How YOU can help…

Micky Bailey had an incredible vision from God to build the Children’s Village, Community Centre & Church. We are trusting that He will also give us the funding to make it a reality & to change these children’s lives for the better, so that they can live in a safe place with loving people around them. Currently, GVF is being branded & the new logo & website will be available shortly (www.grapevinefoundation.org.uk).

Micky will be based in the UK, raising awareness & funds. She is seeking to raise £100,000 to start with, but the project will need a staggering £1Million to complete. Phase One will be the Children’s Village with the aim to start building in July 2010.
She will also be trying to raise money for a salary for myself & for the purchase of a vehicle. We absolutely need a vehicle for this work to enable me to get around safely, to get to where the children are & to take them to a clinic/hospital when they get sick or hurt, or to take food to them. Without a vehicle, we can’t do anything as it is generally inadvisable to travel by any means other than a reliable car/4X4 in rural South Africa.

I need funds to enable me to get out to South Africa & then to live whilst I am there. I haven’t worked out the exact amount that I need per month yet (I will make enquiries whilst I am there as things are more expensive since I was there last!) but I also need an initial £600 for a visa deposit & about the same for a flight. There is a cottage for me to stay in but I’ll need to find funds for everything else. I am not permitted to take a paid job in South Africa if I apply for a volunteer visa. If you feel led to help, please get in touch.

In addition to this we need prayer cover, as South Africa is not the safest of places. I felt very blessed & supported when I worked there before, due to my supporters remembering me before God & praying for me & my protection. Even more so I will need this, as I seek to care for children who need a lot of love & care. Dealing with a terminal illness is never easy, yet it’s something that these children have to live with on a daily basis. We need your help to be more than conquerors in these trials!

Thank you for reading. Knowing that you are standing with us, through prayer &/or financial help, will mean the world to me & to these precious children as I walk alongside them…. no longer orphans, but dearly-loved children of God.

Getting in touch, staying in touch!
Email: carolinehorn@yahoo.com

The Plan.

In August 2009, I had already planned a holiday to KZN to visit friends & children at God’s Golden Acre (where I worked previously). I shall be staying in the GVF cottage, in a village called Monteseel that’s situated on a mountain 810m above sea level with stunning views over the Valley of 1000 Hills. This is just 5 minutes from the school by car. I shall be meeting up with the school staff & the children themselves & I will discuss the progress of some of the children & also reassure them that of January next year I will be on the case full time to help where I can.
From September to December 2009, I shall be in the UK, living in Leamington Spa, seeking to raise support & funds for this new venture. I have no employment for September & so I will possibly do supply teaching for a term. This is very much a step of faith for me, trusting God to provide absolutely everything to see His work done in South Africa.
I hope to move out to South Africa in January 2010, at the beginning of the new Academic Year.

My role

As full-time worker, my role would be to liaise with the local social worker to get the children registered & get them access to medications that they need. We also need to try & track down any of their family that may still be living somewhere in South Africa.
Working with the Primary School & other individuals, there is also potential for me to teach English & to develop a Children’s Club for them to learn more about how much God loves them. In addition, these children currently have no food at all at the weekend, a situation that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Thankfully, Inchanga is only 15 minutes away from where I worked before & I managed to build up many contacts there when I was living in KZN a few years ago. My increasing knowledge of Zulu & of this area will be a massive benefit as I embark on this new & vitally important role within this project.

The Vision

Inchanga Primary School (near Durban) is a popular & thriving school. Yet for 63 of its pupils, school is the only source of food & clean water. They come primarily to get breakfast & lunch, as they sleep rough in the surrounding areas. The few clothes they have are washed by the teachers & at the weekend they struggle to survive in harsh rural conditions, without any family to help them. Can you imagine how vulnerable they are to possible abuse?
Two years ago, Micky Bailey learnt about these orphans & set up Grapevine Foundation (GVF) to provide specifically for them. Over the past few years, working with some local people in Inchanga, she has raised money to bring food to these children.
In June-July 2010, a group from the UK (www.Lionsraw.org) will be embarking on various projects in the Valley of 1000 Hills. The biggest of their projects will be to assist GVF in building the first phase of the Children’s Village. There will be 10 rondavels (traditional African homes), with a foster mother to care for a few children in each house, using the ‘cluster foster care’ method. Future plans are to build a clinic, crèche & community hall, which will assist the community by bringing help just that bit closer to the people. A future feeding scheme for the valley will help around 2000 people a month with food they so desperately need & medical care for the infirm.

One in every 2.5 people in Inchanga is infected with HIV AIDS, so far the highest in the world…10 000 die here every month.

We hope that these children will be in their new homes by Christmas 2010. Before then, amongst other things, they need:

Birth Certificates
Properly fitting shoes & clothes
Food & water
Medications if they are HIV+ & need Anti Retroviral treatment (ARVs)
Love & opportunities to enjoy childhood

Over half of these children are potentially HIV+

The Story So Far…

Just before I returned from South Africa in February 2008, I had a few conversations with a lady called Micky Bailey about me taking a position with Grapevine Foundation in South Africa. However, it became clear that it was not the right time at that moment.
Back in the UK, I spent a while teaching again in various Secondary Schools, an experience that I found extremely challenging, due to falling standards of behaviour fuelled by a widespread lack of respect.
At the same time I developed my leadership skills as COSMIC Co-ordinator at St Paul’s Leamington Spa, overseeing the Sunday morning ministry with 0-11 year olds. I also completed the ‘Growing Leaders’ course, during which it became clear to all that my ideal ministry involves ‘Children’ and ‘Africa’.
During July 2009, as my teaching job drew to a close, Micky and I got back in touch and it suddenly seemed that this might be God’s timing for me to become part of Grapevine Foundation.

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!

I hope you find it interesting and full of challenging and inspiring information and wisdom, to brighten your day or to make you think...