God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

03/18/2010 • 10:46 pm Comments Off on 18.03.2010 Why has a day only 24 hours..?

18.03.2010 Why has a day only 24 hours..?

This is a question, I often ask me, but then again, maybe I am the workaholic some people see in me. Be it as it may be, very often one wishes for more time to finalize matters, get the email box empty and all those nice things letting one feel satisfied in the evening when at home.

On the other hand one has to learn to limit oneself – life is more than just work. Only the balance between work and recreation makes life worth living. I guess sometimes my ying and yang are not in balance in this matter. 🙂

Today was filled with an interview, looking for a team secretary for our Ithemba ward and a meeting with the person responsible for the PR work of Tygerberg Academic Health Complex. It is important to keep in touch with her and also to discuss how we want to strive a balance now during the world cup year between the interest of visitors and journalists to learn first hand about the situation and the smooth running of a hospital ward. But I am confident that we are able to find the right balance. We also discussed the promotion of the  hospital itself – the fundraising efforts are – compared with other hospitals – still quite in the beginning of full blossoming and I offered my expertise to the lady if need be.

Rotary in the middle of the day – I needed some signatures to get a matching grant into motion. HOPE Cape Town needs urgently a second vehicle and we are grateful that some Rotary Clubs under the guidance of Michael Eisenmenger from the St. Wendel Club is taking it into their hands to organise the funding of such a vehicle. Rotary is a wonderful organisation, not only because of this, but after 13 years of being a Rotarian I am convinced that this big organisation is able to change a lot of the face of this earth.

Office work in the afternoon is part of almost every days life – sometimes I feel that emails are a curse rather than a blessing. But on the other hand quick communication is of essence in our days and so I try to keep up with it. Besides all the work in the fields of HIV and AIDS I am getting also more and more involved in the fields of renewable energy. Beginning of April we will constitute in Johannesburg a national working task force on renewable energy / energy efficiency under the umbrella of the Southern African – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and I will be part of it as vice chair of the Regional Council of the Chamber. A lot new stuff to learn for me, but an exciting field and very much necessary in our days and specially also in South Africa. To learn new things also keeps an old mind going again.. good for my brain cells… 🙂

Evening – dinner with friends on a lighter note and with lots of laughter and chatter. Good so. A nice end to another 24 hours…

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , ,

03/15/2010 • 10:42 pm Comments Off on 15.03.2010 ORF

15.03.2010 ORF

An interview with the ORF about the churches stance on HIV and AIDS for a documentary occupies quiet a time in the afternoon. Before brief discussion with co-workers at the Ithemba office. Tomorrow the offices will move to the 7th floor of the University of Stellenbosch – Tygerberg Campus. On Thursday we will interview a person to be the team secretary, a person amongst others looking after the hospital side and the Ithemba ward. To run an organisation means so many small and bigger things to deal with during the day. It means in our days sometimes too many requests, emails and with 28 employees a lot of coordination and communication. It is again and again a challenge to keep all together, specially when one is spread so far apart like our HOPE community health workers in their 17 township communities.

In the morning a longer discussion with one management member about the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung and the future of this particular trust. We agree about steps to take to ensure developement into what we see as the right direction. Long and medium term planing is needed besides all the day-to-day business.

A full Monday with office work in between – not to forget the hairdresser before the TV interview. Yes, also a priest wants to look good 🙂

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , , ,

03/14/2010 • 9:56 pm 1

14.3.2010 Thailand or never peace?

Once again politics in Thailand brings the country on the brink to chaos, this time the so-called “red shirts” on the streets of Bangkok trying to bring down the government. Sometimes I wonder about a lot of things: About how people perceive their political view as the only valid once. About how people think their doing is so important for the development of this world. About how people perceive the  state of affairs as static. People murder for their political views, people die for their country, politicians negotiate in a way one could think the nation has exist since the beginning of the world.

I advise to go somewhere in the desert or in the bush where there is no artificial light and have a look at night at the stars, at the milky way and all its unlimited extensions… And then feel how small and tiny we are… A bit more being humble would help in most situations.

I also think that by the way when I observe religious leaders and gurus – how they insist to know the truth and only the truth. People of the cloth have killed for their conviction in the past, wars have been ignited by religious views, so-called witches burned, Jews hunted, crusaders send en mass to Jerusalem.

I advise to go somewhere in the desert or in the bush where there is no artificial light and have a look at night at the stars… and you suddenly realise how little you know about this world and its existence and where we are coming from and going to. We believe, but there are so many things we still have to learn about the meaning of life – even the holiest man is still far away from knowing it all. If he is wise, he knows that he doesn’t know – and he is humble. We need a lot of wise men in our days..

All this reflection does not prevent from preparing for the week. After 2 weeks with limited internet I spent this Sunday in answering emails and preparing for the coming week. A Bavarian delegation is arriving and visiting HOPE Cape Town, the Austrian TV wants to have an interview, there are several meetings with representatives of the health sector of the province and much more. Hope there is time to live in between.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

02/24/2010 • 12:28 am Comments Off on 24.02.2010 A crazy laptop and HCHW training

24.02.2010 A crazy laptop and HCHW training

It is always a delight when a laptop is starting to refuse working – especially when one is short before going on travel and there is a need to have this instrument of work with in the luggage. Well, lets hope that the technicians can find the mistake before leaving – at least there is a place in Cape Town where one can bring his computer for repair..

This morning a chat with all Hope Community Health worker of HOPE Cape Town – once in a while it is indeed necessary to bring some basics back into the mindset of the people. They are good and most really try very hard to perform as required. Sometimes I forget, that most of them never had a regular job before being employed by HOPE Cape Town – so lots of basic education is also needed besides all the HIV and TB training. Amongst others there is also computer training as most clinics start to work with computers and most libraries in the different township communities have computers and internet. We are thrilled to work together with the Bavarian Staatskanzlei, InWent and the Missionsaerztliche Institut in Würzburg / Germany on E-learning which means to get all the input also in digital form, so that at an ideal scenario, people can log themselves into the program from their own computer or the available computer and learn by themselves – still in a controlled way.  Digital revolution also in our sector, slowly but surely.

I reminded our HOPE Community Health Workers this morning that besides a decent salary the training and education is the most beneficial asset for them – it is not for no reasons, that most of our HOPE Community Health Workers who left us were offered good positions within the respective clinics because they were very well-trained.
I guess that this is one of the most problematic topics in South Africa, the lack of proper education. Lets face it: Bringing the previous disadvantage into good positions with BEE is a great idea, but without the proper training it can develop into a nightmare. South Africa has surely taken a big share on these nightmares. Proper education takes time, and that is unfortunately something, politics lacks in this point. People wanted to see an immediate change after the first free elections in 1994. One consequence of the lack of time is surely that the quality of training and education has suffered. And when one listens to people in the educational sector, one hears again and again that the qualification levels have been lowered to accommodate the quota.

I believe that we at HOPE Cape Town have a good mix of people from different backgrounds and as long as I was part of the interviewing process, skin color never played a role. Attitude and the will to learn and achieve something in life, an open mind and a good heart is what brings people to the point, where they can climb the career ladder.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , ,

02/22/2010 • 11:43 pm Comments Off on 22.02.2010 a new week

22.02.2010 a new week

A new week – and new challenges are ahead. The day starts with a meeting with one of the trustees of the HOPE Cape Town Trust and it is all about CSR and CSI and the involvement of HOPE Cape Town in tenders. Very complicated for a simple priest, but somehow also exciting how in South Africa commerce and social responsibility are going hand in hand.

Thereafter senior staff meeting at Tygerberg Hospital. It is amazing how much is needed to be discusses at such a meeting -28 employees means a lot of challenges and organising such an organisation means lots of fine tuning and consideration.

Afterwards meeting with a new diplomat from the German Embassy in Pretoria in preparation of the visit of an official delegation from Germany in March. Good to know that politicians have interest to hear about our struggles and small victories, about the situation in the health sector of South Africa.

In the evening then a meeting with two friends, both actors and it is good to talk about literature, art and culture and all the also important things in life, which is much more than work, eat and sleep.

A full day – the gaps filled with the usual attempt to empty the email box (without success) – and as I have a final look into my diary it seems there will be no dull moment. Good so.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , ,

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