God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

10/20/2009 • 10:28 pm Comments Off on 20.10.2009 HOPE Cape Town Newsletter 03/09

20.10.2009 HOPE Cape Town Newsletter 03/09

HOPE Newsletter No. 03/ 2009

hiv outreach program & education

Cape Town

Dear Friends of HOPE Cape Town,

Once again we are happy to get the latest news about our work out to you. Enjoy the read!

1. HOPE Cape Town & Academic Collaboration

For several years now, HOPE Cape Town has been in partnership with the University of Stellenbosch. Not only are our offices at the campus of the Faculty of Health Sciences; as of recently HOPE Cape Town has also been registered as a Community Interaction Project with the University. We are very proud to have been awarded first prize and R 20,000 for a poster presentation at the Academic Year Day and we will reinvest these funds into our community outreach work collaboration with Stellenbosch University Grass Roots Projects.

We were also very pleased to have had Moritz Eßer and Sebastian Leisten with us in August, two students in nutritional science from the HS Niederrhein in Moenchengladbach, Germany. In cooperation with the Department of Nutrition at Stellenbosch University, the two assisted with the initiation of a study about nutritional habits in various low income communities in Cape Town. The “Fruitdays” organized by them in the townships to encourage healthy eating habits were a big success! We thank Sebastian and Moritz for their commitment and enthusiasm and are looking forward to continued collaboration in future.

2. HOPE Cape Town Events

From 18 until 20 August, an e-Learning Workshop took place at Tygerberg Campus, jointly organized by InWent Capacity Building International and HOPE Cape Town. Representatives from various institutions (e.g. University of the Western Cape, Immunopaedia, South African AIDS Foundation, HOPE Cape Town, Walter Sizulu University und University of Stellenbosch) came together to exchange experiences and ideas around e-Learning in the HIV & AIDS field. We would like to thank all participants and especially the facilitators Dr. Klemens Ochel and Alexander Kaufmann from the Medical Mission Institute Wuerzburg for this successful event.

In the beginning of September, the three-day concert tour „African Voices for HOPE” took place in Munich and Nuremberg in cooperation with the German AIDS Foundation and the Cape Town Opera.

A choir of 28 singers from the Cape Town Opera sang a selection of South African Gospel songs, Afro-American spirituals and famous opera pieces, partly translated into African languages. All proceeds of the concerts were donated to the HOPE Kapstadt Stiftung as well as to the community and outreach programme of the Cape Town Opera. We thank the companies Process Consulting, “Die Offensive”, the Round Table Germany and the Nuremberg Theatre for their support and cooperation and especially Dr. Susanne Reuther for all her hard work and committed efforts!

For the fourth time, Viola Klein, Saxonia Systems AG and Promovar Unternehmensbeteiligungen AG are organizing a charity gala in Dresden for the benefit of HOPE Cape Town together with many sponsors and supporters. The HOPE Gala will take place on 31 October 2009 at the Schauspielhaus Dresden. As every year, excellent entertainment and a range of popular artists are guaranteed. Please visit the following homepage: www.hopegala.de.

For the first time, Viola Klein will also organize the Ithemba AIDS Symposium 2009, to take place on October 30 in Dresden. HOPE co-founder Rev. Fr. Stefan Hippler will discuss latest developments around HIV & AIDS with high-profile representatives from the scientific and medicial arenas. For more information please go to www.dresdner-aids-symposium.de.

We thank Viola for her outstanding and never-ending creativity, commitment and support for HOPE Cape Town!

3. HOPE Cape Town & Weltwaerts

It has been more than a year that the official cooperation between HOPE and the DED (German Development Service) as part of the Weltwaerts Volunteer Programme was launched. Our first Weltwarts volunteers, Andreas Hagen and Valentin Niebler, have successfully completed their year as “guinea pigs” and are back in Germany to commence their studies. We would like to thank them both for their wonderful work and all their help while they were with HOPE and wish them all the best for their future.

Their successors have already started their orientation with HOPE Cape Town – welcome Nadine Bayer and Malene Hummel. We see forward to another successful year with Weltwaerts.

4. HOPE Cape Town inside

HOPE co-founder Stefan Hippler is going to leave his post as Chaplain of the German-speaking Catholic Community in Cape Town on 30 September 2009 and will commence his work as „Fidei Donum“ priest within the Archdiocese of Cape Town from 1 October 2009. As such he will be working for the Catholic AIDS Network as well as for other projects related to HIV & AIDS.  We are looking forward to Stefan’s further involvement with HOPE Cape Town.

We also welcome Professor Bernd Rosenkranz from the Department of Pharmacology, Stellenbosch University, as new HOPE Management member and look forward to working with him for many years to come!

Please visit our newly revamped website www.hopecapetown.com regularly in order to be up to date about the latest developments of our work.

With warm regards,

Yasmin Smith (previously Buettgen)

Project Supervisor HOPE Cape Town Association

HOPE Cape Town Trust & Association

P.O. Box 19145 – Tygerberg 7505 – Cape Town – South Africa

PBO No 18/11/13/4709   Association – NPO No 031-599-NPO    Association – NPO No 053-417-NPO    Trust

PBO No. 930024843        Trust

Bank Details South Africa:

Standard Bank – Cape Town Branch (Code 020009) – Acc. #: 0706 15551 – Acc. Holder: HOPE Cape Town

Bank Details Germany:

Dresdner Bank Bonn (BLZ 370 800 40) – Acc. #: 211 402 100 – Acc. Holder: Katholisches Auslandssekretariat – Reference: HOPE

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust,

10/15/2009 • 10:43 am Comments Off on 15.10.2005 Exhaustion and travel preparations

15.10.2005 Exhaustion and travel preparations

It is amazing how a body can hold on and keep one carrying through weeks of stress – until the point where it feels that rest is needed. That happened to me on Monday when my body simply shut down and I almost slept for 36 hours – with some small interruptions to get some food. An amazing feeling when you feel at the end of it all – nothing goes anymore, even to think seems to cause stress and is almost impossible.

After 2 days of further rest I am slowly getting back to normal and will leave for my trip to Germany and Vatican on coming Saturday. I will meet in Hannover with my friend Joachim Franz from be your own hero e.V. and we will both fly to Rome to meet with the papal council for health care workers to continue discussion we had in November last year. Then back to Wolfsburg where we will have a 2 days meeting to discuss further cooperation between us. Very exciting times for me, for HOPE Cape Town and for all those, who will benefit from more cooperation and maximized support.

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

10/05/2009 • 11:14 pm Comments Off on 05.10.2009 office too close to my home…

05.10.2009 office too close to my home…

Monday morning, and instead driving to town in the morning, I just have to open a door and I am in my new office.. It is tempting to do this before being ready for the outside world.. and I guess it needs quite some discipline not to jump with a cup of coffee just into it, from the bed to the desk so to speak.

I will try to keep it separate – office work is office work and home is home. I prefer the distance between both, but that might come in due course of the next months.
I had to prepare for a workshop of Catholic AIDS network this morning, I was asked to give an overview about new care and treatment options and new developments in research. So I will speak about the Berlin patient, about the Thailand vaccine trial and other remarkable stories and new developments on the medication sector. The chairperson of HOPE Cape Town will also be there and report on the situation in South Africa, which looks much more dark than people want to believe. We have massive problems in delivering services and bringing people on treatment.
I also had a meeting at Tygerberg with the Dean of the Sport Sciences Faculty from Munich and some management members – ways of cooperation were discussed and we learned about the sport sciences in Germany and they about HOPE Cape Town in South Africa. In the evening then the celebration of the German National Day – a good one this year with lots of people I haven’t seen in ages and a good speech of the Consul General Mr. Bussmann. So quite a day, in between SA Telkom and the post office .. a full day.

I just realised this evening that my diary is full till I leave for Germany – it is amazing how little time the 8 days have.. I wish, I could extend that timeframe to get all done, what is still waiting to be worked on and finalised. Well, some night sleep has to be sacrificed to get it all done.

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

10/01/2009 • 10:46 pm Comments Off on 01.09.2009 First day without my community

01.09.2009 First day without my community

The day started like all the days before with early being in my office @ the Mediterranean Villa. And it ends now with having packed all my stuff which will be transported to my new interim office at home.  But it was amazing for me how many people send email or phoned to say that they think of me having my first day in the new job description. I just hope that the description now gets clearer by the day. A lot of preparation has to be done now for my trip to Germany and  Italy in two weeks time – and on Tuesday is already the Catholic AIDS Network workshop for priests and religious where I should inform people about the newest developments in treatment and care. So the weekend will not only see my official farewell mass at Nazareth House but also some preparation work for the workshop.

There are so many ideas and visions in my head now, but first I have to settle down with my office and get it in working condition again. And to get used that my office is only some meters away from where I am living.

My new role with HOPE Cape Town is also starting to become clearer, this was a rather painful process but necessary. After having myself detached from the daily business and only participated via the management team, it has now newly to be defined. It is indeed like a sort of new beginning or should I better say: It is like knowing somebody very well and suddenly discovering a completely different site of him or her, watching from a totally different angle. I am sure it will become a somehow newly exciting journey.

But otherwise: a new chapter in my life starts rather uneventful. Good so.

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

09/30/2009 • 10:26 pm Comments Off on 30.09.2009 Alles wird gut…

30.09.2009 Alles wird gut…

… everything will go alright, somebody wrote me a day ago and I believe that: That at the end all is falling in place. But I also know that when you think all is falling in place, your world will be first thorn apart before you can put it together. Transition is such a moment – you plan and you imagine and you envisage and you have joy to see yourself somewhere new – and you suddenly realise that there is still a lot to do before you get even close to your wish or what you saw as your destiny.  Transition is also an emotional rollercoaster and the people around you tend to try to influence the outcome. Why? Because many people think they know what is good for you, or what path you have to go or they are anxious that you will lose track if you not do this or that.

HIV and AIDS as portfolio is a big task ahead and tonight, short before midnight, I am not sure anymore where it will lead me. There are so many possibilities how one can go about it, so many ways to tackle it. There are so many needs which cry out for assistance and help.

Well, I will certainly stay with HOPE Cape Town, even if I am not sure in which capacity. But I will also develop and foster the project of POZ, dealing with the pastoral work with priests and religious living with the virus. The partnership with Joachim Franz and his team “be your own hero e.V.” will definitely play a bigger role in my life and the exhibition 2010 @ the Charite might be another pillar. The partnership between Bavaria and the Western Cape needs also some input – and I can see all this interconnected and to be mutual beneficial. But I am not sure whether this vision is shared by everybody.

It always needs courage to grasp a vision and to slowly but surely make it a reality. But I also know that I cannot do it alone. Standing on the doorstep of a new chapter of my life, I am thrilled to know whether I find people being able to walk side by side with me.

Being in transition also means that the interaction between people changes. In our world, the status of a person, the role he or she is playing is an important one. People value people because they are in a certain position, people connect with people out of that purpose. Sometimes this leads to a good friendship which lasts forever, but often, connections are lost because positions are lost. The interconnection between people is a very interesting field of studies.

Tonight, I feel the uncertainty of tomorrow and the days to follow. Transition takes away the self-assurance and makes one vulnerable. But I still believe: …. all will go alright..

Filed under: Reflection, Uncategorized, , , ,

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