March News

Our patients can win awards for being brave and resilient. I once tasted one of the ARV medications and since then I have had one more reason to call these children my hero’s. This is not the kind of stuff children should have to consume, never mind on a daily basis. However, except for the few cry spells and some toddler attempts to fight off the ghastly liquid, they drink it, day after day and they even smile again after swallowing.

However, our children are not the only hero’s. The caregivers here at ThembaCare definitely deserve some medals too! Not only do they manage to get the medicine into those little bodies without too much trauma, they also have some magical ways of getting children to keep on their oxygen masks, stay in bed or go to hospital without too many tears! They keep calm when children spike fevers; change countless nappies and bathe these children in love. They celebrate milestones; clap hands when children finish their meals and cheer when they take their first steps.

This month the hard work of staff-members has once again produced good fruit. One of our children has the opportunity to attend a school equipped to provide to her special needs after her discharge this month. Another one of our children has found a foster together with his younger sibling. We have welcomed two new babies – one with serious malnutrition. Although she has little interest in anything else than being cuddled at the moment, we are looking forward to seeing her pick up weight and develop into the little personality she is meant to be!

February News

January has been quite an emotional month for the ThembaCare family. We lost two very ill children, one who was part of the Thembalitsha family for a big part of his life. Assi was admitted to TCA from Red Cross Hospital, after being abandoned by his family when he was 8 years old. He suffered from HIV/AIDS, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and TB meningitis which all effected his development as well as the effectiveness of his lungs.  After the first months of care, Assi’s health improved to such an extent that he was able to join the Village of Hope home in Grabouw. In 2011 Assi’s lung functioning started declining to such an extent that he had to be on constant oxygen supply and needed more intense medical care and he therefore returned to TCA. Even though Assi’s lung capacity was so poor and he was constantly out of breath, this did not steal his joy, his zest for life or his charms! He was an active, curious boy who loved any form of social interaction. Although he only spoke a few words, he had his ways of always getting his needs and opinions across and often managed to get some laughs and from the staff. Assi left us at the age of 12 years and although we mourn his death, we celebrate the fact that he was a well-loved, nurtured and appreciated child. Assi’s memorial service was a special occasion –we could look back on the life of an inspiring boy who was very much loved and who taught us so much about appreciating the gift of life and the people around us.

Dealing with very sick children can be tough. Although we see many little ones leaving our facility as chubby, healthy children, there are always the few in between whose stories end differently. However, we are thankful for the opportunities to love these little ones and give as much quality to their lives as possible. Yesterday a little, out-of-breath boy was walking outside when we noticed a butterfly in the bush nearby. He immediately tried to get everyone’s attention to the little bug, pointing and babbling in baby-language, incredibly excited about his new discovery. Children have such an ability to open our eyes again to celebrating life, bringing a joyful atmosphere to our home and reminding us to appreciate every day for what it brings!

January News

The past two months have been buzzing at Themba Care. We have had an overwhelming response from the public in terms of donations. People have come from all over Cape Town donating clothes, food,  toys, Christmas presents and more. Our offices were often overflowing, reflecting the generosity of all those around us. Consequently, our children received LOTS of gifts from Santa at both of their Christmas Parties. They thoroughly enjoyed both parties and got spoilt rotten! Thanks must go out to all those who were involved in organising these parties for us. We are overwhelmed with gratitude and a BIG thank you goes out to all who contributed in every way to us this festive season.

Many of our children got to go home for Christmas to their families, and we welcomed them all back on the 7th of January. Christmas and New Year was temporarily quiet at Themba Care. With the arrival of most of the children on the 7th, things are slowly getting back to order as we recover from “The Christmas Chaos”.

So far we have not had any new admissions, and some of our children will soon be returning home, healthy and happy. For them, 2013 promises to be a good year.  We too, look forward to 2013 and all that it brings.

December News

November was a very busy month at ThembaCare. We started our month on a sad note, with one of our babies passing away on the first. He had been admitted to us with chronic birth defects for palliative care, to be kept comfortable in his final phase of life. Apart from his sad goodbye, we also said goodbye to five other children in November. One was sent to a place of safety to ensure she was not separated from her sibling and the other four were all discharged safely to their respective caregivers. All five of the children are happy to be home, although we were sad to see them leave.

We also welcomed four happy faces to our unit. Of these children, two are currently awaiting placement and the other two’s parents are visiting regularly. All four children have settled in nicely with the other children. One of the little boys admitted is old enough to attend crèche and we have managed to find a sponsor for his crèche fee. He is more than happy to go every day and play with children his age.

At the beginning of the month we were spoilt with a staff party for the Thembalitsha foundation. Each project was allocated a different theme, ours being “London”. We put on our dancing shoes and enjoyed being taken care of for the evening.

November was also a month of great generosity. We were thoroughly spoilt with food, clothing, toys, equipment and even a much needed generator! We are extremely grateful to Tafelberg School, Mary Harding School and Eros School for including us in their World Aids Day celebrations. Not only did they collect donations and money for us, but they invited us to share in their special day. All of the presentations were lovely to be a part of and it was humbling to see such great work being done in celebration of World Aids day.

We were also spoilt by Silverstream Tabernacle Church who raised money for us and spread our wish list around their members. They decided to adopt ThembaCare for future events and fundraising which is great news for us.

Nursing students of the University of Connecticut have been visiting us annually for many years to volunteer over weekends and during the week at the end of the year. They spent November with us and in addition to their generosity, invited us to a dinner function marking the end of their time in South Africa. December promises to be just as busy, and we intend on spoiling our children with TWO Christmas parties!

It is wonderful to see the community coming together in assisting with our needs. We are extremely grateful for every item donated to us.

October News

The beginning of October was buzzing with stories from the evening of the 29th September. On this evening we celebrated our 10th Anniversary, with a ball at the Cape Sun Hotel.   Much fun was had by both staff and funders alike.

On a sad note, ThembaCare bids farewell to our Occupational Therapist, Clio, as she explores new horizons. Our new OT, Candice, took over from her at the beginning of the month.

All in all it has been a very busy month and we are almost full, with a total of 17 children, keeping us on our toes! Of these children, most of them have parents or family visiting regularly. The mothers come to stay over when they can and the co-operation from their side has been wonderful. Many improvements in this regard have been made, which makes our work easier and our children a great deal happier.

November is on its way which means we will soon be preparing for Christmas. We begin these celebrations with a Christmas Staff Party on the 1st, which we anticipate to be as enjoyable as our anniversary ball.

September News

This month Themba Care Athlone looks forward to celebrating its 10 year anniversary. We are holding a Spring Ball at the Cape Sun Hotel to celebrate alongside funders, staff and others who are supporting us through attending the ball. Preparations have been underway for months and now it is almost time for our staff to swap their aprons for dresses and celebrate the wonderful work they are a part of. We look forward to a night of celebrating the past 10 years and of encouragement for the years to come!

A few months ago we mentioned that we could no longer send our crèche and preschool aged children to school due to budgeting constraints. This was manageable when we had a number of toddlers who could play together, however recently all but one of our toddlers was discharged. As a result he has become increasingly bored (the rest of the children are all under 2 years). Fortunately our doctor was able to secure a donation for him to attend the local crèche for the duration of his stay with us. He has loved the crèche from day one, no tears, and every morning heads off with his backpack and happily waving goodbye. In fact he loves it so much that if the driver is running late (or if he has to wait too long in the morning) he is soon in tears because he wants to go to school! We are so grateful that he is now able to leave the premises daily to play with other children his age and are certain it is going to benefit him greatly. Thank you again to those who support us in the different ways you do!

August News

ThembaCare was fortunate to host two Irish volunteers for the last 8 weeks. The volunteers were part of a Global Awareness Programme which aims to increase awareness around HIV and AIDS globally. The volunteers spent their time learning about HIV and AIDS in the community by getting to know how an organisation like ThembaCare operates. They spent time with the children (playing, feeding, changing nappies), joined the social workers on home visits, participated in ward rounds, visited the children who were in hospital and interviewed staff members in order to get information from different perspectives. When they return to Ireland they will be making presentations at schools and universities, as well as writing articles for their local newspapers, in order to raise awareness around HIV and AIDS. It has been such a pleasure hosting these volunteers who have helped in every possible way with the everyday activities at ThembaCare and we will miss their willing hands.

This month we have had great success in placing some of our children in long term care facilities. Although most of the time this is not necessary, we do have cases where the child cannot be sent back to the family for a variety of reasons. This process is often a long and frustrating one; however we were fortunate to place two of our children in good children’s homes with relative ease within one month. The first of our children, a 2-year-old boy with severe cerebral palsy needed to be placed in a long term care facility that could cater to his high care needs as his mother was not coping and his health was suffering. We couldn’t be happier with this placement as we now know that he is getting the special care that he needs. The second of our children, another 2-year-old boy, was placed in a beautiful group home. After months of investigating all options his mother realised that she was unable to care for him currently. She visits him at the home and hopes one day she will be able to care for him again, as do we.

Unfortunately we have not had as much success with two of our other children who we have been struggling to find suitable long term care facilities for due to lack of availability. Please would you keep this in your prayers as we look for new homes for these two little treasures.