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!!!

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.

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.

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!!!

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!!!

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

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