A Service Dog For Silvi

Silvia is a visually impaired music student with a passion for living and learning. She is one of those people who will go the extra mile and who won't stop until she has the answer. She is not afraid of trying and has shown amazing innovation and resilience in coping with her specific impairments. With the help of extensive research and communicating with numerous trainers she has successfully trained her first Guide Dog (Kenna - a beautiful yellow Labby female) entirely by herself and in so doing she has crossed a new frontier both in her life and in South Africa. Silvia has bilateral inferior retinal coloboma as well as severe nystagmus in both eyes. Her choice to train her own guide dog was a bold, fortunate and very necessary one since she managed to train a wonderfully capable companion who can successfully mitigate her visual disability and cater to her specific needs.

The time has come for Silvi to start training Kenna's successor as Kenna is getting on in years. Training a new puppy is time consuming and expensive. One has to start well in advance of your current dog's retirement. We need assistance for Silvi to continue her wonderful journey in forging a path to independence. What is even more wonderful is that Silvi is currently preparing for and will be establishing a non-profit organization in the near future to provide special task trained service dogs to individuals with medical and mobility issues. She is planning on obtaining her CPDT (certificate professional dog trainer) from Cambridge in addition to her music studies. Please help her in her quest to help others. We currently urgently need funds for her next guide dog but will also need assistance in the near future when The Golden Lead Service Dogs will open its doors.