We have the latest news from the People of Hope Project which we support in Clarens written by Topsy:

“Greetings from Clarens, its hot and we can feel we are in the festive season. How are you guys doing? We are so grateful to God for you guys. When I received email from Sheila on sat last week, I was so so happy. We thank you once again for the support your church has given us for the past years and the coming years.

People of Hope

We are now 3 groups as I mentioned to you last time. We have 8 carers in Clarens,  10 in Fouriesburg and 5 in Ladybrand. We were all doing Home based care, but now 5 of our carers are going to do HTS (HIV testing services). We received a contract with Right to Care starting next week. We are responding to the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target calls on countries to reach the following goals:

–  90% of people living with HIV diagnosed by 2020

–  90% of diagnosed people on anti retroviral treatment by 2020

–  90% of people on treatment with fully suppressed viral load by 2020

So we are so excited and nervous on the other side about this challenge. We are going to offer this service in 5 towns. Which is Clarens, Fouriesburg, Bethlehem, Rosendal and Paul Roux. I am so glad because its been one of our objectives to test people while they are still ok, not to wait until they are sick. The ladies just finished their training last week Friday. In Clarens we need to add more staff as 5 of our carers are going to do the HTS, and we still need to go in homes to help those who can’t help themselves. We are also serving Orphans and Vulnerable children. We go into homes of those children and also gather them at our church once a week, where we help them with their homeworks, do teaching on different topics about health and safety.  We are also paying taxi fares for children to go to school, but only for those whom their parents are not working.

For the past two years we managed to help 250 families with food parcels with your help and the help from the Methodist church. We were also  providing school uniforms, toiletries and blankets. Many lives have changed a lot. At the moment because of lack of funds we are only helping those who are very, very sick and have zero income with food parcels.

We are doing adherence club, where people are coming to our offices to collect their medications once a month. Not only collecting their medicines but we also have health talks with them. When it started we were only focusing on those who only take the ARV’s (HIV treatment), but now even for those who have high blood pressure and those who are diabetic are allowed to be part of the adherence club. To help them to adhere with their medication.  The patients we are helping are from our clinics. Our government has called on us as NGO, to help them because their clinics are so crowded.

We are also a pick up point, where Pharmacy Direct is sending meds to us and patients will come anytime during working hours to collect their medications not waiting for a long hours at the clinic.

Prayer Request:

1.  We need wisdom on how to go about all this (especially for me as I am leading the whole team on three towns).

2.  The strength we also need, its going to be lots of work for us all.

3. For God to open more doors in this different towns where there is no People of Hope, and also to have people who will be moved by what we are doing and want to help their own people.

4. We also want people to know and see Jesus in everything we do. Not to be driven by targets or anything else without Him, because He is the centre of our everything.

5.  For us to love people unconditionally and serve them with joy even though its very tough sometimes.

6.  As we will be travelling a lot, we also trusting God our our own vehicle. At the moment we are depending on the church bakkie.

Thanks once again Bill and Sheila and everyone at Christ Church Downend” written by Topsy

Bill & Sheila Robbins are our Christ Church Mission Champions who maintain our links to the People Of Hope Project and the Dihlabeng Christian School.