2010 will bring a new place of safety for children at risk in Barkly East

Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of our UK donors, we have been able to buy a new building which will act as a Place of Safely for children in Barkly East (and the surrounding areas). This home will provide a safe place for children who have been neglected or abused and who need emergency placement. These children have in the past, often arrived at Khaya Lokukhanya battered and bruised and deeply traumatised. We realised the need to keep a special place of safety dedicated to them,nd separate from the children who we permanently foster.

It allows us the freedom to continue to provide an outstanding Foster Home (physically just across the road) for the children who cannot be found placements in the community, and allows them to lead as normal a life as possible.

We have had the most amazing help and generosity shown to us since the project's inception, back in 2002. As some of you may know, I have moved back to the UK, but the amazing work that the staff and volunteers of the two projects continues, supervised by Maggie Thethelwa (the HIV and Home Based Care project) and Tersia Gerber (the Childrens' project).

We hope to secure government funding for the projects, but it is often a painfully slow process. We still need your help. if you would like to donate please go to 'How you can help'

Many thanks and love from us all for your support, past, present and future.

Have a wonderful time over the Festive Season and all the love and luck in the world for 2010!

Clare xx

Dr Clare Murphy

Thank you Hannah for the wonderful scarves!

Thank you so much to Hannah Aldridge who personally knitted lots of scarves for us all here at KL. The foster mothers are totally in awe of your knitting skills too! It is freezing cold and -10 degrees centigrade on a bad day here so they arrived here at the perfect time.

Thinama on the farm

Fancy raising some money for Thusananga & KL?

The Lions have arrived at Khaya Lukukhanya!

Thank you to Derek and the guys in the UK for the generous gift of lots of British & Irish Lions T shirts for the children at KL. They are wearing them with pride! After being impounded in customs for a few days they arrived here safely and the kids think they are fantastic! Thank you again from all of us here at KL.

Colin Blythe completes the Edinburgh Marathon for Thusananga HBCA

Well done to Colin for completing the Edinburgh Marathon in the sweltering heat in a very respectable time of 3 hours 30 minutes 57 seconds. He raised £1230 at last count for our projects and we would like to thank everyone who sponsored him and to Colin for thinking of our charity.

It is not too late to sponsor Colin by visiting his sponsorship page

Thank you to Lydia Blythe and all her friends at Winnersh Primary School

We would like to thank Lydia, her friends and teachers at Winnersh Primary School for their fabulous efforts fundraising for the children of Khaya Lokukhanya. They organised events like name the bear (its name was Clare!) a cake stall, lucky dip and a raffle. All the events were a great success especially the cake sale which raised £50 on the first day!

The grand total raised was £169.63 (R2380) and we would like to thank Lydia, Ali, Sian, Imi, Katie, Jacob, Patrick, Callum, Mark, Mr Howell, Mr Penny and everyone at the school that supported the events and made this happen - Well done!

Eating Cake!!

Back Row Left to Right, Imi, Jacob, Mark. Middle Row Sian, Lydia, Katie Front Ali

The Big 5 Marathon in Jo 'burg

A huge congratulations to everyone that completed the 5 hour 'Big 5' marathon on Sunday 19th April. After a lot of pumping muscles, pounding hearts and sweating bodies over 5 hours on 5 cardio machines in the gym, the grand total raised was R20,000 (£1335.00)

Guy & the girls

Well done to everyone that took part and especially Guy & Wayde for organising the event - THANK YOU!

Click here for more details

Our numbers have come up on the lottery!

About 2 years ago with the help of a professional fundraiser, Cindy Buske we applied for funding from the South African Lottery (NLDTF) for both of our projects. Her services were paid for by a private donor and she set to work on the application.

Months passed and we had given up hope and almost forgotten about the application, when a letter arrived at our offices in March saying we had been awarded a sizeable amount of money specifically for Thusananga HBCA.

This money will be used provide food parcels to our clients that are unable to work due to their illness. It will help us give our garden a face lift, to build poly tunnels and an irrigation system so our clients can grow their own vegetables, encouraging healthy eating and self sufficiency.

The money will also assist with the training programmes for our volunteer caregivers and support staff and give us the opportunity to provide them with a decent re numeration for all their hard work.

The wider community of Barkly East affected by HIV will benefit from this cash injection and for that we are really grateful.

A big thank you to everyone that has made this happen!

Nkosithandile and Andiswa are reunited with their granny and move to Cape Town.

After 6 months of organisation with social workers from the Western Cape, Nkosithandile and Andiswa are finally reunited with their paternal granny. When they were told this was actually happening they were both ecstatic and could not wait to meet her. The day finally came for them to leave KL and their granny arrived to take them on the long journey to Cape Town (well over 1300 km from Barkly East!)

We are all very sad to see them go but this is ultimately our goal for the children that live in KL; to go back to live with their own families wherever possible. We provide a loving, caring home for them all until the day comes when they leave us, as the best place for the children to be is with their own families.

From Left to Right - Granny, Nkosithandile with the 3 foster Mothers, Mandi, Precious, Ntualeng & Andiswa at Khaya Lokukhanya

Read the latest update from Dr Clare Murphy

Our Latest News Update from Khaya Lokukhanya and Thusananga November 2008 - click here to read the full newsletter

Fundraising in 2008

Thank you to Patsy Eastmure in Canada

A big thank you to Patsy, a dear friend of the Sephton 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 web site

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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