I have been a resident of Weltevreden Park for more than 30 years, and have enjoyed many of the developments and changes in the area over the years.
We have also experienced and battled through many challenges over time, the most significant and recent probably the E46 water project that missed several completion deadlines and dragged on forever! At present, like our entire country, we are battling the devastating effects of the coronavirus.
Already we see malls going quiet and businesses all around us closing down. I find it so disconcerting to see chairs and tables stacked up in dark spaces where we used to enjoy a lovely cappuccino, quick breakfast while shopping, or a leisurely lunch or dinner. Other spaces where we used to browse through the merchandise now have their windows covered by property owner logos and To Let signs. Utterly depressing, and even anxiety-provoking.
It seems life as we know it now is not as pleasant in many ways as we used to know it. For this reason, I believe many of us drink up any morsel of good news and positivity that we become aware of ? and our local newspaper has highlighted a number of these over the lockdown period.
I am particularly thrilled about the coverage that our paper is giving to matters relating to animals, especially those who are neglected, abused and abandoned. We know that the difficult circumstances that many animal owners are dealing with at present impact their pets and other animals in a huge way. And so often proactive action is not taken with these poor animals, with the result that they are simply left to suffer. It is true that our government is not concerned with animal welfare, which leaves us – the community – to be alert and double up our efforts to ensure that hapless animals in our area are supported to the extent that they can lead a safe, healthy and even loved life. This requires our money and our attention and involvement, and it would appear that our community shines in this regard!
I read with absolute gratitude and amazement the huge contributions made by a variety of people, individual and corporate, over the past few months. There are young girls who have created accounts and opportunities for people to help support rescued animals, e.g. Celeste Vermeulen and Dominique Dos Ramos. There are also organisations such as Food Lover?s Market, AfriForum, Saai, Solidarity’s Helping Hand, EkoKleen, as well as Top Tail and Enerpets that have recently come to the fore to support animals in need. Even gaming organisations such as Darkside Gaming, Synergetix and Zooks Gaming pitched in with assistance.
Places like Food Lover’s Market also makes consistent food contributions to an elephant sanctuary in Broederstroom that had run into difficulties during the lockdown period
.My objective with this letter – apart from deeply acknowledging the donors I have mentioned, as well as the many others that I am not even aware of with a HUGE thank you! is to encourage and remind the residents in our area to SUPPORT LOCAL. We need to do so to ensure that when the Covid-19 situation is less threatening (yes, we hope that day will come), and lockdown restrictions are lifted, there will indeed be a few favourite take-outs, restaurants and nice shops and places of leisure, etc for us to go back to. But they certainly won’t be there if we hide inside and leave it up to ‘others’ to keep supporting them through the lockdown. And we should start with those organisations that have and are showing their willingness to support others in need like our animals.
Of course we know that the Covid-19 infection danger is real and not to be under-estimated, but then we also have access to scientific information to use in keeping ourselves safe when we are out there shopping, filling our cars, going to the doctor, etc. just like the hundreds of medical and retail personnel are doing every day. South Africa is a country of people with tremendous resilience and selfless support of each other, and it is great to see that spirit reflected in our own community!
