Lambano Sanctuary

Fanele

2012-02-10T12:42:00.001+02:00

Fanele, one of our Girls from Hospice past away last sunday, somehow unexpected for us. We loved her and we miss her a lot!!!!

Time to say good bye!

2012-02-10T12:38:00.002+02:00

It has been a very busy time since the New Year started and a special time for all of us, as 3 Volunteers left, to go back home to their Country.

Devyn who stayed with us since August 2011 went back to America, Sarah who stayed with us since September 2011 went back to Switzerland and Sandra who stayed with us since December 2011 went back to Paraguay.

All of them have been a huge help to us in terms of driving around, cleaning our storerooms, helping the kids with their home work, helping in the Office during Martha is on leave and for all the time they spent with our kids and entertained them during the weekends and holidays.

It was very sad for the kids and all of us to say good bye. But we wish them all the best and may god bless them. And of course we hope they will at least visit us soon again…

If you know of anybody who is interested of being a Volunteer at Lambano – please let us know, extra help is always needed!!!

Back to school!

2012-02-02T08:33:00.004+02:00

On the 18^th of January all our kids went back to school.

It was a very special day especially for 5 of our kids:

The 3 who started Grade 6 are now going to a new School. They are attending the classes now a Leicester Road School. We are very excited about this because it’s a really good school and we would not ordinarily be able to afford their fees, but they have agreed for us to pay 50% of the school fees. This is still a lot of money but we feel it’s worth it to raise the level of our children’s skills to prepare them for High School in two year’s time. The children are really enjoying their new school.

They have already started with extra classes in Math, English and Afrikaans.

We also had 2 children start Grade 1. Since the classes at Wychwood are so overcrowded we decided to run Grade 1 our premises. The preschool teacher who has been running our preschool for about 5 years is going to teach them Grade 1. Again Leicester Road School has helped us by giving us the materials and curriculum to do this.

Since their biggest disappointment of not going to “Big School” was the uniform and school bag, we put together a uniform for them to wear every day and gave them school bags just like the older children have. They are very proud to wear their uniform and do their homework after school.

2012-01-13T11:31:00.005+02:00

This week we had a strategic planning meeting and one thing that stood out for all of us is that it was hard for us to make the commitment to come and work at Lambano (As the wise one – Lyn said we all came kicking, screamingJ), but the Lord changed our hearts, showing us that this was where He wanted us to be. Each one of us can now agree that working here has been a privilege and a blessing.

We have grown to love our jobs and that for me would be shopping, something that I use to dread – The Lord has a sense of humour! This week I had to take most of the school-going children (17 of them) shopping for their School uniforms as most of our children have outgrown last year’s clothes. The shopping was an adventurous outing - going in and out of the fitting room and people staring at me like I’m a mad woman. Some bolder people came to ask if the children were mine, I mean most of the children are the same age and they all look different, but I’d just nod and say yes, they are all my children and the look that I get is priceless!

Yesterday two of our children had a sinus operation, quite a lengthy and painful procedure. They are both back from Hospital and are doing very well. They will go back for their check-up on Friday next week.

My plea to live!!!

2012-01-06T12:48:00.002+02:00

This poem was written by one of the Hospice children who is 16 years old. The letter that follows was written with the help of the Nursing Sister in charge of the Hospice, but the thoughts belong to this young girl. She is resistant to all the antibiotics that would cure her renal disease but one and this drug is very expensive so this letter and poem was send to one of our local Radio Stations with the hope of gathering funds towards the drug. She has already had her first 14 days of treatment and is just beginning her next 14 days because the infection has not cleared completely. Once this treatment is completed, we will do another sonar to check her status and, if the infection has still not cleared completely, she will have to have a third course of the antibiotic. This is her last chance as there are no other drugs to help her.

I thought I was alone but I was wrong.

God gave me people in my life, like my Granny and the people of Lambano.

When I was sick I thought I would die before my time.

My mother gave me birth and left me like this.

I thank God for my Granny and Lambano...

Behind my smile is a hurting heart.

Behind my thought I am falling apart...

look closely at me and you will see

the person I am isn’t me...

I am very ill and need medication now that will help me.

I live in an NGO named LAMBANO SANCTUARY in the hospice section. I was admitted on 29 September 2011 with complications due to HIV and TB. Lambano treated me when I was admitted. Lambano hospice provides me with the best possible treatment and care to improve my quality of life.

I was admitted to the hospital during October 2011, and moved to five different wards without any treatment for my renal problem. Lambano re-admitted me to their care and started a 21 day treatment of antibiotics. The cost of this treatment and tests is very expensive. My condition improved a lot and Lambano decided to continue further treatment to help me.

During December, my body resisted the cheaper drugs and Lambano paid a further R19, 000 for medication to improve my quality of life. I know need another 14 day treatment to the value of R19, 000 which Lambano will pay but their funds are low.

Please help Lambano to help me to live and be able to have the medication that I need.

Thank you for reading my plea...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

2011-12-23T11:22:00.001+02:00

Dear Sponsors, Friends and Family

We have been so blessed this year in so many ways but knowing that you all care about our children is the highlight.

We thank each and every one for all that you have done for us this past year and hopefully you will continue to support us in the future.

Our Christmas wish for you all is to have a Joyful Christmas with family and friends and a prosperous New Year.

If you need any more information or would like to donate on line please go to our website.

2011-12-09T15:48:00.004+02:00

94.7 challenge

We sent out an appeal to all our donors to sponsor a cyclist for the Momentum 94.7 Cycle Challenge. We had 11 cyclists participating in this challenge and the outcome was amazing, the cyclists were able to raise R118 000, 00. Thank you to all who supported us for this challenge and to the cyclists that rode so well.

The Cyclists handing over a cheque to Lambano

Christmas parties:

It’s been extremely busy for the past 2 weeks with Christmas parties and dancing rehearsals.

Twelve of our children have been practicing to perform at our Civic Theatre on the 09^th & 10^th December. This is a big production and our children will be doing two dances in the show - we know that they will do well.

Staff Christmas party:

Our staff had a lovely Christmas lunch. Thank you to Sarah Wittwer’s friends (Sarah is one of our volunteer from Switzerland) for donating money for this lunch. We were also able to give them Christmas hampers which they greatly appreciated.

I think this is the saddest part:

Goodbye:

Mama Barbara came to Lambano 6 years ago and what a blessing she has been to us. When she came to stay at McAlpine the children were around 4 years old and now they are 10! On Friday last week we had a farewell party for her and everyone was in tears. The children and the staff sang a wonderful song for her thanking her for everything she has done for them. Mama Barbara there are truly no words to express how grateful we are that you came to Lambano. You will be greatly missed!

Mama Barbara with the Lambano children

Mama Barbara with some of the Lambano staff

2011-11-11T16:12:00.001+02:00

The School concert for our kids in primary school was a blast. The kids worked hard in rehearsals and gave us an entertaining show. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos, so we do not have any pictures to show you.

This week, four of our thirteen hospice children were discharged to go home. It was a sad time for some of our workers as they have bonded with these children, but the children were really happy to return to their family.

2011-10-28T14:13:00.002+02:00

Sorry but not a lot has happened this week!

Some of the School children have a concert next week and they have been practising real hard for the concert. It's been quite entertaining when they come and show their dance moves. Can't wait to see the whole show!

Happy Birthday Mama Lyn!

2011-10-21T15:15:00.003+02:00

It was Lyn's birthday on Tuesday and as you can see the Hospice children had a suprise birthday party for Mama Lyn!

The Hospice children singing Happy Birthday for Lyn :)

Hope you have a blessed year!

2011-10-14T15:25:00.004+02:00

Jenna with the children from the 36 house

It’s hard to believe that it’s been 2 years since Jenna joined Lambano! For many years we prayed that God would send a House mother for the 36 children and Jenna came as an answer to that prayer. She is truly an amazing person, not only did she take on the job of being a mother to the children at 36, but she also took on the responsibility of managing the day-to-day running of the Hospice. Lyn was really grateful to have her help in the Hospice because she brought skills no-one else at Lambano had at that time. Thank you Jenna for all your hard work and love for the children, you will be greatly missed!

The GOSH Grannies (Grannies offering supervised homework )

These are the grannies that help our children with their homework in the afternoons.

One of the grannies with teacher Bheki and some of the children

Thank you ladies for all your hard work!

Another volunteer :)

2011-09-30T15:34:00.001+02:00

Liz is from America and she will be with Lambano until December. We are really excited to have you here!

Scotsman from Malawi!!!

2011-09-23T14:07:00.002+02:00

24th September is South Africa Heritage day and the School asked the children to wear their traditional clothes for today. And our boy decided he was going to wear a Scotish kilt to school and when he was asked where he was from he said he was from Malawi. Well what a laugh we all killed ourself laughing imagine a scotsman from Malawi! I suppose now we just need to teach him that Scotsmen come from Scotland!

Supporting our rugby team!

2011-09-16T14:55:00.002+02:00

As most of you know it's the rugby world cup and the children were asked by their School to wear a rugby T - shirt every Friday to support our rugby team. We knew we couldn't afford to buy T - shirts for all our children but last week we were blessed by Luisa Cornelli with T - shirts. Thank you for donating rugby T- shirts for all our children!

Another volunteer!!!

2011-09-09T15:50:00.002+02:00

We are really excited to have another volunteer. Sarah is from Switzerland and she will be with Lambano for 5 months!

New arrival in the hospice

2011-08-19T15:36:00.004+02:00

This two are siblings

2011-08-12T13:09:00.002+02:00

It was with great difficulty we said goodbye to Winsome. Teacher Winsome has been with us since our first children started school nearly 5 years ago.She did such an amazing job helping our children with homework, being a strict but loving teacher. Wimsome worked with the Grade 1 and 2 children, ensuring that the foundational skills were firmly in place, going way beyond just helping them with their homework. Thank you Teacher Winsome for all your hard work!

On that note, we are looking for a qualified teacher to take her place working with the Grade1 and 2’s, so if you feel called to come and volunteer your time you can email us.

Teacher Winsome with some of the Lambano children

Another goodbye – Elyse was with us for 2 months and she was really an amazing person to work with. She will be sorely missed and we hope that she will enjoy being back home!

Devyn with one of the Lambano's children

Devyn is 17 years old who has come all the way from America. We hope you will enjoy your stay in Africa for the next 9 months!

2011-08-05T16:08:00.000+02:00

After months of praying for a registered nurse, the Lord finally heard our cryJ. Alta is a highly qualified and skilled professional and we are very happy to have her as part of the team.

It’s been a week since Alta started at the Hospice and there are so many positive changes already.

Birthdays!!!

2011-07-29T15:01:00.002+02:00

June

May

Pictures of the Fashion show concert!!!

2011-07-22T14:57:00.008+02:00

For the past few weeks we've been talking about the concert. Here are the pictures!!

Our 10 dancers

The dance

The Finale

Sorry we can't post the video on the blog the file is to big.

What a week!!!

2011-07-15T12:59:00.002+02:00

I came back from leave on Tuesday and the first thing I was asked to do was take the children shopping! The daughter of one of our donors decided she and her friends wanted to do a fundraiser for Lambano and another charity and organised a fashion show for us. As part of this they found people to sponsor R350 per child so that all of them could have a new set of clothing. The children were allowed to choose whatever they wanted and, on the whole, they came back with beautiful clothes although we did see a few strange outfits J. We couldn’t take all 30 children to the shops at one time so we had to take them in groups which took the whole morning, but the children had so much fun!!! Thank you Alexi, Emma and Jade for making this possible (thanks too to the parents who also put in a lot of effort!)

As if that was not enough shopping, we also had to buy clothes for the 10 children that are performing on Saturday, so on Wednesday and Thursday Elyse and I were back at the shops trying to find the right clothes. This proved to be very difficult as the children range widely in age and size so finding the same outfit for all 10 children was very difficult but by God’s grace everything is in order now and we were able to find white T–shirts, Takkies (for my American readers that’s sneakers) and blue jeans for all the Dancers. Thank you Lord!

Update on the fashion show:

If you have been following our blog you have read from the previous posts that the children are working hard on rehearsing a dance that will form part of the fashion show. This week they had a number of extra rehearsals. Saturday will be a long day for the Dancers as they have to be at the venue at 12:00 for the concert which starts at 14:00, but the dancers are excited at being there the whole day!

We will post the photos of the children’s dance next week!

New volunteer!!

2011-07-01T14:28:00.001+02:00

Tanya is from Canada and is going to stay with us untill September. She’s been with us for a week already and she has fitted in really well - she’s even helping with the Holiday Bible Club at our Church!

Holiday Bible Club:

Today is the last day of the Holiday Bible Club and the children are so sad because they had so much fun. On Sunday they are all going to perform at Church and show us what they’ve learnt this week.

2011-06-24T15:09:00.001+02:00

We have been blessed in the last week by a few of the local Primary Schools: St James Preparatory, Hurlyvale Primary and Leicester Road Primary. The first School donated blankets, the second, groceries and the third gave our staff Coffee Mugs filled with chocolates. Our staff were so surprised and grateful for the gift.

It’s the last day of School today and trying to organise a Schedule for our children for the School Holidays is a mission! The children have so much to do these holidays, including a Holiday Bible Club for the first week. St Andrew’s School is organising a function on the 16^th of July for Lambano and they’ve asked our children to perform a dance. The children are practising really hard for this big performance - Lindsey the choreographer is working really hard with them!

Winter blessings!!!

2011-06-13T08:28:00.008+02:00

Our children were blessed by the Life Roseacres Clinic’s Sizanani Project with blankets - my office was packed! Each child received their own blanket. Thank you for blessing our children with such a lovely gift!

Office packed with blankets

The Roseacre's staff with some of the hospice children

What a day!

Elyse - our new volunteer from Ameraica

On Tuesday we had 4 different appointments in different hospitals and, to top it all, Jenna - our Hospice manager was sick, so Elyse (a new volunteer) and I had the privilege of taking two of our children to the occupational therapy appointment at Baragwanath Hospital and Sibylle had to take another girl from the Hospice to a diabetic clinic in Boksburg. In the afternoon Elyse and Sfiso took another boy to the Johannesburg Hospital for a follow up at the Burns unit.

The two children that Elyse and I took for the appointment received splints and I was told that the boy has to have occupational therapy every day. This boy is 13 years old and he had a fungal infection on his left pointy finger (amongst many other problems). Some of the things that he has to do is learn to wash and dress himself, to pull his damaged finger back and hold it for a count of five. While they were showing me all this I saw how he struggled with every activity and this made me realise how much I take for granted, even knowing how to type this blog with all my fingers. I was saddened when I saw how this boy struggled with even these simple tasks.

Another Goodbye!!

2011-06-03T13:44:00.007+02:00

Every time when the volunteer leaves we ask ourselves how we ever coped without them. They drive our special needs children to their schools and therapies, help with the hospital visits, do homework and therapies with the children – what a tremendous help they are. That’s why we are so grateful for each and every volunteer.

On Wednesday we said goodbye to Rachel who has been with us since January.

When Rachel came, she was really quiet and we thought the children would make toast of her but to our amazement Rachel handled the children very well, she was strict but loving. Thank you Rachel for all your hard work, you will be solely missed!

Rachel with some of the children

The guys working hard

Last week we were blessed by Distell Company making a vegetable garden at 82 McAlpine. It’s really encouraging to see people taking time out of their busy schedules to come and spend time working to make our homes look good. Thank you Distell for all your hard work!!

May Birthdays!!

Our little madam turned 3

He turned 12

What fun to work at Lambano!!!

2011-05-27T11:00:00.002+02:00

Today I was entartained by 2 children and they were competing against each other
They were singing their hearts out, the boy sang for me ''you are my sunshine, my only sunshine'' and the girl is really competitive , she didn’t want to lose and she started singing ''Bayete, bayete Inkosi'' (Zulu song meaning Exalted king) as loud as she could. Oh what fun!

Thank you's

On Saturday, 9 of our children had an dentist appointment as most adults are teriffied of going to the dentist we feared for the children, but Jenna had a little talk with the children explaining what's going to happen to them and to our amazement all the children were really good. Thank you Dr Debbie for offering your service and helping our children with their teeth!

We are really grateful for people who offers their services to Lambano. Most of our children go to different therapies and for many years Centapaeds has been one of the places that have been offering their services to our Children and we are truly blessed to have facilities like this that gives up their time and efforts to help our children.

Birthdays!!!!

2011-05-20T09:01:00.003+02:00

April birthdays

March Birthdays!!!

2011-04-15T09:55:00.002+02:00

All our children attend school now that our 2 three-year-old’s have started at the Wychwood Baptist nursery school. The little boy found it difficult in the beginning and cried for a while when he was left, but our little madam took to it like a duck to water – our little socialite. Our little man has also settled in now and is enjoying the experience.

Movie day!

The children loved their 3D glasses!

Our children were on holiday for the past 2 weeks and Ster Kinekor donated movie tickets for them to watch the movie RIO, which the children loved. They were also treated to a tasty lunch by McDonald’s.

Thank you to Emma and Karen from Edenvale Baptist Church for organising the outing and thank you to Ster Kinekor for the tickets and McDonald’s for providing lunch!

Our 10 year anniversary!!!

2011-04-01T14:21:00.003+02:00

My head is buzzing with all the things I could write about; the highlights of Lambano, the lowest times and the blessings. Then I decided I should write about God’s faithfulness throughout these ten years

When Melanie told us that she wanted to start Lambano I thought to myself this wouldn’t be possible. Many obstacles came to mind like, where we would she get the money to run Lambano?; where would the staff come from etc, but she had faith that God would provide and He did and is still providing! Yes, she had hard times and there are still problems today, especially with funds, but we are blessed!!

When Lambano started we had 1 house with 5 kids and now we have 5 houses; one house being the Hospice which takes up to 12 children and the other 4 houses are for our 30 permanent children. Who ever thought that in the last 10 years we would impact so many children.

Thank you Lord for your faithfulness

The Sponsors

I know that when I write thank you letters I always say thank you for your support but I’m not sure you realise just how grateful we really are for your contributions. We do understand that there are so many needs in South Africa and companies are overwhelmed with the needs, that’s why we are so grateful for the amounts that the companies are able to give to Lambano.

Thank you for your love for our children and for your contributions over the past 10 years

Thank you!!!

2011-03-25T13:43:00.003+02:00

Working at Lambano is one of the most amazing jobs ever, there are days when I wonder “what am I doing here” but most of the time I’m really grateful that I work here. It’s really good to see how God changes people and to see them grow, especially our volunteers!

Miriam with one of the Lambano kids!

Most of our volunteers come through a mission organisation called SIM. SIM send us volunteers from all over the world. Miriam, a 17 year lady who was born in England but did most of her growing up in France, joined Lambano 6 months ago. She helped the older kids with homework and that helped the kids to do really well in school last year. Miriam was asked to do lots of different things and she did them well. It’s been a blessing to see Miriam grow in Christ - she not only got involved with the children but she made it a point to get to know the staff and the local people too and that was the highest highlight for me. On Tuesday we had to say goodbye to her; it was really hard for all us and we couldn’t believe that 6 months passed so quickly! The children already miss her.

Thank you Miriam for giving of your time to come and bless our children, you will be greatly missed!

Dr Maharaj with the little boy!

Two years ago we took this little boy to a private hospital to have his shunt replaced (you would have read about the whole saga and how we nearly lost him) and since then he is doing well. Last week, Mama Barbara took him back to the hospital that operated on him to thank the doctors and the staff for the wonderful job they had done. The doctor that operated on him couldn’t believe that it was the same child! When he arrived he sang a ‘’thank you song’’ to the doctor and the doctor had tears in his eyes. This boy is such a charmer!

Thank you Dr Maharaj for operating on this boy and making him well!

2011-03-18T14:38:00.005+02:00

In the last few weeks, two of our special needs children have been moved to new schools.

One is a nine year old boy who is partially sighted so we’ve got him into a school for Blind and partially sighted children. Since the school is in Pretoria, he needs to board during the week and we collect him on a Friday afternoon. It was very hard for us to make the decision for him to go because he’s very small for his age and always has a lost look about him but he’s settled in very well and we hope he be happy there.

The second child is a girl who turns 7 in April. She suffered brain damage due to a stroke at the age of 2 years so she needs a school that will teach her basic skills to prepare her for assisted living as an adult. She’s also settled in very well and is excited that she is in “Big School”

Our children continue to enjoy the swimming lessons and it’s tough to get them out of the pool when it’s over.

Our staff has been spoilt this week!

We often have people who spoil our children for which we are most grateful, but most of the time our staff are forgotten. However, this week our staff were in for a treat! Denna and her daughter (visitors from the States) spoilt our staff, by buying them KFC for lunch. KFC’s is a favourite with the staff and they were really grateful for the lunch. Thank you Denna and Maheila for your generosity!

2011-03-11T15:52:00.002+02:00

January birthdays!!!

February birthdays!!!

January and February are always busy months for us. Organising the parties for all the children is hard work!

2011-01-28T13:15:00.000+02:00

After all the struggles of finding a suitable school for this boy we are glad to say that he was accepted at a school in our area that provides a bridging course to help him catch up with his academic subjects and where he will be able to learn a trade.

School starts!!!

2011-01-21T09:24:00.003+02:00

Two of our children started school this year, they are enjoying themselves. We now have have 24 children in school!

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-07T15:48:00.003+02:00

We hope that you had a great festive season!!

Our children were really spoiled this Christmas – a big thank all who contributed so generously towards the Christmas gifts and parties, it was a memorable time for the children.

On Christmas Day, all the children, volunteers and caregivers met up at the McAlpine house where they had a swim and a Braai (for the Americans that would be a BBQ) on a typical December day in SA – bright blue skies, hot temperatures and a slight breeze if you were lucky!

Fun swimming

After the braai , the children toasted marshamallows

2010-12-17T14:25:00.001+02:00

This little girl has Downs Syndrome and, due to this condition was born with a large hole in her heart. The hole was too big to heal on it’s own and she needed oxygen from time to time. Last week she was admitted to hospital to have heart surgery. The surgery went well and she was recovering well but picked up infection and passed away a few days later.

Since she was quite severely retarded it’s probably a blessing that she’s gone home to the Father, but her grandparents are grieving and we ask for prayer for them.

2010-12-15T09:19:00.004+02:00

Carols by candlelight!

2 of the Lambano children sang this song

The words of the song!

Happy Birthday Jesus

I'm so glad it's Christmas

All the tinsel and lights

And the presents are nice.

But the real gift is you.

Happy Birthday Jesus

I'm so glad it's Christmas

All the carols and bells

Make the holiday swell

And it's all about you.

Happy Birthday Jesus, Jesus I Love You.

Christmas Concert:

Mary and Joseph

The choir

What a lovely concert it was!

The children have done well!!!

2010-12-03T11:40:00.006+02:00

11 Of our children received certificates for all the hard work they put in this year! Thanks to teacher Winsome, Rachel, Miriam and Valerie who diligently helped them with their home work!

This year we were worried about our Grade 4, teacher Winsome was not able to help them with their homework, they had to learn to do their homework and study for exams on their own which they have never done before and we thought they wouldn’t cope but they have proven us wrong!

Grade 4 receiving their certificates

She received a certificate for getting more than 80% on maths

Out of all the Grade 4’s he is the only one who got the highest mark in Afrikaans, got more than 80% on his Afrikaans.

Twins arrival!!!

2010-11-29T09:09:00.002+02:00

Last week we received this two little angels, they are 2 months old. Everybody is so inlove with this twins!

November birthday!

2010-11-19T08:55:00.002+02:00

He turned 6

2010-10-29T13:59:00.005+02:00

This week has been a week of colds and fever!

Many of our children were sick this week, including quite a few of the mammas. However even sickness didn’t cause them to stay away from school because they were performing in the school concert.

The school concert was really good and the children enjoyed every moment of it. The theme was “Countries of the World”, inspired by the Soccer World Cup. Each grade did a sequence based on a different country, really foot stamping music and dancing. (Sorry we can’t show you pictures of the children in the concert, but we were not allowed to take pictures)

The hospice children singing!

This little boy has been with us since November last year (see our January post). On Wednesday he turned 13 he was so happy to be able to blow out his candles and have people singing to him.

Mama Lyn's 50th birthday!!!

2010-10-25T09:41:00.004+02:00

On Monday we had a party for mama Lyn’s. All the children made birthday cards and came up to the office to sing for her, they even counted up to 50, what a long count

Some of the hospice children giving mama Lyn a gift

Lambano children singing for mama Lyn!

And this girl had a party the next day. She turned 8!

Eli Lilly's CSI workday!

2010-10-08T14:59:00.005+02:00

In South Africa companies are encouraged to do a corporate Social Investment (CSI). And as you know South Africa has many homes that need help and it’s really hard for companies to choose which home they would like to do their CSI workday. And that is why we are so grateful for companies like Eli Lilly who chose us.

Eli Lilly's Team

Planting grass

2010-09-17T13:23:00.000+02:00

Not much happened this week.

What a long day!! On Monday 3 of us spent the whole day at the hospital with three of our children who had their tonsils removed. All are healing well.

We had a chicken pox outbreak at the hospice and the hospice children have been under quarantine for 21 days and couldn't go to any of the parties/activities or mix with the children from the other homes. Thank the Lord that the quarantine is over and they can now leave the hospice, play with the other children and go to all the parties.

Shopping adventure!!!

2010-09-10T14:24:00.003+02:00

Mama Barbara took the two toddlers shopping and as you can see in these photos that boys will be boys! He fell asleep while shopping and obviously as girls we love our shopping.

I’m bored of shopping, can’t we go home

I love shopping

Time to say goodbye!!!

2010-09-03T15:49:00.007+02:00

Stephanie from Switzerland

Marie from Germany

For the last 3 months we had 2 volunteers staying with us. Stephanie is from Switzerland and Marie is from Germany. These ladies have been a blessing to us and the children. We’ve been really busy over the last couple of months and they have been a huge help by driving the children to the different schools and therapies and helping with home work and packing our store rooms - this was probably one of the worst jobs for them but they didn’t complain once.

They will be greatly missed!

Winter is nearly over!!!

2010-08-27T15:40:00.007+02:00

2 of the toddlers that started swimming!

Winter is nearly over and the children have started their swimming lessons. The 2 toddlers went for the lessons for the first time and they are enjoying every moment of it.

Another school holiday - unscheduled

The school children have been home for a week now because the Teachers’ Unions are all on strike. Whilst most of the teachers at the Wychwood School aren’t striking, there are fears of what the strikers might do to the children if they try to go to school as some of the children who tried to go to school were threatened. We hope that by next week the strike will be over.

Hospice arrival

In the last two weeks we have admitted two nine year olds, both are very sick. One has meningitis and has had to go to hospital to receive specialised IV antibiotics. The course is at least 6 weeks long and the drugs have bad side affects so we had to take a chance and send him to hospital despite the Nurses Unions also being on strike. We could not take him to our usual hospital as the strike there is quite violent, but we got him into another hospital. Hopefully, once he is stable on the medication we will be able to bring him home and continue his treatment here.

Wychwood Fashion show!!!

2010-08-20T11:18:00.005+02:00

Our Church had a fashion show on Saturday!!

The Lambano ladies in their traditional outfits.

The children also enjoyed themselves

The catwalk

Posing for the camera :)

2010-08-05T14:00:00.004+02:00

The children were treated to an outing at the movies to see Shrek. This was their first 3D movie and they really enjoyed it.

On Saturday we had our first jumble sale. To our surprise many people came and bought the clothes. With the money we got we are able to buy some new clothes for the children. Thank you to all the people that gave clothes and books for this jumble sale.

Mandela day!

2010-07-23T12:00:00.004+02:00

Mandela Day is an annual celebration of Nelson Mandela’s life and a global call to action for people to recognize their individual ability to make an imprint and change the world around them. Everyone gives 67 minutes of their time, whether it’s supporting your chosen charity or serving your local community.

For Mandela day, Parrot Company put up a fence around our vegetable patch at one of our houses, and one of the gardens was cleaned up and we had people coming and playing with the children too!

We would like to thank individuals and companies that came on this day and gave their time to play and interact with our children.

The holidays are almost over and it’s back to school!!!

2010-07-09T11:29:00.000+02:00

We can’t believe that the school holidays are over. The children had lots of fun running around! The children start school on Tuesday and they are really looking forward to going back to school.

Sad news:

2 weeks ago we received a little boy with terminal cancer - he came for palliative care and, on Tuesday he passed away quietly while watching TV. We are so grateful that his passing was so quick and peaceful. Please pray for the family during this time of grief.

June birthday!!!

2010-07-02T15:10:00.004+02:00

He turned 4

She turned 7

He turned 1

Soccer fever!!!

2010-06-18T09:41:00.003+02:00

For the last 10 days our church has been running an amazing programme for the children in the community called League of Champions – we managed to get sponsorships for all the Lambano children.

In the morning the children go to the church and play games and learn Bible verses, then they play soccer for an hour. On Saturdays are the tournaments days and parents are invited to come and watch their children play. The children have had a wonderful time and don’t want to miss any of the games even in this cold weather.

Our future Bafana Bafana team

The girls also enjoy playing soccer

Updates!!!

2010-06-04T15:53:00.004+02:00

This little boy from the hospice turned 11 on Sunday! He wanted to go to Spur for his birthday and everything was organised but his condition worsened again and we couldn’t take him. Please continue to pray for him.

Updates:

The little boy that went for an assessment on Saturday last week was also accepted to the special school, he will start school in July!!!

God is good!!!

2010-05-28T15:03:00.001+02:00

We’ve been struggling for the past few months to get 4 of our children into school. The two 4 year old boys need to go to a special pre-school because of their physical disabilities but everywhere we went we were told that the schools are full or they did not have the facilities for disabled children.

This week we got some good news – we have found placements for three of our children. The 10 year girl that we wrote about on the 07th of May will start school on Monday in a remedial class that will help her catch up with all she’s missed. The other girl and one of the boys have been accepted at a nursery school that integrates disabled children with normal children (we really like this) they will also start on Monday. The other boy will go for an assessment on Saturday to see if he qualifies to get into a school that specialises in cerebral palsy children.

Thank you all for your prayers!

Thank you!!!

2010-05-14T15:29:00.000+02:00

The Lord is good! Last week we sent out an appeal for funds to all our sponsors many people responded. We would like to say thank you for your help and love for our children.

Dental Programme:

Smile of Joy is an NGO that gives each HIV infected and/or affected orphaned child in South Africa the foundation for total oral health.

For the past few weeks we have had a dentist coming to work on some of the hospice children’s teeth that had been identified as needing treatment. Some of the children had to have some teeth extracted, but most of the children were really good. Only one 14 year old refused to open his mouth – he’d seen the tray of instruments and he wasn’t budging!

Raising funds for the church:
McDonalds Mcpastor night - This event is to raise money so that the AWANA children can attend a special Holiday Bible Club based on a soccer theme during the June/July holidays. Most of the Lambano children go to AWANA and they love it.

On the night we took 35 of our children to the Mcpastor night to support the church and give them an outing. We had decided that we could afford an ice-cream cone for each child. However, on arriving there, one of the men took the matter out of our hands and insisted on paying for the ice-creams. Each child received an ice cream cup with strawberry, caramel or chocolate poured over it – what a treat!
We would like to thank the people who helped with the children and those who paid for the ice cream. The children had lots of fun.

2010-05-07T12:44:00.000+02:00

This little girl has been with us for 2 years and was very ill so she couldn’t go to school because of health problems.

This year we tried to register her at the local school where the other Lambano children go, but the Department of Education told us that they would not register her because she is too old for Grade 1 and they said we had to home-school her.

Our teachers, Bronwyn and Winsome having been working very hard to try to get her ready for school but they’re limited in what they can do because they have the other children in their classes to deal with at the same time.

Since we feel that this is the Education Department’s problem – by law every child has to attend school, we contacted the councillor of one of the opposition parties in our area and they are trying to sort out the problem for us.

We are going to come across many more of these kinds of children as HIV takes a toll on their lives, so please pray that the Government will acknowledge the problem and make plans to help these children.

You got to love SA system!!!

2010-04-23T14:52:00.000+02:00

It’s been a relatively quiet week for Lambano which is rather unusual. We did however have to make another visit to Social Services to renew the children’s foster care grant.

You got to love the South African system. The ladies in the office went to Social Services with the documents they had been told to complete, only to be told that the papers that they had filled in were not correct, or another document was needed, or, or, or… They made about 5 visits before the documents were finally accepted. What a waste of time!

Two children were discharged this week and we still have 3 children in hospital. Please continue to pray for these children.

2010-04-16T11:29:00.002+02:00

Hospice:

Lyn always says that we need to buy a tent and put it up at Bara hospital. We have 5 children in hospital already. One of the children is been admitted to hospital today.
Please continue to pray for these children!

There is a gap in the office and in the hospice,Jenna ( one of the house mother from England)is sick, she is off for the next 6 weeks. How in the world do we cope without her? As the wise person (Lyn) has said "Africa is not for sissies"!
Please pray for health.

2010-04-12T09:55:00.000+02:00

can’t believe how fast last week has gone. On Tuesday Vivian and I were alone in the office and as the day went on we were grateful that the day remained quiet. Lyn arrived on Wednesday and thankfully it was also a quiet day. All the children enjoyed their holiday, running around playing very nicely with each other. The one little boy aged 5 loves to go to one of the other houses where the boys are older so he can some fun time with them. On Thursday one of our hospice children was taken ill so Vivian had to take him to Hospital. Although we thought he should stay there the Doctor said it was not necessary so she brought him back. Unfortunately he got worse so Lyn had to take him back to hospital and only got home at 11pm. Friday was the last day of the holiday so the children are enjoyed their free time with each other. Our children are very busy during the school term, as they go to numerous therapy’s and have a homework teacher from 2 till 5 so I know they enjoyed their free time.

This week is going to be busy with all the children back at school and a lots of clinic visits for the Hospice children.

Sandra's farewell party!!!

2010-04-01T12:30:00.001+02:00

Sandra witht the children!

One of our volunteers from Switzerland returned home this week. Sandra was with us for 4 months and it was a blessing to have her here. I know that the children will miss her. Those of us in the office will miss her too, she has been such a help, turning her hand to anything that needed doing, from cleaning out storerooms to typing up the Tax Certificates (and with a smile on her face).

On Friday last week we had a farewell party for her which was really sad for all of us. Thank you Sandra for all the love and patience that you showed to our children.

New office!!!

2010-03-26T11:27:00.006+02:00

Last week we didn’t post anything on our blog because I was moving into my new office. We decided to move “reception” (that’s me) into a new office to try and control the traffic through the general office – it’s like a zoo some days!

Our two new storerooms are beautiful and we have enough space to store our medical supplies there too.

We would like to thank Weeshuis Der Hervormden for donating the money for the new office and the store rooms, what a wonderful gift that was.

New store room

The new office

Hospice:

As we predicted, our “12 bed” Hospice would learn to expand. By the end of last week we were up to 16 patients! Luckily we were able to discharge 3 children this week and a few more are ready to go, we’re just waiting on their Social Workers to ensure that they have somewhere to go to.

We know, however, that we will soon fill up the empty spaces because we have been getting calls for admissions that we have had to turn aside because we were full.

These are our two latest admissions:

This boy is 14 years old and very shy

She is 12 years

2010-03-12T08:48:00.003+02:00

Our quarterly hospital visits are almost over. The children from 2 of the houses have already been to the HIV clinic and they are all doing well!

Hospice:

Wow!! I was away for a week and when I left we had 11 children in the hospice and when I came back there were 15!

Here are some of the new children in the hospice:

He is 10 years

She is 12 years

She is 7 months

Praise the Lord:

One of the hospice children who's been in hospital for over 2 months is finally back at the hospice and he is doing much better! He is really excited to be back home

2010-02-26T15:18:00.005+02:00

Wow!!! This past 2 months we had party after party!

Birthdays for this month!

He turned 15

He turned 9

Turned 9

Turned 8

Turned 9

2010-02-15T08:13:00.010+02:00

On the 17th September 09 we wrote about this little girl. In the beginning we didn’t think she would recover but, as always, God is bigger than us. In December she was discharged and went back to her parents. We helped her parents get her into the school the Lambano children come to where she started Grade 4 in January. After school she comes to Lambano and we help her with her homework – it’s a good way to keep an eye on her health too.

She started school this year!

When she came to us!

This little boy was admitted to hospital the day after he arrived at Lambano and has spent the last 2 months there – he was very ill. On Monday he was discharged but, on the same day, we had to admit one of the other children again! Luckily he was discharged 2 days later. Please pray for their health…. Since we opened the Hospice we have been spending a lot of time at the hospital!

Teacher Winsome turned 80 on 1 February and the children were really excited :-) One of the volunteers baked her a banana birthday cake which Winsome kindly shared with the children.

January birthdays!!

2010-01-29T14:52:00.006+02:00

Our oldest girl, she is 10 years old!

He turned 7

He turned 8

She turned 5

2010-01-22T15:48:00.004+02:00

This 12 year boy was in coma when he came to us. He was in a car accident where his father was killed and his brother became a paraplegic. Our volunteer orthopedic surgeon operated on him and reset the breaks in his leg and put on a full body cast. His mom and older sister visit him all the time!

And on Tuesday they took off his cast and he is doing much better. Every day we see new improvements in him. He responds to instructions like “close your eyes”, “lift up your arm” etc. and today he wouldn’t return someone’s cell phone but hid it away! Something is certainly clearing in that head of his, it’s so exciting.

On Thursday he started his occupational therapy and he was not happy with the therapist. We are trying to get neuro physiotheraphy a few time a week for him so that we can rehabilitate him as much as possible before he goes back to his family.

Please pray for his recovery!

School starts!!!

2010-01-15T14:58:00.006+02:00

The Grade 1 with their friend

1st day of school

We now have 18 children in school. Two of the girls started Grade 1 this year and they seem to be enjoying themselves.

Updates:

In January last year this 3 ½ year old boy was in a coma because of the build up of fluid on his brain and we nearly lost him. However, thanks to Private Hospitalisation and a new shunt, he recovered but he had lost the ability to sit up or talk. After much occupational therapy and the hard work of the house mothers and Aunty Barbara, he quickly regained his speech and ability to sit up. The next step was scooting around on his bottom. A week ago he started to walk and is gaining in strength every day – it’s a delight to see him waddling along with his arms flapping to help with stability! This year he will start speech therapy and we know he will do well. We thank God for sparing this little life.

Working with the occupational therapist

Walking

One of our staff member had a little baby boy on the 01st of January

Happy New Year!!

2010-01-08T14:25:00.002+02:00

Phew, what a year!
2009 was tough year for everybody and we at Lambano are so grateful to the people who gave so generously – without these finances we would not have been able to keep our doors open. Also, a big thank you to all our volunteers and prayer partners, your support is invaluable.

Christmas blessings:

The children were really blessed this Christmas with lots of gifts and parties!

Katlehong:

We also had a Christmas party in Katlehong for the children on the feeding scheme. Thank you to Santa Shoeboxes that provided Christmas gifts for all 27 children.

Have a blessed year and may the Lord bless you!!!

Welcome!

2010-01-01T18:36:00.000+02:00

Welcome to the Lambano blog. Our desire is to be able to update you on what is happening here at Lambano on a more frequent basis. Please note that we are restricted from using the children's name on this site. If you would like more information on a specific picture or entry, please feel free to contact us at info@lambano.org.za

Praise the Lord!!!

2009-12-15T09:30:00.007+02:00

The children were excited to be back home!

We were finally able to move the children back into the house at 36. It took 3 days to first clean the house and then unpack everything but children were really excited to be back home

For the other news:

We have 2 ladies visiting from Holland; Jannie and Astrid. These ladies have been really helpful; they work in the Hospice most of the time stimulating the children (reading to them, singing with them, teaching them new things). They have also visited the children that are in hospital at the moment – this is wonderful for the children since the hospital staff will not allow us to leave toys or books for them since they will be stolen. We are really grateful to have these ladies with us!!

Update:

Hospice:
We have had 2 admissions this week: a 12 year boy who is semi conscious and a 6 month old girl with Downs Syndrome – she also has a heart defect and is oxygen dependent.

Hospital:
It seems like Friday is a day to admit the children to hospital. Last week we had to admit another child to hospital. At one stage we had 5 children in hospital but thankfully 2 of them have been discharged.

Katlehong:
The 2 girls from Katlehong who lost their grandmother in an accident are starting their counseling on Monday. We were worried about who was going to look after the girls but their aunt from Lesotho is willing to move to South Africa and will be looking after them. Praise God for her!

What a week!!!

2009-11-30T15:46:00.003+02:00

The house at 36 was being renovated thanks to a sponsor in Holland – we added a bathroom for the new live-in House Mother and changed a storeroom into a bedroom so we’d have room for the eight children that will be living there. While the building is taking place the children from 36 have been distributed between the other 3 houses and the Hospice. Each house has 9 or more children so we have some children sleeping on mattresses the floor!

The children were supposed to move back to their house on the 16th of November but, the day before the final painting was about to begin, a pipe attached to the geyser burst and on Monday morning we arrived to face a flood! What a mess! Due to the bungling of the assessor, we are in week 4 since the flood and we’re still trying to dry the walls enough so that we can paint. Oh well, at least the children are enjoying the “camping” at the other homes, it’s going to be a struggle to get them back into their home and into a routine though.

Some of the damages !!!

Hospice:

We have had so many requests for beds in the Hospice lately - in the last week we had 4 new admissions, and 2 children were able to go home to their families. At one stage we had 4 children in hospital but one came home on Thursday. One of the children that is in hospital had to have 6 abscesses in his brain drained – he’s not doing very well. Please pray for healing for all these children.

Please pray for Lyn and the staff too!

Bakery Project!!!

2009-11-13T11:31:00.005+02:00

Naledi Projects and the Luxembourg government are sponsoring the Feeding Projects at the 2 schools in Katlehong but they will only do this for the next 3 years and we had to think of a sustainable project for the schools to bring in money to supplement the sponsored money and provide for the future. We were presented with an opportunity of opening a bakery to work out of the kitchens we built at the school. Naledi projects and Luxembourg government also donated money for the bakery.

We had 10 ladies attend training for two weeks and they did a very good job and were really excited to learn about baking. The school will sell their products (bread, donuts and cakes) to the local shops and the community. When the ladies were training, people could smell the delicious smell of the cakes and asked if they could make their orders right away! The ladies completed their training and received their certificates.

10 ladies on their first day!

The ladies working hard

Sports day

These are the children who were selected to run on the school’s sports day!

What fun!!! Sammy came first in his race. The children enjoyed themselves.

Sad News

This gogo (grandmother) was in her 80’s and she took care of her 2 grandchildren. Lambano helped this family with food parcels. On Tuesday she went to fetch her granddaughter from school and, on the way back, she was hit by a train. Her granddaughter saw the whole accident.

Please pray for the family through this tough period and especially for the granddaughter who is having nightmares and asking a lot of questions. The 2 grandchildren will be going for counseling. Also pray that a loving home is found for these 2 children since their parents are dead.

Grand official opening !!!

2009-11-06T14:29:00.012+02:00

Two Official openings! Last week we had two Official openings! Last week we had our official opening for the hospice even though the hospice has been operating since early July. Since opening the hospice we have had over 20 children come through. Some of the children were reunited with their families.

Dany and Cosita from Naledi Projects in conjunction with the Luxembourg Government – raised funds to buy and renovate the hospice and for the Feeding Projects the 2 schools in Katlehong!

Some of the doctors and staff from Big Shoes!

And on the 3rd we had another official opening of the dining hall at Katlehong were we will feed over 1000 children a day.

School choir – these children blessed us with their singing!

Dany (Luxembourg), Ms Morokoane (Principal), Lyn (Lambano) and Claudine (Luxembourg)

Dany from Luxembourg and Mr Thinane the District director

We would like to thank the Luxembourg Development Co – operation and Naledi Projects for raising funds for these projects. These children will be fed a nutritious lunch everyday and have a place to sit and eat their lunch!

Happy moment!!!

2009-10-30T15:12:00.000+02:00

The Lord is good! For the last few years we’ve been praying for a house mother and now we have really been blessed with a young lady from Scotland.

Jenna is 28 years old and was a palliative nurse for cancer patients. She will be the house mother for the children at 36 and help Lyn with the hospice too. We are really grateful to God for answering our prayers!

2009-09-25T11:29:00.001+02:00

On Monday we received a 2 month old oxygen dependent baby weighing 2.5kg. On Tuesday afternoon she had to be rushed back to hospital. Please pray for her!

Wow, What a week! Last week our children performed in their school concert. It was really neat to see how these children took their concert seriously and loved every moment. Thanks to the teachers for all the hard work they put in over the past few months, the show was excellent.

We were also encouraged by the AWANA leaders (the youth group at the church) coming to support the children. Unfortunately we don’t have pictures of the children performing because we were not allowed to take pictures during the concert.

2009-09-17T16:03:00.000+02:00

This young girl has been with Lambano for the past few weeks we thought that she was doing quite well but today she was admitted to hospital with a serious infection.

Please pray for her recovery!

Sad news!

2009-09-04T11:03:00.000+02:00

The little boy who was hospitalized with severe anemia and kwashiorkor died on Tuesday morning. The staff at the hospital really fought to try to save him but his disease was too far advanced and his little body was too weak.

Thank you for all your prayers for him but please continue to pray for his family as they go through this difficult time!

2009-08-28T12:27:00.003+02:00

This lovely young girl was with us towards the end of 2007. When she came to us she was really sick but we got her started her drugs and she became well enough to be reunited with her family. Last week she was sent back to us because she was very ill again. It seems that her family have defaulted on her drugs and she possibly has a recurrence of TB. She is not doing well. Please pray for her!

This little girl turned 9 last week. She is growing up fast and is already such a lady, graceful and contained.

This little boy turned 3. It’s amazing to see how he is flourishing – although he has CP legs, he still tries to walk, and manages well if he’s got something to hold on to like a Tonka Truck or his special push cart. He’s even able to climb up to the slide. I must admit that we adults hold our breaths until he’s safely back on the ground!

Hospital visit!!!

2009-08-20T14:22:00.002+02:00

This little boy is 6 years old and came to us a few days ago but the doctors decided he needed to be hospitalized.

It was my first time to take one of our children to be admitted to hospital. What an experience! I really admire the nurses and doctors who work under these conditions.

The little boy has severe anemia caused by HIV. He also has Kwashiorkor which is caused by severe malnutrition and causes the tissues to swell. So, although he looks quite plump and healthy, that’s fluid and he is critically ill. Please pray for him.

This little girl turned 5 this week.

Farewell!!!

2009-08-13T15:23:00.002+02:00

We were very sad to have to say goodbye to Shelley Martin who has been volunteering here at Lambano for the last two months. Shelley went back to the USA on Monday and we will dearly miss her. She has grown to be part of the Lambano family and her loving nature, broad smiles and servant heart were such a blessing to us.

We wish Shelley all of the best for her future plans and pray that our paths will cross again one day, if not on earth then in heaven.

New intakes:

One of the intakes

We have had three new admissions to our Hospice:

We received a 10 year old girl last week but she had to be sent to hospital for intravenous antibiotics.
Our next admission was a 4 year old boy.
Lastly we received a 6 year old boy.

All three of these children are severely malnourished and ill. Please pray for wisdom and strength for the medical staff that are caring for them and a speedy recovery for the children.

We thank God that we have this Hospice so that we can care for these children.

Mandela day!!!

2009-07-24T15:27:00.005+02:00

Simba!!!!

Our children were blessed on Saturday last week, we had 2 companies that took time out of their busy schedules to come and spent time with the children:

Stanlib: Had a birthday party for the children and hired a jumping castle and had face panting for the children, but the highlight for the children was Simba the lion.

Children enjoying their food!

McCarthy Renault in Germiston brought Sunday lunch for the children!

Thank you to all the companies that gives to the children.

Pictures of the hospice!!!

2009-07-13T13:16:00.009+02:00

Dining room

Room no: 1

Room no:2
Room no:3

Isolation room

Doctor's room

The Hospice is ready!!!

2009-07-03T09:54:00.001+02:00

Finally the Hospice is ready! It’s taken years of planning but we are happy to announce that our Hospice is ready to accept the children!!! The hospice has 12 beds and 9 are already filled – 7 children who have been squeezed in at 36 Senator with the 7 permanent children plus two new children that will arrive today. At this rate, by the end of the month we will be bursting at the seams again.

We will put the pictures of the hospice next week!

2009-06-18T11:48:00.002+02:00

NEW VOLUNTEER!!!!!

Shelley Martin arrived from the USA at Lambano in the second week of June with bright smiles! She is volunteering with us until the beginning of August. Shelley is a fun-spirited, bubbly young lady who cleary has a genuine love for children, as well as South Africa. She already has spent much time with the children here at Lambano playing games, singing, dancing and whatever the kids find her to do! Shelley is currently studying sociology and poverty back home and has chosen to do her internship here at Lambano. We are blessed to have this young lady with us and thank God for how she has just fitted in thus far and has brought along so much joy with her. We look forward to the rest of our time with her.

2009-06-04T11:02:00.004+02:00

UPDATED NEWS!!

This week three of the Place of Safety children were reunited with their families but within 2 days their beds were filled with new children.

NEW INTAKES!!

This little boy is 2 years old

This young girl is 5 years old

This boy was received just recently at 18 months. Sadly he passed away on Wednesday morning. We send our sincere condolences to the family. Please pray for them during this time.

REUNITED WITH FAMILY!

This girl has been within us for over 2 years it was really sad to see her go – please pray that she will adjust well at home and school.

Reunited with family!

2009-05-21T11:29:00.002+02:00

This young girl has been with Lambano since March 2009. She has just gone back with her mom (20 May 2009) and been reunited with her family. She started taking ARV’s and is doing well. She will be going back to school and is very happy to be back with her family.

Reunited with family!!!

2009-05-15T15:24:00.004+02:00

She likes to pose!

This 3 year old girl has been with us since July. When she came to us she was on permanent oxygen because her mother defaulted 4 times on her ARV drugs. We are happy to say she is off oxygen now and doing very well, so well that, on Wednesday she went back home to her mom. She was really excited to see her mom.

Please pray that she will adjust well at home.

New intakes!!!

2009-05-08T15:55:00.005+02:00

The 6 month old boy!

The 14 year girl who likes reading!

The 16 month old boy!

2 of our children who are now stable, left to go to another facility (since we are full in terms of our permanent children) and on the same day we received 2 new children. The little boy is about 6 months old and the girl is 14 years old, then yesterday, we received another little boy, who is 16 months old. The 14 year old girl was really shy when she first came and used to spend most of her time in her room sleeping, but now she reads to, and plays with the small children.

Bara visit

Our quarterly Bara visits have started again and, so far, all the children are doing well! Two more of the homes go next week and we hope those visits will also go well too.

Another visit to the hospital!

2009-04-24T13:29:00.000+02:00

On Thursday 3 of our children had surgery – an ear repair, a tonsillectomy and a set of grommets! Two of the children came back home that night and they are doing well. The girl who had the ear repair had to stay overnight because she had to start intravenous antibiotics to fight the massive infection she has. She was glad to come home today and is doing well - she’ll be on the IV antibiotics for five days. Please pray that all three of them will heal quickly.

Reports:
The children got their First Term reports from school and they all did well.

Mama Barbara's 60th birthday!!

2009-04-17T14:48:00.003+02:00

Last week Mama Barbara had her 60th birthday. Her three daughters who live in America came out to SA so that they could be with her on her special day. The Lambano children joined them for cake and ice cream. We are so grateful to have Mama Barbara with us!

After 3 weeks of playing and running around at home, the children are back at school! Although they enjoyed their holidays, they were really excited to see their school friends.

Blessings!!!

2009-04-03T14:06:00.009+02:00

We have a new Pregio 12 seater bus. Thanks to Auto Trader for raising funds and buying it for us. God is great!

After the show

Our children are on holiday, so one of the volunteers (Gillian) raised money for the children to go and watch the High School Musical show and afterwards they were treated to a nice dinner. The children had a lot of fun - they were even singing and dancing along.

New intakes!!

We have 2 new children, the boy is 13 years old (although he is the size of an 8 year old) and the girl is 8 years old. Both of these children are really sick, please pray that their treatment will be successful and that they will soon be well.

The boy is really shy and always plays by himself - he is learning to ride a bike.

The girl runs around and enjoys playing with the other children!

Sad news!!

2009-03-27T11:37:00.002+02:00

One of our caregivers passed away on Thursday. She leaves behind two daughters. Please pray for the family during this time of mourning.

Our new baby!!

2009-02-27T15:18:00.004+02:00

We have a new little boy. He came to us when he was 6 days old. He is really cute and really likes his bottle!

Painting the walls!

It’s really encouraging to see companies getting involved with different ministries! Last week we had people from Arthur Els & Associates coming for a day to paint our wall, fill up our sandpit and provide lunch for the children and staff. They also gave the children new toys which was very exciting. Thank you all for your hard work!

Time to say goodbye!!

2009-02-20T14:34:00.002+02:00

Keisha with the children from 78 house

Keisha is one of our volunteers from the States who has been with Lambano Sanctuary for a year. Keisha is a biblical counselor by profession. She’s been counseling our children and helping us with some of the projects in Katlehong. Keisha stayed in one of the houses with the children and, in the evenings, she would read and pray with the children.

We thank the Lord for sending her to Lambano. She will be greatly missed!!!

Quote from one of the children:

One little boy was sitting with Auntie Barbara and they were packing a birthday gift of sweets for one of the volunteers. The little boy was looking at the gift and he said “the Devil wants me to eat these sweets but I won’t listen to him, I won’t eat the sweets”

Children are really cute!!

Two new babies!!!

2009-02-13T12:40:00.004+02:00

We got these two little ones last Friday from the Katlehong hospital. Both were abandoned – one’s mother already has 3 children and didn’t want him and the other’s mother died shortly after her birth. The children were so dirty when they came that we thought they had been burned but it turned out to be dead skin which we scrubbed off. We found out yesterday that they are both HIV negative, for which we praise the Lord! We are trying to get them released for adoption.

Disclosure
2 weeks ago we disclosed to the children about their disease after much prayer and discussion. We were worried that the children would be really hurt and confused by knowing they were HIV + but they took it all in their stride. Some asked a few questions but then they just wanted to play. We know that, as they grow older, they will ask more questions. We are depending on the Lord to provide the answers to these questions that are honest, simple and understandable.

Birthday parties!
January and February are our busy months with all the birthday parties. Thanks to AFM Church for organizing the birthday parties and giving each child a gift voucher.

Birthdays!

2009-01-30T16:41:00.006+02:00

This girl is our oldest child, she turned 9!

He turned 6

She turned 4

He turned 7

January is usually our quiet month except for the birthday parties!

School starts!

2009-01-23T09:53:00.003+02:00

Five children started school this year. For some it was exciting, while for others it was rather overwhelming, we are glad to say that all of them are adjusting well to the school environment and making new friends!

Another Medical emergency

One of our little boys who has hydroencephalitis (which is water on the brain that causes pressure and a stunting of the brain which can eventually lead to death) was rushed to a public hospital on the 01st of January because of a blocked shunt. On the 07th he came back home but, within two days he had to go back to that hospital because the pressure had built up again. There he lay for 2 days without the doctors doing anything. By late Saturday afternoon when we saw that he was lapsing into a coma, we removed him from of that hospital and took him to a private hospital where they replaced the shunt.

At first he seemed to be doing well but had a relapse and started having continuous seizures which the doctors couldn’t stop. We really thought that was the end for our little chap and were considering bringing him home for palliative care – what a difficult decision for the doctors and Lyn to make. However, God amazed us again! On Tuesday he came back home and is doing better although he is still very weak. He isn’t able to speak any more but he is so glad to be back home with his “siblings” and has big smiles for everyone. We are praying that the brain will heal and that he will regain his power of speech and be the bright, happy little boy he was before this incident!

We really thank the LORD for Mama Barbara who spent hours at his side ministering to him and bringing him comfort. Part of Barbara’s ministry is visiting the children that are in hospital, bringing them love and care and keeping an eye on the medical care the children are receiving from the hospital – essential in a Public hospital.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-16T11:40:00.008+02:00

Well, every Friday we write about the children which we love doing, but this week we want to write about the ladies who works with the children. The children call them mamas and it is really their mamas, they love these children like their own.
These ladies work for long hours, day or night shift. They work very hard!

Thanks to Seal Beach for collecting money for the staff Christmas hampers.
As you can see on the picture and the video how excited they were to receive the hampers.

The song is from psalm 23: 1-3

The LORD is my shepherd I shall not be in want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness.

Last birthday party for the year!!!

2008-12-19T12:00:00.004+02:00

The birthday girl!

Well this was the last birthday party for the year. This little girl turned 5 last week - as you can see on the picture she loves butterflies.

A word of thanks to all our supporters!

Lambano sanctuary would like to say thank you to all our supporters for giving so freely to the children, Lambano wouldn’t be the same without your support. But mostly, thank you for loving our children and giving up time in your busy schedules to come and play with them.

As you all know its Christmas time – a time for holidays and rest. Our next update will be on the 16th of January 2009!

Have a blessed Christmas and a happy New Year!