Our Vision
Thembalethu Care Organisation's vision is for an empowered community, self-sustained, filled with hope to reach their full potential.
Motivated and inspired by the love of Christ, we holistically educate, encourage and empower families and the community in response to HIV, community health and gender-based violence issues.
Motivated and inspired by the love of Christ, we holistically educate, encourage and empower families and the community in response to HIV, community health and gender-based violence issues.
Thembalethu Care Organization is a Christian community-based South African non-profit organization dedicated to caring for the community in the midst of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and poverty. Thembalethu works to share the hope we have with the sick, orphaned and vulnerable in the Amangwe community in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. Our vision is to share God’s love, raise awareness, promote and support loving care to those infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty.
Thembalethu means ’our hope’ in isiZulu. We seek to practically share the HOPE and LOVE we have in Jesus in with the community around us.
In an area that has over 27% of the adult population infected by HIV and no family untouched, the need for hope and care is vast. To address the communities needs, our core work is to provide holistic hospice home-based care and support orphaned and vulnerable children. We also serve as a community resource center for the deep rural community to better access information and resources.
Thembalethu Care Organisation provides free holistic home-based hospice care and support to those with life-limiting conditions. We support orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, working to educate and support an HIV free future for all. We also empower the community with education and access to resources.
Thembalethu means ’our hope’ in isiZulu. We seek to practically share the HOPE and LOVE we have in Jesus in with the community around us.
In an area that has over 27% of the adult population infected by HIV and no family untouched, the need for hope and care is vast. To address the communities needs, our core work is to provide holistic hospice home-based care and support orphaned and vulnerable children. We also serve as a community resource center for the deep rural community to better access information and resources.
Thembalethu Care Organisation provides free holistic home-based hospice care and support to those with life-limiting conditions. We support orphaned and vulnerable children and their families, working to educate and support an HIV free future for all. We also empower the community with education and access to resources.
Our Team
In addition to the management team, Thembalethu has a professional staff component made up of a nurse, social worker, community caregivers and office administrator.
Xoli Msimanga (Director)
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Thobile Manatha (Admin Manager)
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Betsy Meyer (Storyteller)
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Our History
Thembalethu Care Organisation was initiated in late 2006 as various community-minded women came together seeking to respond to the impacts of the HIV epidemic. PZ “Xoli” Msimanga and Betsy (Elfers) Meyer joined together to provide assistance to a small local network women who were caring for their dying HIV infected neighbours. Thembalethu was founded on the premise responding holistically with care and hope to the needs created by the HIV epidemic and poverty.
Our work began with start-up funds from Winterton Methodist Church. In our earliest years, we visited homes with a pick-up truck (bakkie), going door-to-door visiting the sick and orphaned, educating the community about HIV. We trained home-based caregivers, organized home care supplies, food and other tangible assistance to help the desperately ill patients and their children left behind.
In late 2009, the local councilor and chief jointly gave us a piece of land in the centre of the Injesuthi Valley. Through generous donations of two buildings, we now use this space for meetings and trainings, and as a community centre to bring resources closer to the deep rural community who otherwise struggles to access services.
Thembalethu Care Organization works in Amangwe Tribal Area, in the Central Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. It is a deep rural area with few supportive resources, high unemployment and deep levels of poverty.
We are a Christian faith-based non-profit organization that seeks to share God’s love, care and goodness to the Amangwe community and beyond.
Our work began with start-up funds from Winterton Methodist Church. In our earliest years, we visited homes with a pick-up truck (bakkie), going door-to-door visiting the sick and orphaned, educating the community about HIV. We trained home-based caregivers, organized home care supplies, food and other tangible assistance to help the desperately ill patients and their children left behind.
In late 2009, the local councilor and chief jointly gave us a piece of land in the centre of the Injesuthi Valley. Through generous donations of two buildings, we now use this space for meetings and trainings, and as a community centre to bring resources closer to the deep rural community who otherwise struggles to access services.
Thembalethu Care Organization works in Amangwe Tribal Area, in the Central Drakensberg of KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. It is a deep rural area with few supportive resources, high unemployment and deep levels of poverty.
We are a Christian faith-based non-profit organization that seeks to share God’s love, care and goodness to the Amangwe community and beyond.
Watch a virtual presentation from 17 May 2020 to University Presbyterian Church
