The Porcupine Quill Project

Fundraising campaign by Jennifer Deverson
  • US$134.00
    raised of $16,200.00 goal goal
0% Funded
5 Donors
Raised offline: $93.00
Total: $227.00

No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities

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So a male dog and a female dog get together and 9 weeks later produce 4 puppies (ah cute). If 2 of these puppies grow up and have their own litters of 4 puppies 9 months later, and the original male and female also have another 4 puppies in this time frame then in less than a year, 2 dogs have multiplied to become 18 (not so cute). Imagine if there were 20 intact female dogs in community, how about 350........

This is the reality in Witsand, an informal settlement on the edge of Atlantis where the dogs and cats have no access to basic veterinary healthcare. With an unemployment rate of over 80% and shockingly high levels of violence and crime, Witsand is a community in desperate need. It is here that The Porcupine Quill Project (PQP) will start its work and your donation can make this happen.

"It is a long-established fact that there is a direct relationship between animal cruelty and violence within communities. Access to basic veterinary services and humane education of children creates empathy for others, through the fostering of respect for life, creating a culture of caring and empathy for all beings. This is a vital ingredient in the building of a nation." SAVA website


Continue reading for all the details on this project or simply click on the Donate Now button to help this project succeed.


The Porcupine Quill Project is the Community Veterinary Clinic (CVC) division of The Village Vet Animal Clinic, Darling Western Cape. The CVC clinics are a South African Veterinary Association Not for Profit initiative and were established to provide primary veterinary health care to animals from disadvantaged communities and education to pet owners and subsistence farmers. Individual CVCs are able to fundraise and accept donations as they fall under the umbrella of the SAVA NPO registration. The vets who run CVCs are responsible for fundraising for these clinics with a percentage of the funds raised going to the SAVA for administrative and organisational functions. Complete records have to be submitted to the SAVA on a monthly basis to ensure that all the NPO requirements are met providing you with the assurance that your donations are being used for their intended purpose. The PQP, as part of an NPO, will have a section 18A book and therefore all donations made will be tax deductible.

Notice the running shoes on our mascot porcupine? I, Dr Jen Deverson of The Village Vet,will be putting on my running shoes and will run as many sponsored half marathons as my knees will allow, in order to raise funds for The Porcupine Quill Project which will serve as a CVC for the greater Atlantis area. My first half marathon is the Knysna Half Marathon on Saturday the 15th July 2017, so please respond to this campaign here and now.

And this is where my first real hiccup comes in trying to fundraise..........one of the stumbling blocks with crowdfunding, when the site is hosted by a not South African site, is getting payments made into a South African bank account, PayPal only works with FNB and the business account is with Nedbank so the only way around this is to accept payment in US dollars via PayPal.

Sponsor my running efforts at R10 per kilometre to give a donation of R211 to The Porcupine Quill Project.

(Yup, a half marathon is really 21.1km long - eek)

At the current rand/dollar exchange rate R211 is about $16 but who knows which way that might swing. If you would prefer to donate directly please contact the clinic for banking details and a reference number.

This is the core of my fundraising appeal, if you'd like to donate less per kilometre or if you'd like to donate more feel free to do so. If you cannot donate at all, please share this campaign with friends and family or businesses who you think would like to donate. If a 1000 people each make this donation The Porcupine Quill Project will make a significant difference to between 500 and 650 needy dogs and cats . And then with the next half marathon......

Atlantis is one of the areas that apartheid created using the offer of employment in the multitude of factories that were built in the industrial area as an incentive to move to this area. Unfortunately the majority of these factories have relocated and or closed down and Atlantis and surrounds has a huge unemployment rate with all the negative associations such as crime, drugs and abuse.

The Village Vet opened a branch clinic in Atlantis in October 2016, which in conjunction with the main clinic in Darling provides a comprehensive veterinary service to clients that can afford veterinary fees. Although the Western Cape government has subsidised a number of sterilisation and vaccination projects in the Atlantis area, the people and their animals, who truly need this service are not being reached due to logistical complications with reaching these people and their needy animals. The Porcupine Quill Project will work as a Community Veterinary Clinic (NPO organisation) with residents within the Atlantis area who are well known to the community and will be able to access areas that the bigger welfare organisations do not reach.

There is currently a severe Distemper outbreak in the Witsand area, an informal settlement on the edge of Atlantis. We have had vaccinations donated and will start with a door-to-door disease control campaign which will include client education and vaccination at the start of July. Atlantis and surrounds has never had any dedicated veterinary input and there is a desperate lack of knowledge among the majority of pet owners about basic animal care. Together with the independent animal welfare organisations that work in and around Atlantis, we will educate pet owners about animal care and provide vaccination clinics, sterilisations and other basic health care such as deworming and tick control. This can only be achieved if we can raise the funds needed to do this.


Why the name The Porcupine Quill Project? I am not a natural runner, and suspect my technique lacks finesse and most certainly grace and is probably not very energy efficient so fairly often on my trail runs, I get a very strong urge to just grind to a halt but inevitably I will spot a porcupine quill which will point me onwards and serve as a reminder as to how privileged I am to be able to trail run in such beautiful surroundings. I would like to take this privilege and combine it with my profession in order to make a difference.

"What is important is not so much how long you live as whether you live a meaningful life. This doesn't mean accumulating money and fame, but being of service to your fellow human beings. It means helping others if you can, but even if you can't do that, at least not harming them."

Dalai Lama

Organizer

  • Jennifer Deverson

Donors

  • Pam Hughes
  • Donated on Jul 15, 2017
  • You are just amazing, I am sorry it has taken me a while to do this but I was not sure how to go about it, only read bits and pieces and didn't put it all together until today. You have worked so very hard and it is such a shame that there has been so little response, perhaps now that they see how well you have done the money will pour in. Love you lots xx

$50.00
  • Paul Martin
  • Donated on Jul 03, 2017
  • Keep up the great work, Jen!

$20.00
  • Nicky Farmer
  • Donated on Jul 03, 2017
  • Well done Jen, you go girl!

$16.00
Jul 06

Too much time at the office

Update posted by Jennifer Deverson at 07:23 pm

So Monday was an official rest day in the training plan seeings as I'd done a hilly 15kms on the Sunday and well then Tuesday was crazy busy with normal consults and surgeries plus the Witsand vaccination clinic and then back for more surgery at the clinic so the sun. . . . .

See update
0
Jul 04

The Kevin Costner approach

Update posted by Jennifer Deverson at 06:52 pm

Anyone remember the movie Field of Dreams where Kevin Costner built a baseball field in the middle of nowhere because he heard a voice saying "If you build it,he will come"? It was a nice movie and I have adopted a similar approach to my fundraising campaign "If I go. . . . .

See update
0

Donors & Comments

5 donors
  • Pam Hughes
  • Donated on Jul 15, 2017
  • You are just amazing, I am sorry it has taken me a while to do this but I was not sure how to go about it, only read bits and pieces and didn't put it all together until today. You have worked so very hard and it is such a shame that there has been so little response, perhaps now that they see how well you have done the money will pour in. Love you lots xx

$50.00
  • Paul Martin
  • Donated on Jul 03, 2017
  • Keep up the great work, Jen!

$20.00
  • Nicky Farmer
  • Donated on Jul 03, 2017
  • Well done Jen, you go girl!

$16.00
  • David van der Want
  • Donated on Jul 02, 2017
  • Excellent initiative - the health of a society is evident in how it responds to it's most vulnerable.

$32.00
$16.00

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US$134.00
raised of $16,200.00 goal
0% Funded
5 Donors
Raised offline: $93.00
Total: $227.00

No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities