Every year Skin Renewal’s Cape branches select a non-profit organisation in the region to support. The company and all its employees in the Cape Region dedicated one day in the year to a selected organisation as part of our corporate social investment efforts. This year, on 24 September, we had our annual CSI event.
2015’s selected charity is a non-profit organisation called Uitsig Animal Rescue Centre (NPO-090-162), based near Melkbos in the Western Cape.
Uitsig has a pro-life philosophy to animal care. At any point in time they care for approximately 500 animals, ranging from cats and dogs to horses, donkeys, chickens, rabbits and many more animal species.
The animals under their care were either stays, abandoned, surrendered, abused or neglected. These animals are then rehabilitated and receive a lot of care and love, in a well-structured, clean and protective environment. They either stay at Uitsig as lifelong inhabitants, or leave Uitsig as part of an animal adoption scheme with a strict adoption policy and process.
This centre lives its slogan: Changing lives one by one – Rescue. Rehabilitate. Re-home.
The Centre receives no government funding and relies entirely on donations, support and goodwill from the public and corporate organisations. The Centre also relies heavily on a loyal group of volunteers who bring a lot of love and attention to the facilities and animals.
Uitsig has recently moved their new premises in a farm-like environment near Melbos. The new premises allow for more animals to be cared for, as it provides 42 hectares of land. But the move meant that the site had to be reconstructed anew, requiring additional funds, contributions and labour.
ABOUT THE SKIN RENEWAL STAFF ACTIVITIES ON THE DAY
We supported the centre with the following main groups of activities on the day:
- Cleaned and revamped the Kids Play Park Area – this involved refurbishing the play park (including jungle gym, sand pits, swings and other activity spaces), some painting, some sealing, weeding and adding toys and new sand to the sand pits. This play park lies at the center of the Uitsig facilities and forms an important part of the prospective adopters’ environment.
- Established the functioning nursery – this involved weeding, composting and planting vegetables and herbs in two net-covered tunnels. The aim of the nursery is to provide food to a variety of the animals housed at the centre, to provide food to a couple of workers who live on the premises and, should there be enough left over to sell, to add to the funds flowing into the centre.
- Planted hedging between the individual husky enclosures in the husky shelter – this involved preparing the soil and planting hedging plants between the individual husky enclosures to prevent the animals from fighting with one another, and to create a natural living space for these dogs.
- Sealed wendy houses on the premises – this involved cleaning, brushing, hand-sanding and sealing (painting with a wax seal) the wendy houses that form part of the kennel and cattery facilities which Uitsig rents out to the public (to house animals when owners are on holiday) as a source of income.
In between these main activities, individuals also on a voluntary basis played, fed and assisted with some of the animals on the premises.
Skin, Body & Health Renewal would like to take this opportunity to thank the following suppliers and organisations for making this day possible:
- Our own product suppliers Genop Healthcare, Leenyx Technologies, Fagron South Africa, Allergan Pharmaceuticals and Lamelle Laboratories for together sponsoring R 35 000 towards the cause
- Louis & Melanie Rossouw who donated R1 000.00 cash
- Bridget Kitley who donated 30 plants
- FitQuest instructors who donated their time and venue and hosted a 1-day dance marathon to collect donations of animal food and accessories
- Shadowlands Wholesale Nursery who donated R600 worth of plants ·
- Melkbos Hardware who discounted on the supplies bought ·
- Starke Ayres West Coast Village who discounted supplies and donated products
- Arlindo’s Fibreglass who discounted the repairs to the playground equipment ·
- Visser Garden Services who discounted the grass bought ·
- Supa Quick Kleinmond who donated tyres
To see some pictures & information of the day, visit the Uitsig Animal Rescue Centre Facebook page.
Thank you for making a difference!