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The “Yelanga Dog” project, headed by NetAP advisory board member Dr. Simone Niederhäuser, is dedicated to animal welfare in the townships of Johannesburg, South Africa.
In this poverty-stricken area, the local organization CLAW (Community Led Animal Welfare) has been providing veterinary service for the poverty-stricken communities on the outskirts of the city for over 20 years. At the clinic in Durban Deep, sick animals are treated and homeless dogs and cats are given a temporary home. CLAW runs a mobile veterinary clinic for people who cannot afford transportation to the vet and also takes care of the placement of healthy animals. Long lines of people wait by the roadside to have their furry friends examined and vaccinated. CLAW is a small oasis of kindness and charity in the middle of a wasteland of poverty and lack of future.
We support CLAW through annual local missions in which Swiss vets treat and castrate animals that would otherwise hardly have the chance to be brought to a vet. Even if the facilities and equipment are not what we are used to in a Swiss veterinary clinic and we always have to reckon with the unexpected, the animals should not suffer under any circumstances. The teams take a lot of equipment with them (instruments, suture material, surgical dressings and much more), but some things have to be improvised on site. This is not always easy. At times there is no electricity, and sometimes there is a lack of water. Then there are heavy thunderstorms or it is very hot. But so far the emergency services have overcome every challenge! The gratitude of the local population is enormous. Some have walked for miles – carrying their dog in their arms or in a wheelbarrow – to find help. The beaming faces when the beloved animal is then helped make up for any inconvenience. Humble, loving, caring – these are the pet owners who take advantage of the team’s free services. This is where our help comes in.
