Kylie with some of the children

Kylie is from Australia, she is a speech therapist, and what an impact she has made on our children in the 3 months that she was here.  Thank you Kylie for all your hard work and the love that you gave our children!

Saying goodbye to these two amazing ladies was hard!!!

These two ladies were a pleasure to work with, they loved the children and our staff and  were always willing to go the extra mile with whatever task they were given!

Sisi (Zimbabwe / Australia) volunteered for a year.

 Sisi with the children from 78 house

Sisi with Mama Rosemary!

Lyndsey (USA) volunteered for three months.

Ladies it was a privilege and honour to work with you!

 Mama Barbara came to visit!!!

Getting ready for High school!!!

I can’t believe that some of our children are going to High School next year!

We are already filling applications forms for high School for 3 of our children, the 2 boys had to write an entrance exam on Tuesday, the boys were quiet overwhelmed, but we had a chat with them and Uncle Tony took them out for supper after the exams.  The school will let us know in a few months’ time if they have been accepted or not and the girl will write the exam tomorrow, we hope and pray that she will do well, if they do get accepted into the schools they will get a full scholarship . 

We have  26 children going to different Schools this year so we were in desperate need for a driver, interviewing the drivers was quite a challenge!  When we interviewed the drivers we were so impressed with them but most of them have code 10 (well if you live in South Africa you will understand that most of the people who have a code 10 can’t drive, don’t ask me how they got their licences J) and when they mentioned that they have a code 10 we knew that they probably can’t drive  but we would interview them anyway,  and part of the interview would be to drive around the block with  Uncle Philly – our driver, would go with them to see if they could drive and there were times when Uncle Philly would walk into the office with his big eyes asking are you sure that these people have a licence? One person even rode our clutch so badly that after the interview we had to take our car for a service J. Ooh.. what fun!!!

 

Last week when I went to Church, the pastor said that God uses every experience for good whether good or bad and that is so true for us,  Mama Vivian is one of these people. Because Mama Viv had the experience of cooking and feeding a large family, the Lord equipped her to teach the ladies how to cook. The Lord had a plan for Mama Viv, and teaching the ladies new ideas for meals was part of that plan.  The children have been flagged as being at risk for high cholesterol and we have to change their whole eating plan, we know it’s going to be an uphill battle but the ladies are determined to learn and help the children.  When we told the children that we are changing their eating plan they were not happy and we had to explain this was for their own good.  So from now on it will be salads and veggies and not lots of sweets L.

 

 

 

Viv teaching the ladies how to make healthy meal, they all loved it, now we have to wait and see if the children like it tooJ.



Happy New Year!!!

 

As we start the New Year, we hope and pray that the Lord will bless you. 

Lambano celebrated their New Year with many things to be greatful for.  We now have a new car that we’ve been praying for a long timeJ

Henk in Santiago

Henk walked from Hangedijk in the Netherlands to Santiago del Compastillion in Spain, this took him 3 months (63200 km) he walked for 6 days and rested for a day. He collected 60% of the money and the other part of the funds was raised by Aty’s Church (Aty is one of our long term supporters from the Netherlands),  Dansschool Marga and Foundation Alle Beetje from the Netherlands.  Jack and his family from the Netherlands came to hand over the car.

 Suprise for Lyn

Jack and Lyn

 



Our new car

 



School starts

Wednesday was back to School and 15 of our children started at a new school, they were nervous, but when they came back from School they said they enjoyed themselves. 

She started Grade 1, I sat with her for an hour and when I left her, she nearly cried but the teacher was a nice lady that took her and told her she will be fine. When she came back from School, she was excited and said Auntie Martha! I have new friends and my teacher is really nice. 

Merry Christams and a Happy New Year!!!!

This Christmas has been an amazing time for the children and staff, our children were blessed with many Christmas gifts – one Company gave our children gift vouchers so that this time we were able  to buy them good quality clothes and the children were able  to choose, what struck me more than anything is that even though our children are 12 to 16years old they were overwhelmed, they walked around the shop not knowing what to choose, we spent hours in the shops but it was a lot of fun.

 

A company paid for our staff lunch and for their Christmas gifts which was such a wonderful blessing for them.

 

Thank you for all the support you have given us this year, Lambano would never survive without your support.

 

May you have a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Peggy's farewell!!!

 Peggy's saying her farewell speech

 Children singing

 



 

Goodbye hugs

 

Lambano staff singing



TRIBUTE TO RICHARD GAULDIE OUR – DIRECTOR (TREASURER)

It is with great sadness that we announce the sudden death of our long term supporter, friend and treasurer, Richard Gauldie.

Richard has been one of our Directors (Treasurer) since the inception of Lambano Sanctuary in 2001.   Richard has over the years ensured that we followed strict accounting principles which ensured that we had a clean annual audit. 

I really appreciated his input, wisdom, advice and willingness to go the extra mile.  Richard’s contribution to Lambano has been immeasurable; he will be sadly missed.  

Condolences to his wife Dale and his children Ross and Kimberly, gone to soon but sitting at the feet of His Lord.

 
Management team and Michele Clark (DA counselor) with a few of our cyclists for the Momentum 94.7 cycle challenge!!!

IS A CURE FOR HIV TO PREVAIL IN SOUTH AFRICA?

HIV/AIDS has been a topic in South Africa for many years now and though we have been slowly making progress, we are not as far up in terms of progression as other countries. When the AntiRetroViral (ARV) drug was first introduced in South Africa, it seemed like the answer to our HIV/AIDS crisis; but its long-term side effects are still as controversial as ever. Following the announcement made by our Minister of Health Aaron Motsoaledi on Tuesday, 23 October 2012 – He said it was indeed the country’s greatest day because of the discovery made by our scientists. The country’s research team has once again conducted a study that has placed the country a step closer to controlling the HIV situation. A team of scientists at the Centre for the Aids Programme of Research in SA discovered that the immune systems of two women living with HIV were able to produce antibodies capable of neutralising and killing 88% of the virus. "Our scientists have also in the past helped us understand the mother-to-child transmission of the virus. Their ground breaking work brings us closer to developing an HIV vaccine," said Motsoaledi. I believe that this study has given hope to the country and a chance to take charge of our HIV pandemic. The main question is - how long will it take before this study is made practical in S.A? I pray that this is not a premature announcement or short-lived excitement because I just think of the greater things to come should the vaccine be a success. These are just my views as an individual, what are your views on the subject of HIV/AIDS and the announcement made by the Minister on Tuesday? Let’s interact on facebook, via twitter or blog comments.

Ohhh, what a week!!! This week has been a crazy week for the children. As you know, we have children in a number of different Schools and trying to organise everyone for the school concert was a little bit of challenge. Two of the schools had a concert this week and both were really amazing - the children enjoyed every moment of it. We regret that there are no photos we were not allowed to take our cameras in.

Don't forget to sign up for the 94.7 momentum cycle challenge!!!

Hospice children outing!

Few weeks ago we took the Hospice children out for an outing and what fun they had!!!

Fun in the snow!!!

 The mama's were also playing in the Snow :)

 Children's playground

 Mama Lyn having fun too :)

702 walk

After much anticipation, Sunday 22 July finally arrived... we dusted off our walking shoes, put on our new Lambano t-shirts and walked for 5kms to get the Lambano name out into the greater community of Johannesburg.



The Lambano staff

Thousands of people walked

 Yipeeee, we did it, we finished!

wouldn't  be Lambano without the singing - the staff sang for Mama Lesley for organising the

t - shirt and registration



It seems like yesterday when Sibylle left on furlough!

After Sibylle had been with us for 2 years, she went for 10 weeks on furlough.  She was solely missed and when she came back 2 weeks ago we were really happy to have her back but we were more excited about the Swiss chocolateJ.  Sibylle has agreed to stay with us for another 2 years.

Mandela day!!!

I have to confess Mandela Day is not my favourite day - the office is extremely busy, the phone calls don’t stop and visitors arrive in their droves but I have to say, the generosity of the people and companies is so amazing.

Some of the companies that came to work on the Mandela Day:

Sandpit

Sandpit staff came and painted one of our houses

also helped with the Garden



Immix

Immix staff playing with the children



they also collected groceries for us!!



Thank you all for making this day a blessing for our children.

School Holiday!!!!

Library visit! 

Boys having fun :)

Last Sunday  was Father’s day and it brought so much joy to us that, even if our children don’t have Fathers, we do have people in our Church and around us that contribute to that part.  In School our children were asked to write a Father’s day card and, when they came back from School , they showed us the cards - they wrote the cards for our pastor and some Sunday School teachers thanking them for being part of their lives. So this is a thank you to those  men that are involved in our children ‘s lives and also a cry for more male volunteers J

Today is the last day of School and our children are really excited to be on holiday!!!