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Seeking "Tremendous Hearts"
Do our projects speak to you? Would you would like to learn more about becoming a Tremendous Hearts volunteer professional? We seek professionals who can volunteer for 6-12 months on projects supporting organizations like Emasithandane, Home from Home, Sibongile, and the Masazane Soup Kitchen. Please contact us to learn more.
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Greetings!
Happy New Year! 2011 was an exciting, productive year for Tremendous Hearts. We built a team of great volunteers who are now on the ground working tirelessly with South Africa's orphans and vulnerable children, and the local organizations devoted to helping them thrive. Our recruiting efforts have paid off for this year as well, and we anticipate more great things from the volunteers heading our way in 2012. In Cape Town, we also continued building strong community relationships that are enhancing our ability to contribute. And back in the U.S., Tremendous Hearts' amazing team of volunteers and donors are taking us to the next level through their hard work, expertise, and funding.
The Tremendous Hearts community is growing, as we hoped it would, and is making a difference as we planned - one volunteer professional, one caregiver, one child at a time. Thank you for your continued support in 2012!
Sincerely,
Marilyn
Marilyn E. Votaw
Founder
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| The Latest Tremendous Hearts to Join Our Team
Kathleen Callahan joins Tremendous Hearts from Minnesota, where she recently retired from a career in investment management and state government. Early in her career, she served as the Deputy Commissioner of Trade and Economic Development for Minnesota. Over the years, she has also devoted much of her time to volunteer work with such organizations as the Frogtown Family Resource Center, the Greater Twin Cities YMCA, the Minnesota Opera, and the Friends of the St. Paul Library. Tremendous Hearts is thrilled that she is now putting that spirit of volunteerism to work for the vulnerable children of South Africa.
In addition to sharing her financial systems expertise with the Philani Nutrition Centre in Khayelitsha, Kathleen will provide after-school academic support for the children at Home from Home, which provides supported and supervised community-based foster care for orphans and vulnerable children.
Our 2011 team of Tremendous Hearts volunteers has already made an impact at the organization. Educators Jason Musselman and Rebecca Laders also worked with the Home from Home children in 2011, providing academic and social support to help them thrive in school after years of interrupted educational. Kathleen will take the torch and continue to mentor them.
Becky Molinini will join our Sibongile team in 2012. She is returning to Cape Town as a Tremendous Hearts volunteer professional, after she found her eight-week stint with another organization in early 2011 was too short. A physical therapist, Becky currently works at a trauma hospital in North Carolina, where she helps children and adults with acute medical conditions. She is responsible for providing individualized therapy services to the hospital's patients with neurological, orthopedic, and cardiovascular impairments.
In 2011, working through another organization, Becky provided the children of Sibongile with developmental stimulation through play, and transferred her knowledge to the Sibongile staff so that these services could continue to benefit the children long-term. We expect that Becky will arrive in June 2012, and overlap with Tremendous Hearts volunteer, Johan de Besche. The goal is to transition the work he has been doing with the children and caregivers at Sibongile to Becky. The Sibongile team is eagerly awaiting the arrival of an old friend!
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The Power of Film
Tremendous Hearts volunteer professionals Austin de Besche and Sara Stackhouse are busy working on two important film projects. They are producing a short film that Sibongile can use to garner support for its programs and the children they support. The Sibongile film will illustrate for potential donors and volunteers how the Sibongile model of care works and what the organization's needs are.
Austin and Sara, with pro bono editing support from Angelica Brisk in Massachusetts, are also producing a short film about Tremendous Hearts and our volunteer professionals' work in Cape Town.
With photography and filming now complete, we are beginning to see the high quality of these films and the important impact they will make, significantly raising the fundraising capabilities of both Sibongile and Tremendous Hearts. We are grateful to benefit from the talent of our experienced filmmaking team and are looking forward to sharing the films with you upon their completion.
Read more about Austin and Sara
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School Placement for Sibongile Child
None of the children at Sibongile Day and Night Care Center, where Johan de Besche is volunteering, have been able to go to school in the seven years since the Center was started.
When Johan started work at Sibongile, he immediately noted that some of the children are cognitively intact and would benefit from school placement. He contacted numerous individuals and agencies, attempting to begin the process of getting children admitted to school, all without success. Finally, an occupational therapist at Red Cross Hospital (the Cape Town pediatric specialty hospital) found a physician's referral for school placement languishing in one of the Sibongile children's file. "DI"* had been recommended for Tembaletu School months ago, but phone calls had gone unanswered so no further action had been taken. With the help of the OT, an appointment was scheduled and Johan accompanied DI on his admission assessment. After Johan advocated for DI through another round of communication lapses, the school notified Sibongile in January that the decision was in the hands of the Department of Education, and DI might start school in March. Johan called a contact at the Department of Education, and DI started attending Tembaletu School on January 25! Congratulations DI!
*Name changed to protect child's privacy
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Medical Records Improving Care
 Janet and Gary Clarke traveled from Massachusetts to spend the month of November working at the Emasithandane Children's Home ("Emasi") in Nyanga. A retired registered nurse and retired pilot, respectively, Janet and Gary teamed up with Emasi's Hazel Maposela to administer a detailed health assessment of the 34 children living there. Leveraging donations by their friends, family, and South Church in Andover (UCC) back home, they then created complete medical records with current photographs of each child.
Their wonderful news is that the majority of the children were healthy and happy, despite the poverty and vulnerable beginnings from which they come. However, the team identified serious abnormal cardiac and respiratory findings in two children and a significant developmental delay in two more, for which the staff is now seeking medical treatment. In addition, Janet and Gary identified important needs for vision testing, dental work, an eye surgery, and an HIV evaluation. They also purchased new mattresses and bedding to help alleviate the chronic problem of scabies in the Home.
In only one month, Janet and Gary made a tremendous impact on the community and its most vulnerable children. The Emasi staff was provided with a baseline health evaluation for the Home's children, several actionable recommendations on specific issues that were found, and the ability to formally track ongoing medical treatment and developmental issues. This will assist the Emasi staff in providing improved and proactive care.
"[Janet and Gary], the time you spent with us improved our operations and our children's lives. Your commitment is incredibly helpful and will allow us to reach our goals." ~ Mbuyisi Sithole, Emasi staff member
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A Soup Kitchen in the Making
 Tremendous Hearts' founder Marilyn Votaw is the lead volunteer on the Masazane Soup Kitchen project in the Mbekweni township near Paarl. This project is jointly sponsored by Tremendous Hearts and the Rondebosch United Church community to support six Mbekweni "goGogetters," grandmothers who each care for 20-30 orphans and extremely vulnerable children.
Historically, these women have been raising the children in their own homes with only their old age pensions, nominal local assistance, and a few small government grants. They often go hungry, and sometimes must choose between food and paying for the uniforms required for each child to attend school.
Tremendous Hearts and the Rondebosch United Church team are creating the Masazane Soup Kitchen with the primary goal of providing food security for these large foster families, so they do not need to choose between eating and an education.
In 2011, the team secured the funding needed to purchase kitchen equipment for the soup kitchen and acquired a shipping container, which will provide kitchen space. In addition, the team provided the goGos and the 145 children in their care with Christmas gifts and holiday food parcels. In 2012, the team is working hard to identify a sustainable, local source of donated food and formally open the soup kitchen, so that these courageous women and their foster families do not continue to experience hunger.
The team is very energized by the project's progress and possibilities, and will continue to update our Tremendous Hearts friends on this exciting project.
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Our Mission
Based in Cape Town, South Africa and Arlington, MA, Tremendous Hearts' provides volunteer professionals who commit to at least six months of service to South African children's homes and other agencies that care for orphaned, abused, neglected and vulnerable children. Our volunteers provide capacity building services and technical assistance to improve the standard of care for vulnerable children in South Africa. For more information, visit www.tremendoushearts.org.
Tremendous Hearts, Inc. is exempt from tax under Section 501(c)3 of the Internal Revenue Code. Your donation is tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. Please consult your tax professional for advice. EIN: 26-2447884
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