As you may know, HAART - Helping All Animals in Rural Towns in South Africa, provides Essential and Emergency Veterinary Care for the animals of Mbaula and surrounding villages, but also Education in Schools in Animal Care & Conservation, and Community Support, helping underprivileged children with a hot meal each week, families with food parcels, clothes and responding where needed to both humans and animals.

Mbaula is where all our Animal Warrior Team live, and this week whilst all of us in this region are in a Flood Disaster situation, Mbaula has been one of the areas hit the hardest requiring helicopter assistance to rescue people in trees. Tragically we have already seen the loss of life of a little boy swept away in the flood whose body was later found. 43 homes have been completely demolished, whilst 116 homes are believed to have sustained irreparable water damage. 7 dogs are known to have perished and endless numbers of cows, goats and pigs swept away in the flood.

Mbaula has a strong community spirit and the community is already pulling together, helping each other, those left homeless are sleeping at the community Church, with organisations stepping in with food parcels while we are still flood bound at the HAART Centre and unable to get out to help with our roads still deep rivers and demolished.

We are there in spirit and supporting Mbaula, but the recovery will go on long past the floods dry up, it will take a long time for these families to get back to some form of normal life and whilst, we know it won't change anything, if we can at least raise the funds to give each of these families the necessities they need to start living again, it will be something.

We are collecting clothes, bedding, basic household items locally and would like to ensure we can at least provide these families with what they need, with mattresses, toiletries, cooking items, the things many of us take for granted.

This fundraiser will go a small way to showing our support for our friends in Mbaula and helping to repair some of the damage and pain they are enduring.

Thank you for helping us to help them - it truly means so much.

With Love & Compasion for all those suffering this horrific disaster.