News

The expansion in the Foundation's work in the past 12 months has trebled the staff capacity with around 100 people now in full-time employment, 92% of whom are local. The construction of a dozen clinics and other buildings has also created a further 100 temporary jobs. This area is likely to increase significantly through the construction of a new R50 million Training and Community Centre at Hobeni, part of which will include an enterprise creation programme. 

Participants in DWF’s Spring Training Camp were treated to a surprise visit from the Eastern Cape’s Health Chief,  Dr Siva Pillay.  The 26 delegates - including Clinical Managers, HIV & TB doctors, HIV Site Managers, Project Managers and Hospital Managers working with DWF’s health programme – cheered as Dr Pillay walked into the camp, having travelled two hours on Mbashe’s dirt roads to be there.  

43 Teachers and Principals have praised DWF's Training Programme, which is now entering its fifth month. The Masakhane 100 Schools Programme has already reached 26 schools just 15 months since the launch.

The Training Camps last 2 - 3 days with around 5 or 6 facilitators and a dozen teachers or Principals from schools in the Mbashe area. Every aspect of a school's development from specialised subjects in the curriculum, to wider management issues and challenges form the content of the workshops.

Donald Woods died on 19 August, 10 years ago in Surrey, England following a two-year battle with cancer. His ashes were laid to rest in East London, Eastern Cape, next to his son, Lindsay, who died in infancy.

His family pay tribute through the work and achievements of the Foundation in health and education in the area where he was born. Below is a list of his own achievements, publications and awards.

Several runners took to the streets of London to raise thousands of pounds in the annual London 10 km run. Among the DWF team was Trevor Phillips, former candidate for the Mayor of London.

Alongside this event, Graham Tuckwell also cycled a key stage of the Tour de France with his fundraising matched by an incredible climb to the Marmotte Alpine summit. This combined effort raised £7,000 for the Foundation's orphans and vulnerable children programme in the Eastern Cape.

The second DWF Training Camp was held in April for the expanded HIV-TB Programme in multiple sites across the Eastern Cape. The DWF Core Team, Hospital Managers, Chief Medical Officers, HIV & TB Doctors, HIV Site Managers, HIV-TB Project Managers and senior project specialists came together in Cwebe Forest to initiate the business plan and debate new developments in HIV & TB.

A new training centre is to be built to support health, education, skills training, professional development, enterprise intitatives, environmental partnerships and community-building in the heart of Mbashe, in the former Transkei.

The Foundation has acquired a site at Hobeni, with plans to build accommodation, catering and social facilities as part of a wider multi-facted training facility to service social development and community-building not only in the Xhora area, but also supporting a wide range of training initiatives all over the former Transkei.

The first DWF Training Camp this month lauched the expanded HIV-TB Programme in multiple sites across the Eastern Cape. The DWF Core Team, Hospital Managers, Chief Medical Officers, HIV & TB Doctors, HIV Site Managers, HIV-TB Project Managers and senior project specialists came together in Cwebe Forest to initiate the business plan and debate new developments in HIV & TB.

The Foundation's HIV-TB programme is set to expand to several sites across the Eastern Cape covering an area from O.R.Tambo to Cacadu 500 kms west and Ft Grey on the coast to Senqu 300 kms north. Building on the success of the Madwaleni HIV Programme, recruitment is underway for the above primary programme start-ups later this year in Senqu, O.R.Tambo and Amathole, but with smaller projects in Nxuba and Camdeboo in development.

The Donald Woods Foundation is announcing an expansion in our education programme with projects now covering all four corners of South Africa, from Cape Town to Gauteng, kwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. Our new schools initiative will expand our partnership with the Department of Education to include 14 schools in the first phase.

Several runners represented the Donald Woods Foundation in this year's London 10km Run through central London. They raised £6,000. This will fund over 1500 HIV tests, which will enable many to live long and active lives through proper treatment, as well as prevent many countless others from contracting HIV in the process, through the programme's counselling, awareness and prevention programme.

The Donald Woods Foundation is taking the Madwaleni HIV outreach to the next level with the provision of two 4x4 patient transport vehicles in an area in desperate need of health access. The vehicles have been adapted to provide seats for 14 people, with two of the seats adaptable to make a perfectly flat bed for a stretcher. These vehicles will go some considerable distance to expanding the reach of life-saving services in the Madwaleni HIV Programme.

"Eleven Attackers" rose to claim the spoils as winners of the inaugural play-off final of the Hobeni League for 2009. The result after 90 minutes was a 1 - 0 victory with a late goal in the second half, playing at their home ground at Lower Manganyela. The league was established in partnership between the Donald Woods Foundation and the communities in and around Hobeni, with eleven teams contesting the trophy in its first season.

Dirt roads, steep hills and high taxi fares didn't prevent 19 disabled people coming together from all over Xhora district to participate in the historic first ever wheelchair race at Madwaleni. One participant even travelled from St Barnabas Hospital 130kms away to prove that with support, previous barriers to social inclusion can be overcome.

Following on from the progress at Madwaleni by the doctors, nursing and programme staff in the face of significant obstacles, the alumni are now lining up to give what support they can for the staff and partners of the Madwaleni Hospital and Clinics in the Mbashe area of the Eastern Cape - the very poorest area in the whole country. This initiative for Madwaleni's development will include a vehicle for friends, supporters and patrons to join the alumni in areas of recruitment, succession planning, advocacy and partnership in training, research and other academic links across South Africa and internationally.

Sarah Brown hosted a function at No.10 Downing Street in honour of the Donald Woods Foundation with Archbishop Desmond Tutu as guest speaker. Around 70 people with links to development work in Africa were in attendance at a function which also featured a brief presentation of the Foundation's work.

80 runners and walkers took to the dirt this month to retrace Nelson Mandela's 34 km walk to access healthcare. This is the Foundation's second annual Qunu to Miller Mission Challenge, organised to highlight the difficulty people face when accessing healthcare in rural areas. Mandela was seven years old when he walked the distance with his mother, to go and see Doctor Lex Soga, the same doctor who presided over the birth of Donald Woods 8 years later, just a few miles down the road from Miller Mission.

The Donald Woods Foundation has partnered with a small project near Hobeni, Mbashe, which combines permaculture gardening / farming with caring for people with special needs, and in particular, the mentally disabled, some of whom have suffered abuse and contracted HIV in the process.

The Donald Woods Foundation has launched a new recruitment drive to capacitate the expanding HIV Programme in Mbashe, with a number of positions being advertised in the Daily Dispatch over the next few weeks, as well as on the Foundation website's new "Recruitment Online" page.

The Donald Woods Foundation launched its first ever "Qunu ~ Miller Mission Challege" when South Nottingham College students ran 34 kms in relay to highlight the hardship endured by people living in rural areas like Mbashe, who have to walk long distances to access healthcare. This route retraced Mandela's walk (aged 7) with his mother in 1925 from Qunu to Miller Mission to see Dr Lex Soga. Next to the govt-built Soga Clinic at Miller Mission, the Donald Woods Foundation has completed a R200k refurbishment of a crumbling building.

The Donald Woods Foundation's drive to decentralise health services continues with the completion of 4 new HIV Clinics and one expansion - all funded by the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF). A central component of our health programme, is to roll-out access to healthcare from the centre to where people live, so they don't have to walk several hours and sometimes days to access healthcare.

Nelson Mandela was the guest at the unveiling of a statue in his honour in Parliament Square, London. The unveiling was performed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Wendy Woods and Mayor Ken Livingstone. The project was initiated by the late Donald Woods and carried forward by Richard Attenborough.

Excited bidding and laughter surrounded the auctioning for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's pyjamas, among the many items to go under the hammer at the Foundation's inaugural event on 9 November, with stirring speeches from Richard Attenborough and Peter Hain (pictured with Lady Attenborough and Foundation Chair, Wendy Woods).

Richard Attenborough joins Secretary of State, Peter Hain as guest speakers at the Donald Woods Foundation's Charity Ball on 9th November in Trafalgar Square. The purpose of the event is to raise money for the Foundation's Orphans and Vulnerable Children Programme in the Mbashe region of the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Container loads of books and eduational materials have arrived at schools in the Mbashe region. Pictured are school-children from Hobeni School where the Foundation's Schools Programme is set to develop.