Arriving at Mdzananda I didn't really know what to expect. I'd never been to South Africa, I had never worked at a charity clinic and I was still feeling the after effects of my long journey from London. To say it was a culture shock would be an understatement, nothing could have prepared me for the changes you see as you drive along the motorway leaving the wealth of the city behind you and move deeper into the poverty of the townships on the Cape Flats. However, I can happily say that the 6 weeks I spent working in Khayelitsha were rewarding, eye-opening, fun and unforgettable.

My name is Esme Wilson, I am 24 and from Dorset. I graduated from Glasgow Vet School in June having spent the past 5 years there studying for my degree. I never wanted to do anything else with my life, since forever I have wanted to work with animals and when I was old enough to know what a vet was, I wanted to be one. Having spent most of my summers either on farms or seeing practice, I knew I didn't want to go straight into work, I wanted a holiday! Volunteering abroad is a great way to gain valuable experience and see a bit of the world.

I found out about Mdzananda when IFAW emailed the vet school to advertise their projects and encourage final years to volunteer once they had graduated. The project sounded really worthwhile and a great way to use my skills to help a community. I mentioned the project to my boyfriend and he didn't take much persuading to come along too.

Mdzananda is a community lead animal welfare project that runs out of 6 old shipping containers on a large plot in the middle of the town. It was first set up in 1996 as a Saturday clinic doing very basic work such as worming and flea treatment, but in the last years it has progressed into a large, full time set up which can treat most patients and is very popular with the people of Khayelitsha and neighbouring townships.

Other than the project manager and the part-time vet, all the staff at the clinic live in Khayelitsha. Township lifestyle certainly takes some getting used to, there are dogs wandering around all over the place, people selling all sorts on the roadside from exhausts to sheep heads and the pace of life is very different to that of Britain. In the townships animals are not allowed on public transport, so people have to hitch a lift to the clinic or walk, sometimes great distances. They are all very inventive about how to transport their animals; from putting goats in the boot of a car, to dogs in a shopping trolley. Our daily routine was never the same, there was always something unexpected coming through the gates. Three days a week we were accompanied by the part time vet that the clinic employed, mainly to do surgery, and the rest of the time we were the only vets. It was a great way to for me to learn, get used to being on my own and to trust my own judgement.

One of the containers was the consulting room. Consultations were available throughout the day on a first come first served basis. The clinic staff would take the consults, they were perfectly competent at doing all the basics and although they've had no formal training they have learnt a lot over the years from the vets they have worked with and are very able to diagnose and treat most of the common diseases. We would assist with consults when we weren't doing surgery or if the other staff needed our advice. The majority of cases we saw were dogs (and lots of puppies!) being brought in for preventative treatments. It was brilliant to see so many people taking good care of their pets and wanting to avoid more serious disease. Of course we saw lots of dogs with more serious disease, such as Babesia and Parvovirus and with these cases we did what we could. The treatments were effective, but sometimes the disease had progressed too far and the dogs were just too sick to survive.

Unfortunately this was the harsh reality of working in the townships. Many of the dogs were brought in too late, it was as if the people had a very poor concept of time. They really didn't think a week was long for a dog to be off colour. Another container was the surgery, one half contained cages and was used as a prep area, the other half had two operating tables in. We were lucky enough to complete a lot of routine surgery during our stay. The animals were either collected the day before from neighbouring townships or the owners brought them in. The surgical facilities were basic, but more than satisfactory. As a new grad it was great to get so much surgery under my belt before beginning work back in the UK. However, our surgical skills were definitely tested on several occasions. One poor little Jack Russell came in for a caesarean; she had a huge tummy and had been in labour for over a day without producing any puppies. Unfortunately 7 out of the 8 puppies were dead, but we did manage to save one which I was very pleased about as the dog was such a good Mummy.

On another occasion the staff that had been out on mobile clinic that day brought in a dog that had been stabbed in the abdomen by a man in a drunken rampage. The dog was very shocked and scared, the surgery we performed was long and fairly complicated, she had sustained many injuries, but fortunately she came round well from the operation and was lovingly nursed by the staff. Although the clinic dealt mainly with dogs and cats, we had to be ready for anything. I treated a goat with pregnancy toxaemia, it was very thin and energy deficient and unfortunately it died. I felt so sorry for the old man that owned it, he clearly loved his goats a lot and was very proud of his flock as he took so much time telling me all about them. On another day, we arrived in the morning to be told a cow was on its way in for a caesarean. We rapidly gathered as much equipment as possible, but the farmers, of course, were on township time and didn't arrive for another hour or so.

The cow had been transported on a rickety trailer, the poor girl had been in labour for over a day and on further inspection it was found to have a 360 degree uterine torsion. We cracked on with the caesarean, but the 'farmers' were absolutely not going to help, instead they set up their deck chairs, got their sandwiches out and enjoyed the show. They could learn a lot from British farmers! The operation was fairly straightforward, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the calf was dead and the poor cow was very pale, but she did survive. The farmer came in for some more pain relief a few days later and then we never heard or saw anything else from him. As well as doing the work at the clinic, we were also involved in the mobile clinics which went out everyday into neighbouring townships. Whilst we were there, the area that was being targeted was a place ironically named 'Happy Valley'. It was a very poor area, with most people living out of tiny, basic shacks; they shared communal taps and porter loos in the streets. Most of the dogs were free to roam around and rarely had any shelter of their own.

Unfortunately a lot of people struggle to feed themselves, let alone their animals. The residents quickly learnt to recognise the truck and trailer and within minutes of arriving there would be a big flock of people around us. We would also go door to door, encouraging people to get their dogs treated for worms, fleas and ticks; to start dogs on vaccination programmes; to get their animals sterilized and also to check on the general welfare and management of the dogs and cats. This was a very successful and rewarding opportunity, ok not everyone was a great owner, but the majority of people really loved their pets and wanted the best for them, however money was usually an issue and whether they could afford a dog or not they wanted one for protection and security. All the services and treatments we provided for this community were free. So, that's my story. I could talk for hours about all the things I did and saw. It was such a valuable and rewarding experience, I felt very lucky to have been given the opportunity to do such great work and I felt like I'd seen the real Cape Town.

When you're living and working somewhere you really get to know the place and see behind all the gloss that's put on for the tourists. I think the thing I loved the most about working at the clinic was how grateful the clients were, maybe some of them weren't too impressed about being seen by a foreign white girl who thought she knew best, but I never got that impression. On the other hand, people frequently said to me 'thank you for caring', whether I could save their animal or not, all they wanted was for you to try your best and to show you cared about their pet, I will never forget that feeling.