God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

18.08.2010 Deja Vu..

Normally, my trips to Germany are only filled with appointments, meetings, talks, but this time I managed to have some days more on a private note: to visit my family and to introduce a friend of mine to Germany before he is starting a 3 weeks intensive course in German. Besides the fact, that the late summer in Germany shows worse than the winter in Cape Town it is a strange feeling to visit the places of childhood and growing up. So many things have changed and one feels more a visitor – it was the right decision to remain in South Africa and continue working in the fields of expertise I am familar with.

But time is flying and the weekend will see me back in working mood, St.Gerold in the Walzertal is the first place to share my experience of work with HOPE Cape Town before Hamburg Blankenese coming Monday.

Filed under: Uncategorized, ,

14.08.2010 Whom will you meet…

…whom you encounter? This is a question I am always asking myself when going on travel, trying to tell the story of HOPE Cape Town and of the millions of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa.

Will I be able to bridge the gaps of reality here and there? Can I touch their hearts and minds to make them understand where I am coming from and where most people will end without a helping hand, a meaningful consideration which might not change the world, but the world of one individual – or better: two worlds: the world of the person, who helped and the person, who received the help…

It is indeed always an adventure to make oneself heard and through all the talks, there should be visible the faces of those who are born on the disadvantaged side of life. Our world is not perfect, will never be, but I am sure we can make a difference to bring more balance to the living conditions of those walking the planet.

Filed under: General, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , ,

12.08.2010 Reflection

Today reflection of a different sort: I am presenting to my Rotary Club of Signal Hill a Powerpoint presentation highlighting the history and success of HOPE Cape Town. In 2001, Signal Hill was part of the launch and I remember well the ladies of the Rotary Club preparing the sandwiches and cool drinks after the official act.
For those present in those days in 2001 it was good to hear how the project developed and what has been achieved in the last years. Even if Rotary is sometimes very complicated in their way of donating and supporting in form of a matching grant there is no doubt that a lot of good comes out of the spirit of Rotary and all the activities of thousands of clubs around the world. I am glad to be part of such a great movement.

Also good news from Trier today. The book of Dr. Nebe of the University of Trier about Africa is in the final stages. I was glad to be able to contribute one chapter on HIV and AIDS in Africa. I personally like such contributions as they challenge me also to work in an academic way again.

Otherwise the day was a day of preparation for my next trip to Germany. The Lutheran Community in  Hamburg Blankenese and St. Gerold in the “Walzertal” in Austria will be two locations, where I will be able to talk about the work, HOPE Cape Town is doing. I am looking forward to meet people interested in our work and to exchange ideas and gain new ones as I always do when I engage with people through question and answers after such talks.

I am specially thrilled to participate – even only shortly- at the “Bundespositivenkonferenz 2010” in Bielefeld, the federal conference of people living with HIV in Germany and to contribute to a podiums discussions on the way, HIV is seen in the media and in the public eye.

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

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, ,

03.08.2010 Monday blues again…

Early morning drive to Tygerberg Campus to meet with the senior staff of HOPE Cape Town. From the report back from the Vienna conference till practical questions – time is flying when discussing a multitude on practical issues. Afterwards meeting together with Dr. Esser the new CEO of Tygerberg Academic Health Complex, Dr. Erasmus, for a brief into on HOPE Cape Town and discussing common grounds and joint goals.
Back to town to attend the luncheon of the Southern African – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry and interesting to learn amongst others that Germany invests more in the Western Cape than in the Gauteng area. I have to thank the speaker for an excellent presentation and overview about the investment climate after the  soccer world cup 2010.
A 5 minute contribution to the screening of the movie “Themba” in Trier, organised by the Trierer Aidshilfe and Broadway is filmed and send for pressing on CD to send off to Germany.
A brief visit at the office to answer emails before again out to a dinner with a colleague to discuss current matters of church and society.
The day ends with another check of the email box, containing the request to write a column for a German newspaper about the movie “Ithemba” and to translate some text for the World AIDS awareness campaign II.
But this has to wait until Wednesday, tomorrow I have to visit our employees in Grabouw and Hermanus before attending the AGM of the “choice of life” project in Lansdowne.

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

Blog Categories

Follow God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE on WordPress.com

You can share this blog in many ways..

Bookmark and Share

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 2,711 other subscribers

Translation – Deutsch? Française? Espanol? …

The translation button is located on each single blog page, Copy the text, click the button and paste it for instant translation:
Website Translation Widget

or for the translation of the front page:

* Click for Translation

Copyright

© Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE.
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Rev Fr Stefan Hippler and HIV, AIDS and HOPE with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

This not withstanding the following applies:
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.