Mdzananda Animal Clinic started from humble beginnings when Mr Joe pushed a trolley with water buckets around the community of Khayelitsha to bath and feed the community’s pets. With the help of volunteers and funds, the clinic was founded in 1996, and today, it is fully functional and operates six days a week.
To continue with the amazing work they do in the community, Mdzananda continuously has fundraising drives and a variety of projects.
Various projects
One of Mdzananda’s projects is a clinic, which consists of consulting rooms, a hospital and an operating theatre. “We have a homeless shelter for abandoned and stray pets needing new homes. Our community outreach programme consists of mobile clinics and an animal ambulance, both serving the greater community where people are too far from our clinic to bring their pets to us or where people don’t have transport to get to us,” says Marcelle du Plessis, Fundraising and Communications Executive at Mdzananda Animal Clinic.
She adds that their education programmes include door-to-door education, individual education with each person who goes to the clinic, education on mobile clinics with clients and school education. “We also have a sterilisation-only clinic, which is a separate facility that only focuses on sterilisation,” says Marcelle.
She adds that two programmes have recently launched. The first is the inspectorate programme, where they now have three inspectors who can investigate neglect and cruelty. “We have also launched a fencing programme where we build fences for people in the community who do not have safe yards for their pets. This allows them to keep their pets instead of having to hand them over to our shelter out of fear for their safety.”
Fundraising
Fundraising is always a challenging situation for any welfare organisation, and it is no different for Mdzananda. “Our budget went up by 50% from last year due to us taking over another organisation (SA MAST) to prevent it from shutting down. We now need a vast amount of increased funds, and places to apply for funding are running dry.
“We have a number of grant organisations supporting us and a few trusts, for which we are extremely grateful. Such funds are, however, limited and not sufficient to run the organisation. We highly rely on individuals to become monthly donors, which we call Paw Members or Steri Suppawters,” says Marcelle.
She explains that monthly Paw Member donations go towards providing medical treatment and care to hundreds of animals in the clinic, and Steri Suppawter donations go to sterilising these animals. “We urge people to donate anything as small as R50 per month, and they can sign up by heading to www.mdzanandasecure.co.za. They will also receive a special certificate for becoming a Paw Member or Steri Suppawter, and they can know that their contribution is making a great difference in the lives of many Khayelitsha pets,” says Marcelle.
An example of one of the clinic’s fundraisers is Paws on the Promenade, which was held on 17 March. This is a dog walk that started at the Mouille Point Lighthouse and stretched to the Sea Point swimming pool and back. The walk started at 9am and tickets could be bought on the day.
Future plans
Marcelle says that the clinic plans on launching a puppy-child programme in the next three years, where the clinic will partner a child with a puppy so they can grow together. “They will have weekly classes at Mdzananda and learn all about how to care for their dog. The child’s parents will adopt the dog into the family.
“We believe that children learn great skills by caring for animals, such as companionship, love, respect for life, responsibility and so much more. Through this, we are not just socialising dogs and creating homes for them, but we will also be creating a more compassionate younger generation,” adds Marcelle.
They also desperately hope to build a brick-and-mortar clinic one day, but this requires an enormous amount of funding and support. Currently, the clinic runs out of ad hoc structures and refurbished shipping containers and a specialised custom-built animal clinic will allow the veterinarians and animal carers to provide much better quality care for the animals.
“We hope that some corporate donors or grant organisations might come on board to make this massive difference in the lives of thousands of animals, as we are the only animal clinic and shelter in Khayelitsha and close surrounding communities and responsible for an estimated 300,000 companion animals in the community,” concludes Marcelle.
