Bethany has always been richly blessed by the contribution of its volunteers and this year has been no exception. In March our new outdoor play equipment, including a slide, monkey bars and swings was installed thanks to the contriubtions of our volunteers and their families back home. We want to thank everyone who contriubted towards the equipment - all of our children have been having a fantastic time one it. Even our younger ones, with a little help, are getting full use of all it has to offer!

Easter weekend was a lovely time spent with the children and volunteers doing craft activities and egg hunts. The older children painted hard boiled eggs (with the help of our wonderful volunteers) which were then enjoyed by all. An egg hunt on Easter Sunday also kept the children busy, but i think eating their finds caused the most enjoyment. Thank you to all those that sent easter treats for the children!

This may be old news to some, but i wanted to include this, the pre-school has added so much to the lives of our oldest little people. Their teacher is amazing and handles an unruly group of 20 plus children without rasing her voice. The children have learnt not only a never-ending stream of songs and recitations that they amaze visitors with, but they have learnt to write their names, add up basic sums and their English is improving daily!

Once again Christmas was a wonderful time for the children. The volunteers worked hard with the children to put on a fantastic nativity play - which everyone enjoyed a lot. The children were visited by Father Christmas while asleep and woke up to presents, and by mid-morning they had another visit from Mother Claus (our willing Project Trust volunteer) this time, and were given wonderful presents donated by the local community. After a special lunch, which included ice cream, they spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside enjoying the fantastic weather. 

The children had a fantastic December with the local community hosting many wonderful parties to help celebrate the festive season. The highlight was a bouncy castle arriving for the afternoon, followed by a lot of cake - what more could the children ask for!!

Longterm friend of Bethany, Anika Stoffel, joined us at Bethany for Christmas and New Year - much to the excitment of the children and staff who all love her dearly. She had spent time doing a placement in a Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town and we all really appreciated her taking time out after her work to come and spend some time with us. We are all looking forward to the next visit!

We said goodbye to our two Project Trust volunteers - Helen and Freya in August of 2006. We miss them greatly and thank them for everything that they did for the little people of Bethany. We also hope to see them again soon!! We also said goodbye to Ben, who left in August, but we are certain that we will see him again soon!

In Febuary Bethany will say goodbye to Sister Jill, a volunteer nurse from New Zealand who gave up two years to the needs of the children. She has been amazing, and words can't express the thanks we owe her. She will be replaced by Sister Jan, another nurse from New Zealand who is again willing to give two years to the children of Bethany. Thank you Jill and Welcome Jan!

The old dormitory was crying out for refurbishment (as you can see from the photo) and finally this autumn it got a face lift! The old cots have been removed to make way for new beds and cots, the sinks replaced with proper baths and showers to wash the children in and a general lick of paint and a tidy up has turned it into a much nicer place for all thechildren. (as can be seen from the photo below)                                 THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to its completion!

The children now all have thier own bed - pink for girls and blue for boys! And the babies are no longer sharing cots which is fantasitc! The improvments really have made the dormitory a much nicer place for both children and staff!

The new bedrooms were unveiled at the end of the summer after many months of delayed building work! With them came a lot more space - twenty beds (10 for boys and 10 for girls), separate washing facilities and a space for the children to keep personal items such as a cuddly toy! There is also a separate playroom for the older children - where new dances and songs are taught at a rapid rate thanks to the volunteers!

During the summer Bethany was visited by many visitors - two very special returnees were Anika - a volunteer from Lichtenstein who had spent six months with us during 2004 and returned for three week during her university holidays much to ALL the children's delight!

And secondly Janette, or Tandeka (the loved one) as she is known in Bethany returned for her second visit to Bethany. Janette is listed under the Thank You for all she does as is for the children of Bethany - it was lovely to have her visiting us, even for such a brief time - please look at Back in England to see extracts from the NEW JOURNAL

In August Bethany said goodbye to the four Project Trust volunteers who had been with us for a year. Joanne and Collette had been the two girls based at Bethany from the beginning - between them they worked hard to keep the Tweenie room a happy place for the children - Thank you! and Ben and Nick who joined us after their project fell through after Christmas - Nick spent his time with the older children at Tembelihle (www.tembelihle.co.uk) and Ben spent his time with Sister - doing alot of the driving and errand running but also fitting in lots of time for the older boys who loved having a guy around! (Luckily for everyone Ben returned in October to spend a second year with us!)

UPDATE - The Generator has ARRIVED!!! It's so great to have, now when the power goes Bethany is the only place apart from the hospital and SPAR to have power - we feel very special! (pictures to follow)

Thank you to all those who have contributed to the generator fund - it has taken almost eighteen months to finally get to the point where the deposit has been paid and a generator will be winging its way to Bethany shortly - THANK YOU!!

THANK YOU to everyone who has and still is donating to this. The response has been brilliant and we are busy with the local pharmacy securing a regular supply of much needed vitamins. This is something that will truly make a difference to the lives of the little people - by providing those of them that are HIV positive with basic vitamins we can help them fight infections, and with those young enough we can even help them to fight the HIV antibodies!

Once again a huge THANK YOU to those who have given clothes -  without people's kind generosity in this way we would really struggle. I just want to thank everyone and urge them to continue - we always have children and always need clothes!