nelson Mandela’s 67 years of struggle for human rights. The aim of this day: get involved and make a change in whatever capacity you can, for 67 minutes (or more of you want). This year we were so blessed that Woolworths decided to celebrate Madiba Day with us! The staff of Woolworths at Vangate Mall came ready to serve and bless both the staff and children at ThembaCare, and as they began unpacking the car we realised we were in for a real spoil! After everything was unpacked some staff put on their clown costumes, blew up the balloons and set to painting faces and entertaining the kids. Meanwhile the others got to work in our kitchen preparing food for the staff, and the food just kept coming! (Eventually the nurse cancelled the children’s lunch as their tummies were so full of Woolies delicacies!). The atmosphere in the playroom, where we ate, drank, dressed up and painted faces, was one of celebration and community, which we think is a more than appropriate way to celebrate this day; after all isn’t getting involved simply an act of celebrating community and the part we get to play in it?

Earlier this month one of our long-term volunteers made a generous donation to be used for outings, so last week we were able to take our four toddlers to Monkey Town. We saw monkeys and apes of all sizes and shapes and were there during feeding time, which was a very entertaining (and noisy) experience. The chance to get out of the ThembaCare premises and experience something new is always so refreshing and beneficial, so thank you to those who make it possible!

This month we have also two new admissions with severe malnutrition. The first, let’s call her Sandile, is 19 months, weighs 5.6kg (13 lbs) and on admission was only able to lie and sit (if put in that position). She was easily upset and did not like to be handled too much, but cried when she was left alone. One week later and Sandile giggles and smiles, she gets into crawling position and moves from lying to sitting all alone, as well as interacting with the other children. The second child, let’s call him Lethu, is 3 years old and weighed 8.5kg (19 lbs) on admission. He was very irritable on admission and was slow to interact positively with other children and adults. Two weeks later however and he is weighing 10kg (23 lbs), singing, dancing, playing with the children and carers, and has a belly laugh that would put Father Christmas to shame. Both these children are still severely underweight, have muscle wasting and are underdeveloped in terms of play, language and social skills, amongst other things associated with malnutrition. However such rapid improvement encourages us greatly in the work we are doing and we are sure to see great gains in both of theirs health and quality of life.