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with other religious leaders angers the Pius-brothers and their full-fledged attack against this meeting shows how outdated their belief system is.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, , , , ,

11/16/2010 • 10:07 am Comments Off on 16.11.2010 Cologne

16.11.2010 Cologne

It seems that to travel by car in Germany is no fun anymore – the famous “Stau” is taking over the roads and the idea of traveling without speed limit is just a fiction – construction work and bumper to bumper realities destroy any attempt to get fast from one place to another. Nevertheless, I arrived in Cologne, and the last week of my travel for HOPE CPT has started. Four meetings are scheduled for today – no big fundraisers but people sympathetic to the project, some with new ideas, some looking for an exchange of ideas. And this is as important as meeting big sponsors: those who are doing the support with less money but a lot of ideas and moral support; those who are interested in the development of HOPE Cape Town in all ways possible without having millions of Euros or dollars at their disposal. HOPE Cape Town needs both to develop – sponsors, activists, moral supporters – and the network of all those together are the power of HOPE Cape Town.

This is specially felt in a time, where HOPE Cape Town is in the process of being re-structured. Positions will change and we will streamline the top to serve better of the portfolios meanwhile developed. Hopefully from March 2011 a full-time director will run the day-to-day business – management will transform to a board meeting less frequently as used to be. HOPE Cape Town is now becoming an adult – next year we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our organisation HOPE Cape Town Association and 5 years of the HOPE Cape Town Trust; the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung will be by then 4 years in existence.

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

08/31/2010 • 7:58 pm Comments Off on 31.08.2010 Back..

31.08.2010 Back..

… again in Cape Town and I am welcomed by wind and rain – just the weather I left in Europe’s late summer. The last days were quite tough working days – Saturday the BuPo2010 in Bielefeld and Sunday then the next meeting regarding the WAAE II which translates into World AIDS Awareness Campaign II. A real challenge and after the day’s meeting a lot of thoughts are going around in my head about the requirements for such a challenge. But what would be life without a challenge?

Another meeting concerns the HOPE Cape Town Trust – and an intensive discussion about the way, the South African trust is presented in Germany and how to better the income, especially when it comes to additional capital for the trust. At the end the work of the association HOPE Cape Town can only be sustained if a trust provides for the basic work independent of currency rate and donation income. To secure the work in a jumpy economic environment is the key for further success.

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

08/11/2010 • 10:09 pm Comments Off on 11.08.2010 Time is flying again

11.08.2010 Time is flying again

Again and again I have the feeling that time is of no relevance as hours, days and weeks are floating at a breath-taking speed. Meetings coming and going in speedy way and sometimes one has the feeling to run behind oneself without being able to catch oneself.
Management meeting, senior management meeting, meetings with individuals, meeting with representative of the SOS Kinderdorf, meeting with staff, with HOPE community health workers – it is amazing how colourful life can be.
HOPE Cape Town will soon enter a phase of restructuring to  be able to live up in the usual professional way to all the demands of a developing portfolio. And of course it has consequences on the running of the HOPE Cape Town Trust.

This evening I also saw for the first time the video, the Romantic Hotel Group put together to advertise their safe house project. Very well and professional done – congratulations. Tomorrow morning I will meet with a representative of this hotel group, currently in Cape Town. I am looking forward to this exchange of ideas and news.

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

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