Mdzananda Animal Clinic provides veterinary services to the community of Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town, South Africa. The project provides vaccinations, anti-parasitic applications, de-worming, mange and billary treatments and other veterinary services.

After many years of working within the community, we continue with a holistic approach to animal care. What we mean by this is that although sterilisation is important, we feel that it is irresponsible to go into a community and take animals for sterilisation without first building a relationship of trust with the community and ensuring that people have healthy pets.

Mdzananda's mobile clinics visit local communities to introduce our services to them and and we treat their pets and educate owners about the benefits of good pet care. Once we have gained their trust we can introduce the concept of sterilisation. All pets are checked to ensure they do not suffer from some life threatening illness or disease that might compromise their chance of survival intra- or post-operatively. Once pets are sterilised, we are able to continue to provide long term veterinary care to keep pets healthy and able to lead vital, happy lives.

Love the people and animals @ Mdzananda

Bank Details:
Account name: Mdzananda Animal Clinic
Bank: Standard Bank Rondebosch
Branch code: 025009
Bank Account Number: 075595710
Bank transit (SWIFT) Number: SBZAZAJJ

Rene le Roux recently contacted us to ask for assistance in feeding a skinny, mangy dog from New Rest in Guguletu which faces onto the N2 highway (just before the airport in the direction of Somerset West). Such is Rene's dedication and compassion for this dog that she had been feeding it on a regular basis for almost two months.

Both she and her partner feed, trap and sterilise various colonies of feral cats in various parts of Cape Town. They go out to help animals in need at their own expense and in their leisure time which is commendable. In spite of the challenges of this work, they carry on, most likely without any acknowledgement from anyone except for the gratitude of the cats that they help.

Through Rene's intervention, we went on a mission to locate the shacks in the New Rest and Europe settlements of Guguletu along the N2. When we finally accessed this community, we were all shocked to discover the appalling circumstances in which the people and animals live. The residents were delighted by our visit and said they do not receive any veterinary services.

Many dogs in the area are pregnant and the community said they were desperate to have their dogs sterilised. Although our focus area is Khayelitsha, there is no way we will let them down and we have put in place a plan to help the pet owners and their dogs in these areas. More of this initiative in our next newsletter.

In April Mdzananda's mobile clinics made their first visit
to the New Rest and Europe informal settlements of Gugulethu.
An action plan is in place to uplift the health of the pets in
these areas, and Mdzananda will be sterilising dogs and
cats as soon as they are fit for surgery.

According to residents this is the first time ever they have had access to veterinary services.

Mdzananda's sterilisation services are offered entirely free to residents of the Khayalitsha community. It costs us R125.00 to sterilise a dog and this service includes:
- Sterilisation by Mdzananda's veterinarian or one of our volunteer veterinarians.
- Collection and delivery of the dog.
- A night in hospital, including pain killers and anti-biotic.
- Deworming, vaccination and anti-parasitic Top Spot application.

Please consider helping us to sterilise the pet population of Khayalitsha by contributing to Mdzananda.

Please note that it is Mdzananda's policy that all dogs admitted for sterilisations are vaccinated prior to surgery. We do not believe in putting pets at risk by subjecting them to serious surgery without being vaccinated against distemper and parvo-virus.

We are delighted to have Dr Daryl Hunt back in the fold as a volunteer. Dr Hunt returned to Cape Town from Johannesburg recently. Dr Mario van Ransburg, another old friend and volunteer, has also been doing surgery for us since he returned from his veterinary job in the UK on a working holiday.

Dr Robyn McCann, is a welcome new face. Robyn is a State Veterinarian in the Provincial Veterinary Laboratory at Elsenberg, near Stellenbosch and has started volunteering at our clinic over weekends. Dr Gininda Msiza, Chief Director Veterinary Services for the Western Cape Department of Agriculture, has also provided surgical support for us this month.

While our overseas volunteer programme has slowed down a little at the moment, we continue to have ongoing interest from veterinarians, vet nurses and individuals wanting to get involved with our volunteer programme. Our next batch of overseas vets arrives in August and then it is all systems go with visiting vets until late December.

Mdzananda's vibrant volunteer programme is something we are extremely proud off and veterinary professionals - both local and international - who would like to help are welcome to make contact with us via lhaylett@ifaw.org to find out more.

Mdzananda continues to be a popular choice for volunteer vets
willing to lend a hand to help township pets. Dr Robyn McCann,
is a new face at our clinic, and has started treating and sterilising pets in her spare time on weekends.

Thanks to Ms Rowan and Mr and Mrs Scott for their ongoing and very generous support of our clinic. They have believed in and supported our project since Mdzananda first started, 13 years ago.

Patrick Ashworth from Ashworth Africa Tours & Safari has always displayed his ongoing loyalty and support to our project. His company has recently sponsored a dvd player, GPS and further funds to fence part of our property, bought benches for the consulting area, a catchpole, cat trap and cauterising equipment. Thanks Patrick!

James Fernie the director of 'Uthando' visits our project on a regular basis. We were delighted at the R10,000 that Uthando gave us to buy medical supplies.

Will Mee, a South African who now lives and works in San Francisco, visited Cape Town recently to participate in the Cape Argus cycle tour. While here he made contact with Mdzananda via Greater Good SA and offered his not inconsiderable computer skills to network our computers to the Micro-vet programme. Will gave five-days of his valuable holiday time to sort out our computers and we are tremendously grateful to him - we certainly couldn't have afforded his skills, but what a difference they have made to the efficient running of our clinic. Hip, hip hoorah to Will! Find out how to help with Greater Good SA

It's amazing what a massive load of compost has done for our garden. In spite of autumn's bite, our garden is definitely thriving.

Brian and Michelle Gilbert of Milnerton made us lots of cuttings for our garden. As we planted each plant, we were reminded of their love, care and dedication to uplifting the lives of animals.

We have also planted loads of vegetables: cabbage, spinach, carrots, bush and broad beans, carrots, artichokes, chillies and peppers. The clinic is also surrounded by an array of coloured flowers. Many of our clients and the neighbours compliment us on our garden.

Juta Mbanyana and Jane Levinson are the gardeners
in the Mdzananda team. Our entirely organic
vegetable garden supplies our staff and their
families with a constant supply of healthy veggies.

Our client load at clinic increased significantly during the first quarter of this year. We are proud to have sterilised no less than 343 dogs and cats between January and the end of March 2009, and to have provided primary vet care treatments to 2,532 dogs and cats at our clinic.
Our mobiles provided primary vet care to 2, 210 dogs and cats in our outreach programme.

If you live in Cape Town and would like to join us we still need volunteers to assist with various things such as ushering participants to judging points and manning the registration and refreshments table, amongst other duties. We would love to have you join us for this fun-filled event to give the dogs in Khayelitsha an opportunity to shine.

If you can assist with any of the following, please be in contact with Jane Levinson - Mdzananda@absamail.co.za or telephone the clinic on (021) 367 2302.

- first aiders
- gazebos for shade (and in case of rain)
- dog food donations as prizes
- collars and leads for all participating dogs
- kennels as prizes for winning dogs

Mdzananda will be holding a community dog Show
on Saturday the 30th May

Our project coordinator Jane Levinson appeared on Bush Radio's Sakhisizwe - Building the Nation programme on April 7th. Bush Radio 89.5 is affectionately known as the "the mother of community radio in Africa" and sustains itself through the generosity of people from around the world. As a proudly committed community project Mdzananda was thrilled to be given the opportunity to interact with Capetonians via Bush Radio. We discussed the vital need for pet sterilisation, primary health care and also spread the message of humane education.

Find out more about our interview here