Fundraising in 2008

Thank you to Patsy Eastmure in Canada

A big thank you to Patsy, a dear friend of the Septon family who created a cook book, dedicating it to Thusananga and Khaya Lokukhanya. Sales of the book raised R8000 and all of the proceeds have gone to our projects. Sadly the cook book is no longer available to purchase.

Dr Anne Marie O'Donnell raises £530

Well done to Anne Marie for raising £530 for Khaya Lokukhanya completing a triathlon. Unfortunately she broke her collar bone in the process but completed the event never the less. A brave effort and we hope that you get well soon!

10 & 5 km Fun Run/Walk in London 2008

Thank you to everyone that competed the run and to all of our supporters who made donations and gave our runners sponsorship. The event was a great success raising £3300 (R49500). Well done to everyone!!

It was a great day out with a good dose of exercise followed by a hearty lunch and a few drinks at the Dukes Head Pub in Putney. Thank you to all the staff who were very accommodating to a bunch of very sweaty and muddy fun runners.

Well done to James Weatherstone and Peter Moore who completed the 10 & 5 km in the fastest times respectively.

Thank you to our sponsors:

The Fire Stables, Wimbledon

The Dukes Head, Putney

Fancy running next year??? Drop us a line at thusananga@gmail.com

The roof is on our new building, just in time for Winter!!

At the beginning of 2008 we were fortunate to secure a development grant from Amicus/Unite the Union to build a new premises for Thusananga & Khaya Lokukhanya.

Read about Thusananga on the Amicus website

After a few weeks of hard work from the team the roof is now on, just as the coldest part of winter sets in. We had a braai (BBQ) with everyone involved to celebrate this momentous occasion!!

The proud team and the Roof! Angus with JoJo

Maggie our care giver supervisor cooking up for the team

To read our latest progress report please click here

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Thusananga & Khaya Lokukhanya Joins Facebook

Join our cause on Facebook to help us spread the word about the HIV situation in South Africa. Click here for access to our 'cause' homepage.

2007 Fund Raising

Thank you Amicus!

In late December 2007 we received a call from Unite the Union (formerly known as Amicus) that we had been successful applying for a development grant through the Amicus Foundation. It is the best Christmas present we could of possibly imagined!!

We have been awarded £20,000 which will be spent on extending the facilities for Thusananga HBCA, providing a health education room and workshop for the income generation project. We will also be increasing the number of rooms at KL making a special area for the older children, as we are full to capacity in our current building.

We are all really excited and would like to thank everyone at Unite for making this possible! Our builders are drawing up the plans as we speak and the whole project will provide a large number of jobs for the local people in Barkly East.

Please keep checking the web site as we will be updating it on a regular basis with progress reports.

The Amicus Foundation (registered charity the AEEU Learning Fund - No 1085736) works together with other charities to fund activities where it is assessed that there is a potential for change and betterment. To read more about Unite the Union and how you can become a member please go to www.amicustheunion.org

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Read the latest newsletter from Clare - November 2007

Previous newsletters from this year - July 2007, April 2007, January 2007

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5 & 10 Km Fun Run in London - October 2007

On a gorgeous sunny day in October, Emma Weatherstone & Liane Groves organised a Fun Run to raise money for Thusananga & KL. Along with 30 friends and supporters they met up on the banks of the River Thames in Putney to take part in a 5 or 10 Km (depending on how fit you felt!) Clare & her husband Joe were over from South Africa and led the serious athletes to run the 10 km route, everyone else completed the 5Km circuit enjoying the sunshine and the company!

Congratulations to Matthew (Sam) Huntingford who was the quickest round the 10Km circuit and Anthony & Sean Somers who were first round the 5Km run in a very respectable time indeed!

Well done to everyone that took part - over £1200 was raised for the projects here in South Africa!

Joe and Geoff triumphant after completing 10 Km followed by Clare and Lauren

To view the full photo gallery of the day click here...

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Mont Blanc Climb 2007 for Thusananga & KL

Chaz & Jim Weatherstone completed this incredible challenge in adverse weather conditions to raise over £5000 for Thusananga & Khaya Lokukhanya.

To read about their adventures please click here.......

The Saloman Wartrail Tri Challenge

Many thanks to Adrian Saffy, his friends and Marshall's for making this event so amazing and raising R5000 for Thusananga HBCA & Khaya Lokukhanya!! 41 competitors took part in this grueling 3 stage event in the spectacular mountains of the South Drakensburg region. The first stage was a 60KM Skyrun starting at 4am, the second stage a 135KM mountain bike climb over Lundeans Nek bordering Lesotho and the final stage was a 60 KM paddle down the Orange River in a canoe. Temperatures plummeted to -5 degrees centigrade at night and the mountains were covered in snow making it a truly arctic like experience!! Congratulations to the winners and read the report in full.....

1st – Martin Dreyer - Land Rover Gear / USN Elite Race Team
2nd – Nicholas Mulder - Team Cynosis 3rd – Jeannie Bomford - Land Rover Gear / USN Race Team

'Salomon Wartrail Tri Challenge is dedicated to people affected by HIV / Aids in the Ukhahlamba district of the Eastern Cape'

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The Thusananga Foundation is set up in Spain

Thusananga & Open House in Madrid have recently collaborated to form the Thusananga Foundation supporting our communities here in South Africa. Open House is Spain's first medical centre providing a safe and accessible place for people to seek advice about their medical problems in total confidence without being judged about their sexuality or sexual practices.

Over 600 euros were donated to Thusananga HBCA at GAY PRIDE through the Open House Clinic. Many thanks for all your support!!

An English translation of the Open House site is available by clicking here

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Marathons in 2007

Colin Blythe successfully completed the London Marathon this year and raised over £1400 for Thusananga & Khaya Lokukhanya.

Dominic Weston & Simon Edwards also completed the Snowdon Marathon earlier this year raising over £1000 for the projects.

Well done to you all and many thanks to all of our supporters who kindly sponsored them!

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Our New Year 'Litter Awareness' project

In 2007 we started composting our kitchen waste and encouraging the children to recycle.

Unfortunately our compost heap was still looking like a rubbish tip with peanut butter jars, yogurt pots, plastic bin bags full of rotting food and silver foil having made it's way there SO we went back to our rubbish and compost bins, and everyone in the house was shown what goes in which bin (AGAIN)

We then cleared out the rubbish from the compost heap and put it in the rubbish bin!

We went to see what the litter situation was like outside. We didn't go more than 50 metres before we found piles of rubbish. We put these in a nearby bin and then drove round Barkly looking for bins. There appears to be very few bins in the township areas but a reasonable amount in the town, with far more rubbish in the township.

We came back to KL, cleared up any remaining rubbish around the outside and inside, and went back to the dining room to talk about what we had seen. We tried to explain what the noun and the verb "litter" is, with definitions and examples and talked about why litter is bad:

'it smells, it can be dangerous, and it is ugly' were some suggestions from the kids.

This is a view from outside the township!! Next we are going to come up with some "Anti-litter posters" to keep raising the awareness.

High Court success for a Thusananga Client in 2006

One of the responsibilities of Thusananga HBCA is to help our clients get access to the disability grants they are entitled too and to ensure their human rights are respected. One of our clients, Ms Marbertha, had been refused a disability grant, on the basis of her HIV by the Department of Welfare in the Eastern Cape. She had very poor vision, had suffered a stroke and her physical condition deemed her unfit for work. She had been subsisting on food parcels since 2002 provided by Thusananga HBCA.

Dr Murphy & her lawyers at the Legal Resource Centre worked on the case for over 2 years and made an appeal against the decision. In 2006 after a long battle, the case was won and Ms Marbertha received her full disability grant in July 2006. Read the full report........

Read our article in the Journal of South African Family Practice 2005 47(2) Rural Health Initiative - Rural Health Issues

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