God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

HOPE Cape Town Newsletter No. 02/ 2011

hiv outreach program & education

Cape Town

 

Dear friends of HOPE Cape Town,

 

Greetings from the Cape of Storms that is certainly living up to its name this winter. As usual, time has been flying by and we have almost reached the half way mark of 2011. Time for our quarterly newsletter. Enjoy the read and keep warm!

1. HOPE Cape Town Donations

HOPE Cape Town would not be where it is today wasn’t it for the continuous support and donations from numerous individuals, institutions, associations and companies. A very heartfelt thank you goes to all the friends and supporters or our organization. In the past few weeks and months, we have been especially blessed. Many thanks to Mrs. Rita Vogelsänger for donating bicycles to underprivileged children and youth in Blikkiesdorp and Belhar. A big thank you also goes to the Richard Wagner Society chaired by Mr. Herbert Gloeckner for donating the proceeds from the staging of “The Flying Dutchman” at the Cape Town Opera earlier this year to HOPE Cape Town. Furthermore, we are very pleased to be this year’s beneficiary of the Roskilde Festival Charity Society grant, which is funded by the proceeds of an annual rock festival in Denmark.

2. HOPE Cape Town Events

On 28 May 2011, the annual Ball of HOPE took place at the Westin Grand Hotel Cape Town for the 14th time. The event under the patronage of the three German-speaking consulates in Cape Town was once again a great success. We would like to thank all our guests and sponsors for attending and supporting our work. A special thank you goes out to Anja Tambusso Ferraz and Petra Reichwein for all their time and effort put into the organisation of the event. Many thanks also to HOPE Cape Town Board member Prof. Bernd Rosenkranz and his wife Monika for sponsoring beautiful red dresses for the HOPE community health workers and senior staff.

For the sixth consecutive year, Viola Klein and Andreas Moench, Saxonia Systems AG and – for the second time – the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung have organised a charity gala in Dresden for the benefit of HOPE Cape Town together with many loyal sponsors and supporters. The HOPE Gala will take place on 29 October 2011 at the Schauspielhaus Dresden. As in the previous years, excellent entertainment and performances by a range of popular artists are guaranteed. Please visit the following homepage:  http://www.hopegala.de for more information. Tickets are now available under +49 (0) 3 51 / 48 64 20 02 and +49 (0) 18 05 / 74 00 74, via email under tickets@hopegala.de or online on www.sz-ticketservice.

3. HOPE Cape Town & the World AIDS Awareness Expedition “Move the World”

On 4 March 2011, the new World AIDS Awareness Expedition ‘move the world’ led by extreme sportsman Joachim Franz started at the CeBit computer expo in Hannover, Germany. On April 18, the 14-man team began the 110-day expedition through 50 countries in Vancouver, Canada. Thus far, the tour through all five continents has turned out to be rather adventurous, as was to be expected. Various encounters with wild animals, military patrols, corrupt border officials, stagnant ferries and plenty other small and bigger obstacles have been testing the team’s patience and endurance many a time. As one of the beneficiaries of the expedition, HOPE Cape Town had been preparing the crew’s welcoming in Cape Town on June 16 in anticipation. Unfortunately, the Angolan authorities quite literally put a spoke in the team’s wheels so that the expedition route had to be changed unexpectedly and South Africa was no longer on the map. To honour the team’s initiative and commitment nonetheless, HOPE Cape Town hosted a celebration in the community of Manenberg on 17 June. HOPE Cape Town board member and Catholic priest Fr. Wim Lindeque and Fr. Stefan Hippler said prayers and blessings for the expedition crew. Children from the after school programme performed hip hop choreographies and delighted the audience with their musical talent when playing the flute and trumpets. A slide show of photos made during the first part of the expedition caused great amazement and admiration among adults and children. For the further course of the ‘move the world’ expedition, we wish Joachim Franz and all participants the best of success, strength and endurance. We are proud of you and are looking forward to see you again in Cape Town soon!

4. HOPE Cape Town – New Projects

2011 is the year of changes and innovations, and against this background we are pleased to introduce three new projects to you that will take HOPE Cape Town back to its roots.

Firstly, we will take up third line drug sponsorships for children that have failed HAART on the first and second treatment regimen provided by the South African government. This will happen on an ad hoc basis and only after careful of examination of each case according to selected criteria. Attending physicians have to present the case they require sponsorship for and the approval is subject to a decision made by the HOPE Cape Town board in order to avoid abuse.

Secondly, HOPE Cape Town is now facilitating resistance tests for pediatric HIV patients who are no longer responding to conventional HAART. These kind of tests are crucial to be able to direct patients’ further treatment in the right direction, considering that the number of resistances to standard ARVs available in the public sector are on the increase.

Thirdly, we are starting to focus increasingly on the parents of our HIV positive patients on the Ithemba Children’s ward for infectious diseases at Tygerberg Hospital. Even though they are often very ill themselves, they are not automatically co-treated once their children have been admitted. As a result, many children are not cared for in a proper way after being discharged due to one or both parents being sick or even dying. Thanks to the company Alere Healthcare generously loaning a novel mobile CD4 testing unit to HOPE Cape Town, we are now able to do instant CD4 counts for Ithemba parents. All it takes is a finger prick and after 20 minutes the results are there. Depending on the result of the rapid test, the patient can then be referred for further testing and treatment. We are hoping to lead the way to simultaneous treatment of the whole family with this holistic approach.

5. Inside HOPE Cape Town

We are happy to welcome three new colleagues to our team. Since 1 April, Avril Toeloe has been working as the community health worker in Wesbank. Nombulelo Kama and Eva Coetzee are the new community health workers at Durbanville Clinic and its satellite branch in Fisantekraal since 15 April.

Please visit www.hopecapetown.com regularly to keep up to date with the latest developments of our work and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.facebook.com/hope.capetown

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/339124/77594938?m=1a240be5

http://twitter.com/HopeCapeTown

With warm regards and the best wishes,

Yasmin Smith

Head of Programs

HOPE Cape Town Association

P.O. Box 19145

Tygerberg 7505

Cape Town

South Africa

Tel. (+27) 21 938 6660/ 021 938 9930         Fax (+27) 21 938 6662     (English, Afrikaans & German)

Email: admin@hopecapetown.com

Web: www.hopecapetown.com

PBO No 18/11/13/4709   HOPE Cape Town Association

NPO No 031-599-NPO    HOPE Cape Town Association

NPO No 053-417-NPO    HOPE Cape Town Trust

PBO No. 930024843        HOPE Cape Town Trust

 

Bank Details South Africa:

Standard Bank

Cape Town Branch (Code 020009)

Acc. #: 0706 15551

Acc. Holder: HOPE Cape Town

 

Bank Details Germany:

Katholisches Auslandssekretariat
Commerzbank
BLZ: 370 800 40

BIC: DRESDEFF370
Kto. Nr. 211 402 100

IBAN: DE72370800400211402100
Verwendungszweck: HOPE Kapstadt

 

or

 

HOPE-Kapstadt-Stiftung
Bank fuer Sozialwirtschaft Köln
Konto 82 69 500
BLZ 370 205 00

SWIFT/BIC BFSWDE33XXX

IBAN DE15 3702 0500 0008 2695 00

 

 

 

copyright HOPE Cape Town 2011

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Ball of HOPE Cape Town, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Gala Dresden