Mdzananda Animal Clinic enters its new Financial Year Our progress, challenges, joys and hopes
Can you believe it!? Another year has flown by and we find ourselves at the start of our new financial year. We at Mdzananda would like to share our wonderful year with you. We hope that you enjoy reading about some of the things that we got up to and hope to have you standing by our sides again in the year ahead. 30th June 2016 marked the end of Mdzananda’s financial year. The past 12 months took us through a period of reaffirmation and discovery, identification and development. Even though we are still in the process of as
sessing our year end progress and challenges we have put together some information for you based on the advancement of our strategic plan and strategic directions.
The seven strategic directions of the Mdzananda Animal Clinic
Mdzananda developed seven strategic directions being: 1. Veterinary Healthcare Excellence 2. Community Care for Every Animal 3. Financial Sustainability & Partnerships 4. Optimal Staff Performance 5. Strategic Focus 6. Excellent Governance 7. Financial Accountability
Veterinary Healthcare Excellence To ensure that Mdzananda continues to provide healthcare excellence most of our standard operational procedures were reviewed. The job descriptions for clinic personnel were also reviewed and updated to ensure that all members of staff know their roles well. To ensure that our staff are skilled to deal with any case that is presented to them, in-house training was consistently given to all clinic staff by our head veterinarian and hospital manager (veterinary nurse). We were very blessed to have Dr Marc join us on the team. Dr Marc has been allocated to Mdzananda by the government from January to December 2016 under the compulsory community service program. In addition, Mdzananda filled the vacancy for the full time veterinarian. Dr Kriek, who has over 40 years of veterinary experience, has been a wonderful source of knowledge and support to all our animals and staff. A great improvement was made to our operating theater. A surgery lamp was donated to Mdzananda and was installed by one of our experienced volunteers. The use of the lamp has been of great support to our veterinary surgery work. We were excited to launch the construction of 24 new runs which started in May 2016. These runs will provide our recovering pets with places to have exercise outdoors and exposure to the sun for vitamin D. We are currently building phase one.
The Dog Trust from the UK approved a grant for Mdzananda to purchase 10 surgical kits, an x-ray digital developer, microchips, AVImark veterinarian program and 62 new cages for our recovering pets. This will hugely improve the services that we can offer and the comfort of our pets. We gratefully continue to receive financial support from the International Fund of Animal Welfare who's funds covered half our operational budget in this past financial year.
Community Care for Every Animal Modified information and education on animal care was continuously provided to animal owners at the clinic consultation rooms and by our mobile clinics. Many educational interventions were made with animal owners who showed signs of lack of animal understanding as well as cases of neglect that were presented to Mdzananda. In conjunction with the Humane Education Trust the principal who ordered Lily to be buried alive underwent an in depth educational workshop along with 11 of his teachers. This resulted in an amazing turnaround for the principal and his staff. An animal education program is now being presented at their school to their children.
Our veterinarian appeared on the local radio stations to provide information on animal care on a regular basis.
Financial Sustainability & Partnerships Mdzananda was very proud to launch a new website which allows us to easily keep the public informed. Our Facebook page has attracted many new supporters and has engaged in plenty of participation. We have also received great support from the press enabling us to participate in many radio interviews and to be featured in numerous newspaper articles.
A new board member with expertise in fundraising was recruited and a new fundraising plan was developed. A fundraising and communications intern also joined the team in June 2016.
Our longest standing partnership is with IFAW (International Fund of Animal Welfare). IFAW has made a commitment to continue supporting Mdzananda for the coming four years ending funding at the end of 2020. Investec has made a commitment to support Mdzananda with a financial contribution for the coming three years until May 2018. Uthando continues to support us with financial contributions and bringing tour groups and visitors to Mdzananda on a regular basis. Our family of individual donors (Paw Members) has grown from strength to strength. We are excited to have individuals donating to us on a monthly basis. We implemented a debit order system which now allows us to offer an easy way for individuals to donate monthly. We hope to have many more individuals join our family. We are extremely grateful to the individuals and companies who gave once off donations of various amounts. Every donation, big and small made an enormous impact on the work that we were able to do. With a year-to-year increase in expenditure and reduction of grant funds we are working on increasing our Paw Member supporters and applying for grants.
Optimal Staff Performance
Training for staff is consistently given. Staff bonding is also very important and we were very blessed to have an end of year 2015 function at the Two Oceans Aquarium and Shoreline Restaurant. Through the help of IFAW's contacts they were able to arrange a free visit and lunch for each staff member. For the first time ever all employees were provided with uniforms sponsored by Investec and IFAW. This enhanced pride for staff and staff cohesion. Continuous in house training is provided to staff members by our head veterinarian and hospital manager (veterinary nurse).
Strategic Focus
Mdzananda's vision and mission statements were developed. Vision: Companionship and community care for every animal. Mission: Enhancing well-being for animals and their community through veterinary healthcare, education, and partnerships. A five-year strategic plan for the period July 2015 – June 2020 was developed and commenced on the 1st of July 2015. The first years annual plan came to an end on 30th June 2016. The second year annual plan meeting has been scheduled for August 2016.
Excellence Governance
As a commitment to Mdzananda the board of trustees met monthly to address organisational issues. A new board member with expertise on fundraising and communications was recruited. We are currently looking to add another board member in the field of Human Resources. The board chair also met with board members from Tears and Lucky Lucy Foundation to exchange ideas and to form friendships and partnerships.
The constitution of Mdzananda was changed to reflect Mdzananda’s current status.
Financial Accountability A budget for the financial year 2015 - 2016 was developed and adhered to. A draft of our financial year budget for 2016 – 2017 has been finalised and is waiting for final approval. We were excited to employ a new bookkeeper in July 20
15 and to implement the Pastel accounting software for effective bookkeeping. An audit firm interested in auditing Mdzananda’s books on a pro bono basis has been contacted.
The lives that were helped
The dogs, cats and owners that benefited from Mdzananda's services
Every day we meet the most beautiful pets and wonderful owners in the Khayelitsha community. There will always be some abuse and neglect but we have witnessed an overall mindset change towards animals in the community over the year. It is often the opinion that people in townships should not own pets. We have a different opinion. Anyone who visits Mdzananda will have the pleasure of meeting owners who adore their animals. Lack of education and funds are what generally result in neglect, illnesses and injuries. Mdzananda works on educating the community while providing low cost veterinary services.
Pets Treated - 6 857
Operations Performed - 1 312
Purr, 6 months old Blacky, 6 months old, female
