God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

01/22/2011 • 11:30 am Comments Off on AGM’s

AGM’s

AGM’s always sound like long meetings with boring topics – a pain in the neck for most of us. Well, I attended two yesterday and both went smoothly and in a professional way without wasting time or rushing through important issues. Well prepared might be the secret of it.
It is amazing to listen to the chair of the HOPE Cape Town Association just giving her report and suddenly things almost forgotten from the last year come to mind again – the last year was indeed full of action and development.
It seems we also get the balance between the HOPE Cape Town Association as the working body and the HOPE Cape Town Trust as the body safeguarding our finances right and slowly but surely things are falling in place, thought about and prepared and sometimes even fantasized about years ago. It is a great feeling to sit in such AGM”s and seeing the process having a meaningful outcome – and, this is not less important: all responsible are agreeing about the way forward.
So Friday was a very good day for HOPE Cape Town Association and Trust and after the blessing of a new home for friends followed by a great supper I went to bed with a smile on my face.

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

01/20/2011 • 5:10 pm Comments Off on Beginning of 2011..

Beginning of 2011..

2011 begins as 2010 ends, with lots of interesting turmoil: In Tunisia, a dictator is running for his life, in our Church the discussion about the exact meaning of Pope Benedict’s XVI wording in his book ” light of the world” continues, his declaration to hold a peace summit with other religious leaders angers the Pius-brothers and their full-fledged attack against this meeting shows how outdated their belief system is.
Countries fight for they valuation of their currency, Sudan is holding a historical vote on splitting in two parts and in all these, South Africa tries to find its way into more democracy, less crime and less corruption.
And while the country prepares for local election and one can already feel the drama unfolding in the next months, we from HOPE Cape Town are also back in full swing with the declared aim to restructure our organisation to make it more efficient, more professional without losing the grip on the grass root level and our humble origin. It is not easy when an organisation grows out of puberty into adulthood and people responsible have to consider all aspects of work and how to do it best for the next year to come. It costs indeed a lot of dedication of all within HOPE Cape Town to facilitate such a process, but one can already see the horizon of a structure streamlined to serve the people living with HIV and AIDS in the Western Cape.
Tomorrow we will have two AGM’s – the HOPE Cape Town Association AGM dealing with all the matters and afterwards the AGM of the HOPE Cape Town Trust, which will become a bigger player when it comes to finances within HOPE Cape Town. After 4 years of hard work, also the trust is taking off the ground and moving in a good direction. Let’s hope and see that 2011 is a year full of good experience, great work with all associated with or employed by HOPE Cape Town. May the people, we encounter be truly touched by our work, our dedication and bring indeed hope and future and perspective to those in need.

An interesting year ahead on the big and the small scale…

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, , , , ,

03/19/2010 • 2:48 pm Comments Off on 19.03.2010 HOPE Cape Town Trust

19.03.2010 HOPE Cape Town Trust

In two hours the board of trustees of the HOPE Cape Town trust will congregate again at the Mediterranean Villa to discuss arising matters. The trust is still in the beginning, but the interest of the trustees is visible to make this trust a back up for HOPE Cape Town Association and to provide the necessary funds on the long-term run. This will take time and many efforts are medium term or long-term efforts, trying to guarantee the financial back up on the long-term run.

I am quite happy about our trustees and I trust that our meeting today will be a successful one. We will discuss the latest development at HOPE Cape Town Association before turning our attention to the efforts of our fundraising lady and her report back. A possible golf day and other events like the Ball of HOPE in May are on the agenda. But also BB BEE deals involving HOPE Cape Town Trust as a shareholder.

But this day was also about office work. I had to plan and arrange for the next travels, which will bring me to Johannesburg in April to attend the constitution of a national working group of the Southern African – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry on renewable energy/energy efficiency. Then Thailand for a couple of holidays. In May I then will travel to the Vatican and Germany for talks and meetings. June holds Johannesburg and Brits in church matters, before I have to fly to Vienna to attend the World AIDS Conference. August will bring some talks in Germany and Austria. So far the planing and the bookings are almost all done. In October / November I will attend the HOPE Gala Dresden and the Berliner AIDS Gala as well as attend some meetings. In between I have committed to quite some services and church related functions. So the year is indeed planed – but I am looking forward to each and every of these encounters with other people. Traveling makes tired, but meeting people energizes again. So  there is the balance of Ying and Yang in this case and I am looking forward to the end of the year, where hopefully a lot of these talks, seminars, meetings have been beneficial to HOPE Cape Town – especially those, who we care for in the townships of Cape Town.

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

11/28/2009 • 2:34 am Comments Off on 28.11.2009 Malicious journalism and great AGM’s

28.11.2009 Malicious journalism and great AGM’s

Giving interviews is always tricky in our days – and when the topic is HIV and AIDS and the newspaper is a Catholic one, even more. I had in Munich a lengthy interview with the LinzerKirchenzeitung – and the interviewer really did a great job. Obviously the “condom question” was prominent – again, but I felt that I really tried to be as detailed and balanced as possible. Those who are able to read German can read the excerpt under http://www.dioezese-linz.or.at/redaktion/index.php?action_new=Lesen&Article_ID=51939

This morning I find an article about the article on “kath.net” under the headline: “Kondom Theologie in der Linzer Kirchenzeitung” (Condom theology in the Catholic newspaper of Linz – in German language). Reading this vile concoction I suddenly realise that I could have put it in the interview in any form – it would not matter at all. Here are people writing, who simply want to slate someone, in this case me. Anything goes, as long as at the end, the person concerned is put down. I feel ashamed that this is labeled “Catholic news. I would expect more from real Catholic news…  Love, respect and fairness are important virtues of Catholic journalism. This morning I find an article about the article on “kath.net” under the headline:

This afternoon then our two General Annual Meetings, first for the HOPE Cape Town Association and then for the HOPE Cape Town Trust. I must admit that afterwards I am really a happy man. Both AGM’s have been inspiring, a good motivation for the coming year. Dedicated trustees who want to get involved in the fundraising efforts and so adding to the work of HOPE Cape Town. One can sense that there is a good spirit amongst all of us and that the goodwill will go the extra mile to achieve the goals of HOPE Cape Town for the next years. It is indeed a pleasure to be part of such a project. And listening to the chairwoman’s report of the association, it amazes me anew, how diverse our work is. Running with it daily one sometimes tends to forget and miss the sheer bandwidth of our work.

I also want to use this blog to thank all of management, the employees, the trustees, the members of the advisory board, the sponsors and donors and friends of HOPE Cape Town for their dedication and for most I can say, for their friendship. My fellow management members I want to say a special thank you for the unique ways, we work together. It is not always easy with all the unique characters we have :-), but after 8 years one can sense that feel of belonging and appraisal for each other. For me, HOPE Cape Town is part of my family.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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