Christmas is coming in Munsieville

What an exciting week! We had the Christmas Festival and Health Fair Saturday, as you all know, and hopefully you have had a chance to go to The Thoughtful Path Facebook page to see all the videos and pictures of the day.
Also this week I learned that we will be getting the 5812 Christmas wrapped books and 850 stuffed animals and toys shipped from Arizona to South Africa!! I am so excited. Gail and Gail have worked tirelessly along with our new friends, Joanne and Randy who learned about us through the news segment on the TV and proceeded to help us try and get the books here. I truly can’t thank everyone enough for all their support on this endeavour. It means so much to me and will mean even more to the orphans and vulnerable children of Munsieville. A very special thanks to our donor and to Allison Evans who helped us to get a very large contribution to help make this possible and to DHL and Courier IT who also have stepped up to the plate to work with us. As I said, it is amazing to see how a simple project turned into a phenomenal success. I can’t wait for AZ Family to do a follow-up story. I would love to see a few of the people involved be able to come out and hand out the books.
Well I will be leaving soon for a visit with my family on the East Coast and then back again in the New Year. I can’t believe that when I get back it will be only a little over 2 months of my assignment left. The time has flown by and there is so much more I want to see get done. We will be having a Charity Fundraiser in March, along with a Fun Run at the end of January and hopefully a 'Munsieville’s Got Talent' contest.
The Young Ambassadors programme that we have initiated is a priority for us to work on as soon as the children get back from school break. It will help the young people become the future leaders of Munsieville and will run alongside The Thoughtful Path as a Children’s Board, so that their voice is heard on what is important to them and their community to ensure that the programme meets their needs.
Check back early in 2011 for the latest news from Munsieville - meanwhile, have a Happy Christmas!
Michelle, GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK.

Tshepo Christmas Festival and Health Fair

On Saturday 11th December, as part of the 10 year Thoughtful Path project, the first ever Tshepo Children’s Festival and Health Fair was held in the Munsieville township. Tshepo means hope in the local language, Setswana.
This festival was about celebrating children, Christmas, and better health for all. This was the second event organized under the Thoughtful Path following the successful Children’s International Cup in June, a replica of the FIFA world cup for the children of Munsieville, many of whom are orphans or other vulnerable children.
Most of these children and their families do not get a chance to celebrate Christmas, but this year the Tshepo festival has changed that. The festival was put together by volunteers from Munsieville, who, with the support of Project HOPE UK, organized and ran the whole event. As Munsieville is a township divided into informal and formalised settlements, one of the ambitions of the project was to bring children from all parts of the community together, no matter what their background.
To create cohesion in the community, the festival started in the morning in the informal settlement of Mayibuye, opened by drum majorettes and a marching band, with face painting, dancing and drama. It then continued as a parade, marching through all three wards in Munsieville, collecting children to bring them to Munsieville stadium. Here, the festival featured stage shows, Father Christmas, sports activities, clowns, balloons, face-painting, film shows, bouncy castles and a Craft and Health Fair, including child registration and HIV testing.

It was kindly supported by the Mogale City municipality, through the presence of the Home Affairs mobile unit, and Emergency Services and Traffic police, who allowed the children to interact with their officers. Children from the UK also participated by decorating and sending Stars of HOPE for their counterparts in Munsieville, each containing a special personal message of hope, joy and love.
Executive Director of Project HOPE UK Paul Brooks said: “This festival is about celebrating Christmas, children and better health for all, involving the whole community. Thousands of children have turned up a special day of activity, involving face-painting, Father Christmas, singing, dancing and food. A great celebration here in the African sunshine!”
Outside companies sponsored the event, included Aquafresh, Tiger Brands, PnA and Supersport, who through 'Let’s Play' televised the day and ran a sports skills activity, allowing children to improve their skills in soccer, netball and cricket, and try out rugby for the very first time.
As you can see from the photos, there were smiles all round!

Countdown to the Tshepo festival begins

The last few days before the Tshepo festival are full of excitement and anticipation, but also lots of frantic activity as everyone pulls together to make sure all is in place for December 11.

Following the clean-up day last week, Munsieville is neat and tidy in readiness for the festival, and all the behind-the-scenes organisation this week will ensure that the community enjoys a day to remember.

Stars decorated by schoolchildren in the UK are on their way to South Africa to be hung on the Christmas tree, kindly donated by the Parks Department. Tubs of facepaint donated by PnA will mean that the children of Munsieville can be decorated too!

The members of the Thoughtful Path hubs have been meeting to plan all the events for the Tshepo festival, so that it is a successful day that also has a lasting impact on the community. The 'Right to Care' organisation will be providing HIV testing and counselling, and there are several other health and sports activities planned.

It's not too late to make a donation towards the festival at http://www.projecthopeuk.org/ - and check back next week for news and photos from the big day!

Thank you for your support.

Munsieville Community Clean Up Day a great success!

The Community Clean Up Day was a campaign to bring pride and more sanitary conditions to Munsieville. We hoped to involve the entire community so that they realise that every piece of trash that they throw down has to be picked up by someone at sometime. We worked with the different levels of government to get this project off the ground. One of the real problems is they do not have anywhere to throw their rubbish, particularly in the informal settlement. Thus I am working to see if trash cans can be placed around the township on street corners and large refuse bins be brought in to put in strategic places around the township so that they have a place for overflow.
There is a lot more to do but it was a start to help them understand about littering and dumping. There are so many areas where people dump their rubbish that it is just unhealthy, unsafe, and plain disgusting! The worst has to be right next to the medical clinic. These people are already sick and then they have to pass this dumping area. I am going to try and speak with the mayor of the District about it since he is working hard on a 'green' campaign. It is one step at a time…
We are a week away from the Christmas Festival and Health Fair, a week which is going to be our biggest test yet, with all our strength needed to pull everything together for the festival. If you haven't had chance yet - please send the children of Munsieville a little hope by donating through our Star of HOPE appeal at www.projecthopeuk.org.

It's been great to see so many of you doing so - thank you for your support!

Michelle Webb & Neil Davidson, GSK Pulse volunteers at Project HOPE UK

Crunch time is fast approaching

Crunch time is fast approaching on a number of our key projects with just one week to go before the community clean up and two weeks before the children’s festival.

As we get closer to the festival, and the workload intensifies, I’ve noticed community members sometimes giving up or doubting their own abilities in the face of adversity. I guess this is not surprising when getting the next meal is the first priority. We’ve had to adapt our ways of working, to come alongside, push and boost confidence and break down the seemingly-impossible tasks into smaller steps.
What’s brilliant is having someone else in Michelle to share these experiences with - Team 'Michneil' has sprung into action and we are now splitting up to divide and conquer our never-ending list of tasks.

We’ve got the Munsieville primary schools onboard now to start school exchanges with one in the UK and one in the US. Supersport have agreed to sponsor (and televise!) football, rugby and netball skills sessions at the festival. Rehearsals have started in earnest for the acts performing onstage. The catering team has also devised its plan to feed all the children (chopping up a cow was mentioned).
Although much as the work is extremely hard, I feel we are going to get there. Please give us a huge boost by joining our Star of HOPE appeal, and donating a little in aid of the festival, at http://www.projecthopeuk.org/ and click on a "be a star".

Neil, GSK Pulse volunteer at Project HOPE UK.

Wanted urgently - book delivery to South Africa

We have 5000 books from the Ishikawa, USA (Caroline's school) book drive and over 50 boxes all wrapped with handmade bookmarks as well as age-grouped along with 9 boxes of stuffed animals for the little orphans and vulnerable children here in Munsieville, South Africa and we can’t get them here without a prohibitive expense.
Please put out on all your Facebook, Twitter, and any other social network sites you know to see if anyone would be willing to fly these books here to South Africa from Arizona for the orphans and vulnerable children who have never gotten a Christmas present in their lives.
I cannot thank enough Gail Jones, all her friends and all the children who tirelessly wrapped and bookmarked all these books. It means so much to me and would mean even more to the children who would receive them. Gail Morgan has also been relentless on trying to find an avenue to get these books to South Africa. Thank you to each and everyone who has participated in this endeavor!!!!
Please spread the word and help us find someone out there who can ship these gifts to South Africa for us.
Thank you for your support,
Michelle (GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK).

Getting close to the tipping point

Here we are again, yet another week passed of the African adventure. Week 8 in Jo'burg has been an entertaining week. Perhaps the delirium of being only one month away from the Christmas festival is catching up with us. Michelle's antics have been keeping most of the community amused. On Monday she decided to try her hand (or more accurately, her head) at carrying one of the 15kg maize meal sacks that the women carry here on their heads. I caught her smiling bravely as several of her neck vertebrae were crushed and she took on a new hunchback look!
On the positive side, the young journalists have produced their first film - check it out here. I'm really impressed by their optimism in the face of so many problems. A primary school in the UK has come onboard now to pilot the production of our stories micro website to exchange with schools in Munsieville.
More UK schools have joined to decorate stars for the Christmas Festival. Desmond Tutu, the Patron of the Thoughtful Path, answered a letter I sent him to get his backing for the Star of HOPE appeal and has signed off a letter to some of our corporate partners.
We have also secured a Christmas tree for the festival, through the Parks Department. At first, they offered us just a branch, then the top of a tree, but I think they finally realised we needed something more impressive for the stadium where the festival is going to be. I'm very intrigued to see what we are going to end up with - I suspect it might be a distinctly African version of the classic spruce!!
I think we are also getting close to the tipping point in our way of working with the community. I've been really pleased this week that the message is starting to get through that this community has to act for itself, if it's going to improve things for children.
An example of this occurred during the festival committee meeting. The group has decided that it would like to provide a small meal for the children during the festival. Now instead of just presenting the problem for Michelle and me to solve, the group said straight off we will sort it, we will ask for the necessary donation, and make the catering arrangements. Job done. I'm hopeful that this will continue. Little by little, the community members are taking action.

Neil (GSK Pulse volunteer with Project HOPE UK)