Penda Trust with Tyrone Turner: Mdzananda Animal Clinic

Penda Trust with Tyrone Turner: Mdzananda Animal Clinic

National Geographic photographer Tyrone Turner donated a week of his time to do work with the Penda Trust. Throughout the week, he visited several NGOs and social enterprises benefiting the Western Cape, offering photographic training and donating his own quality photographs to improve each organisation’s visual presentation. Mdzananda Animal Clinic was one such organisation.

The only one of its kind in the township of Khayelitsha, the Mdzananda Animal Clinic opened in 1996 from a single donated shipping container. Since then, the facilities have grown, and the clinic has become a highly respected fixture in the township, its animal hospital serving up to 1000 pets every month.

More than an ordinary clinic, the founders of Mdzananda hoped to cultivate a place that will provide a service to both the animals as well as their owners. Their mission says it all: “enhancing well-being for animals and their community through veterinary health care, education and partnerships.” Through their services, the organisation hopes to educate people in the community as well. From a social approach, Mdzananda believes that by teaching people how to look after their animals, they will learn “responsibility, respect for life, compassion and nonviolence.”

To learn more about this organisation, visit their website.

Read about Tyrone’s next stop Fountain of Hope!

Photographs by Patrick West and Tyrone Turner:

Mdzananda Animal Clinic, Khayelitsha