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WE ARE NOT SHUTTING DOWN.
A message from Tamsin Nel, Founder & Director of SA.MAST.
HOW MUCH CAN HAPPEN IN 60 DAYS? A LOT.
Just two months ago, I shared that as a result of Covid-19, local & international funding had been reduced, suspended or pulled altogether.
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THE CASE BEFORE US WAS CLEAR.
Option One
Radically reduce the scale of our operations, including the suspension of all mass animal sterilisation & primary treatment programmes. Sooner rather than later though, SA.MAST, along with everything we stand for, would curl up and die.
Option Two
Read the writing on the wall. Retrench all the staff, settle outstanding bills, pack it all up and with broken heart and tail between legs, slink quietly away.
Option Three
Fight. And I don't mean fight for our survival. Existing for the sake of existing is not a future worth fighting for. Fight for the ones who will cry themselves to sleep were SA.MAST not there to help. Fight to protect, heal, nurture and prevent the suffering of hundreds of thousands of animals and their guardians.
Fight for today and fight for a future worth championing.
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But this wasn't a fight we and our small steadfast band of supporters could take on by ourselves. So, as we blew our battle horns, the call to arms was heard far and wide. Instead of one-in-a-million, one in ten thousand stopped what they had been doing and declared:
SA.MAST MUST NOT GO QUIETLY INTO THE NIGHT!
This was the first of what will surely be many battles in a new Covid-19 era that must be won.
If you are the one-in-ten-thousand responsible for this victory, please know:
YOU HAVE GIVEN US HOPE.
NOTHING SHINES BRIGHTER THAN HOPE OR THE ONES WHO GIVE IT.
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MEANWHILE, ANOTHER BATTLE WAS BREWING AND PRESENTED ITSELF SUDDENLY AND VIOLENTLY
ON THE 24TH OF APRIL 2020:
Our animal ambulance service responds to emergency medical-assist callouts. At 10am, after reversing out, armed gunmen slipped through our gates, stormed our clinic, terrorised staff, stole what they could, ripped out cables and disabled our ability to respond to phone-in emergencies.
LESS THAN AN HOUR LATER
We were already administering morphine to a critically injured patient.
A WEEK LATER
We were planning the first of a series of out-reach campaigns for those hardest-hit by the economic devastation brought about by Covid-19.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Myself, along with my team, were in New Monwabisi Park, Khayelitsha, conducting our out-reach which included, distributing cat and dog food parcels, administering primary treatments and transporting ill, injured and sterilisation patients back to our hospital.
Once again, it was because of the one-in-ten thousand who stopped what they were doing to reached out and help, that we managed to dust ourselves off and get back to work.
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BUT THROUGHOUT ALL OF THIS COVID-19 MADNESS,
AN IMPORTANT LESSON MUST BE LEARNT
SA.MAST needs to operate not from a place of fear, but a place of strength. While we cannot predict how many more battles there will be in our future, a solid foundation of regular-giving is needed to be victorious, always.
Click here to be a one-in-ten-thousand regular-giver
Click here to donate towards keeping us safe.
We must now raise R200 000 to buy galvanised fencing,
implement double entry and exit systems and scan for weapons.
Click here to support our outreach work.
Help us buy some of the products we need listed on our Takealot Wish List.
Delivery details for Takealot:
SA.MAST Animal Clinic.
Cnr of Sizane & Sitofile Rd, Village Two North,
Khayelitsha, Cape Town, Western Cape,7783.
Contact: Tamsin Nel. 084 778 1215
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