God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

05/23/2014 • 11:16 am Comments Off on 8 years… gosh…

8 years… gosh…

Hope_Logo_RGB_TRUSTSocial media and webpages have not only a meaning to connect people with each other, but also to remind oneself of time flying. There are always these birthday reminders which I truly love as they cover up my forgetfulness. 🙂 But also other achievements are noted and pop up and then people respond. This month LinkedIn reminded me that the HOPE Cape Town Trust is already 8 years in existence – born on the 6.5.2006 and I really cannot believe that the eight years have flown by so far. I generally have a problem with feeling time – it seems to me, that somewhere in the thirties my mindset stopped and refused to grow really older, but continued (hopefully 🙂 ) to mature with times. So the funny feeling is that the body grows older, the wrinkles are more but the mind is still as fresh as it has been years ago.
Getting older as an organization means that one has to look again and again staying relevant and reading the signs of the times instead of resting on old achievements and expecting the rest of the world to do cherish them for eternity. The HOPE Cape Town Trust was founded with the vision that one day the Trust takes over the marketing and fundraising arm of HOPE Cape Town as an entity. After finding its feet and developing in the shadow of the HOPE Cape Town Association we are now at the point where exactly this is happening. A vision becomes reality and it is instantly replaced by new and other challenges and it is great to see the dynamics of thought 8 years ago creating new opportunities for an NGO in our times. It’s a dynamic which makes it so important to know where you are coming from, where you roots are and only so, you are able to reach out for the stars in the future. Fascinating…
Thanks to all and everybody who supported HOPE Cape Town and specially the HOPE Cape Town Trust in the last 8 years. A special thanks to Evelyn Chimbobe-Munoro who drafted the first deed of trust pro-bono at her Fairbridges Attorneys offices at that time and a memento to Auntie Pat (Gorvalla) who already passed on to higher services. Today, trustees from South Africa, Switzerland and Germany are safeguarding the future of HOPE Cape Town and I am convinced that the future looks bright for the HOPE Cape Town Trust and the organization HOPE Cape Town as an entity. It is also good to know that we have a little sister trust in Germany called the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung, which is a brainchild of HOPE Cape Town and the German Aids Foundation, born 2007 in Bonn (Germany).
Executive CommitteeAs we stretch out to the USA in the moment let’s wait and see what will be added to the growing HOPE Cape Town family in the near future.
(on the picture right the Executive Committee Sam Dibhesi Tuntubele, Carole Armstrong-Hooper, Stefan Hippler and Detlev Geiss)

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

05/19/2014 • 2:16 pm Comments Off on A normal Monday morning @ HOPE Cape Town

A normal Monday morning @ HOPE Cape Town

What happens in an NGO in between all the news, events and charity functions? It’s the normality of work, all HOPE Community Health Workers report to their respective clinic and are committed again for the first day of often hard and challenging work at the Primary Health Care Facility. The senior staff is meeting every Monday morning at 9 am for an hour to catch up and communicate what is on the agenda for everybody during the week. There is also time to reflect on the last week or anything which happened in between. Besides all portfolios reported on there is always the questions about possible visitors at HOPE Cape Town or questions which have been arisen from previous days. At 10 am the so-called back office is meeting which includes all the people covering “marketing and fundraising”. As HOPE Cape Town raises most funds from private sponsors or other non-profit NGO’s there are always items on the list to discuss like how to write proposals, how to report hack; basically all the communication structures. We are doing charity work and we have to talk about it – otherwise possible donors and sponsors will not find us. After that there are various other meetings – the PowerPoint presentation has to be updated, the new “HOPE to HOME” program needs attention, and even the very trivial question of access to parking at a University can bind some workforce for hours.
The beauty of HOPE Cape Town is among other things, that there is a very motivated team of people interacting on so many different levels. And exciting developments happen in the moment: on the care level the HOPE to HOME project has been launched last week  and HOPE Cape Town coordinates the after-care of children with HIV, AIDS and TB discharged from the children’s hospital. The family and children support program is going from strength to strength thanks to a donation from “Ein Herz fuer Kinder” from Germany. On the level of information for donors and sponsors a new HOPE Cape Town flyer is in development and with it comes a new design for the webpage, reflecting all the actual work done by HOPE Cape Town. Watch the space 🙂

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

05/15/2014 • 9:39 am Comments Off on From Prevention, Polygamy and Crime…

From Prevention, Polygamy and Crime…

As always in between posts I like to share some of the articles I am reading in between and they are ranging from the blue pill to criminal laws.

US Federal health officials recommended yesterday that hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for AIDS take a daily pill that has been shown to prevent infection with the virus that causes it. If broadly followed, the advice could transform AIDS prevention in the United States — from reliance on condoms, which are effective but unpopular with many men, to a regimen that relies on an antiretroviral drug. Please read this article here.

In Africa, most people infected are female. In a modest public health clinic behind a gas station here in South Africa’s rural KwaZulu/Natal Province, a team of Norwegian infectious disease specialists think they may have found a new explanation. Not sure it will hold the scrutiny of sciences but it is worth reflecting on it. Read here.

In Kenya, a new law came into effect allowing for polygamy. Men can take several women as wives without the consent of the first or any of the others already married. Does it make sense? Well, questions are asked here.

Uganda was once the example of how to reduce the HIV pandemic. Then came complacency and PEPFAR rules, latter a curse and a blessing at the same time. Now Uganda has chosen to add to the draconian law regarding homosexuality also to criminalize HIV transmission. It is known that this has an adverse effect, but it seems that politicians in Uganda want to go the extra mile to do the wrong thing.  Click here to read the story.

Enjoy reading!

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HIV Prevention, HIV Treatment, Medical and Research, Politics and Society, Reflection, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

05/12/2014 • 9:55 am Comments Off on The Day after the Ball of HOPE

The Day after the Ball of HOPE

Only people who are also in the business of preparing a gala event know what it means to sit there a day after the event and reflecting on it. All the adrenalin is gone and funny enough one feels drained and somehow empty inside. It seems that all energy is gone but still one cannot find real rest. “Are you happy with the Ball” I was asked several times the next morning, meeting people who slept over at the Westin Hotel and enjoyed their breakfast the very next morning. It sounded to me like a strange question: Yes, of course I was happy that it went without major trouble – all obstacles naturally coming up during such an event were dealt with as soon as Anja and I as the organizers were aware off. And yes, the entertainment program was great and the dance band got the people going – wonderful to see. But it takes at least a couple of days to recover and appreciate all what was happening that very eve. And to digest that for the first time in history, raffle tickets were sold out before all could get a chance to buy some. So amazing…
I am deeply grateful for all of you who joined this annual event on Saturday eve – I hope everybody had a wonderful time, enjoyed our Brooklyn Holy Cross Primary School Senior choir and Chelsea, our 9-year-old singer from Switzerland with her powerful voice , Katlego who did a marvelous job as an MC. And I also hope that you took home the knowledge how you fun that very eve meant hope and life and a future for so many less fortunate in the townships of Cape Town, being troubled by HIV, AIDS and TB and so many associated diseases. All and everybody present made a difference and had a personal impact on the life of somebody whom they never will learn to know in person. What a wonderful and powerful connection…

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, HOPE Cape Town Trust, Networking, Reflection, SA-German Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

05/02/2014 • 11:29 am Comments Off on Infected!? – an interesting approach…

Infected!? – an interesting approach…

Reading through several blogs I came across the following lines:

Infected! Oh, My!
By Rev. Andrena Ingram
April 5, 2014
From TheBody.com

I'm not 'infected' with HIV ... I'm 'living' with HIV!

How many of you remember being told that you had tested positive for the antibodies which cause HIV? I remember it like it was yesterday! The results were shocking, nothing would EVER be the same! I was filled with dread, I was filled with shame, and I was filled with fear. Took me a few years to get comfortable in my skin. And so, as most of us activists/advocates take deeper looks at words, I found a word which is offensive to me, particularly in the HIV platform — but could very well fit any situation. The word “infected” bothers me. Dictionary.com gives these few definitions of the verb ‘infected’:

  • contaminated
  • tainted
  • corrupted

These are not words most of us would like to be associated with, whatever our medical condition. I believe that one of the first steps to living a more positive life, begins in how we think about ourselves. We cannot be healthy or begin on a holistic journey, if we think of ourselves as contaminated or tainted or corrupted.  By the same token, if society puts that label on us, it is no wonder they would feel they need to distance themselves from us or place us in boxes which stigmatize us.
The truth of the matter is: I am not tainted. I am not corrupted. Nor am I contaminated.
That being said: neither are you.
“As you think, so shall you become” — Bruce Lee
(copyright TheBody.com )

I never thought about it that way, but while reading I sense it has its merit to have such a point of view.  Stigmatization has many levels – it started on the caring level in Primary Health Care Facilities in the beginning of the pandemic, when there was the certain bench people had to wait, the special door to receive counseling and advice, the milk products handed out in full view of other patients, which clearly identified mothers being HIV positive.  And it continues in our days still when HIV positive people want to travel or they are looking for employment . It even continues in our churches when we priests or communities fail to appreciate the blessings of somebody going through the life changing experience of discovering to be positive.

I personally like the word “positive” – it opens up the horizon of  hope and light and a chance to change life to the better.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HIV Treatment, Religion and Ethics, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , ,

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