Collaboration between the community and the SPCA remains essential
This is why fundraising has played such an important role in enabling the team to continue operating.
The Sandton SPCA continues to rely on the community in their fight against animal cruelty on a daily basis.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the SPCA has had to find new and innovative ways to host fundraisers that would hopefully get the community involved. One of these was a fundraising webinar event initiated by A-Plus Communications and Channel Wise on 6 August which raised R60 000 for the SPCA.
Representing the Sandton SPCA were vice chairperson Nafisa Desbois and adventurist Stephanie Brown. According to Desbois, the work that SPCA does will always remain important and essential for the community as a whole. This is why fundraising has played such an important role in enabling the team to continue operating. “It is online fundraising efforts such as this webinar that are hugely important to put food into needy animals’ bowls and to keep our inspectorate team mobile and ensuring that the animals in our communities are safe and protected,” she said.
Brown, a loyal supporter of the Sandton SPCA, added that one of the challenges facing the animal welfare community today was the current health and economic crisis. The adventurist is known for organising the annual SPCA Adventure Kilimanjaro Challenge.
The challenge normally runs for five days in July involving a number of individuals who summit Kilimanjaro to raise funds for the SPCA. “Every year, the Sandton SPCA looks for 25 adventurers who want to climb Kilimanjaro for a purpose,” she said. But due to the limitations brought on by the coronavirus, the team was formed to adapt thus creating the first Virtual Kilimanjaro Challenge.
“We ultimately aimed to raise R1 million for the Sandton SPCA, for the animals and communities that they serve, but that was not going to be possible with Covid-19. We did, however, manage to raise an incredible R400 000 with the virtual challenge,” Brown said.
For Brown, her journey with the SPCA began when she saw a notice on a board about a dog that was looking for a second home. Today, she is a proud supporter from the community and an active fundraiser for the SPCA. She concluded that it was challenging for the SPCA in a sense that their financial capability was so low but their responsibilities were so high.
“We are unfortunately still at a place in time when most NGOs [non-profit government organisations] are chronically under resourced. The need is so great for funds in the animal welfare sector in particular. We need to step up and be that change that they need.”
Related articles:
https://sandtonchronicle.co.za/242073/sandton-spca-needs-your-help-to-continue-their-work/
https://sandtonchronicle.co.za/277311/sandton-spca-reopens-adoptions/
