CareCube Launches Pet Vaccination Project in South Africa

An innovative new project has been launched to provide essential vaccinations for animals in low-income South African communities – with the Animal Welfare Society of Stellenbosch describing the program as critical to stopping the spread of diseases and a lifeline to animals in need.

A different kind of NPO, carecube.org is a registered non-profit organization formed in 2009 to distribute care packages to disaster relief providers. These ‘Carecubes’ were invaluable in several disaster relief efforts. Today, Carecube has transitioned into a comprehensive digital platform for the delivery of many different types of aid and develops purpose-built programs to assist with real community challenges around the world.

While animal welfare organizations are committed to providing subsidized vaccinations for low-income communities, many pet owners still struggle to access these services – often due to a mixture of financial and geographic limitations. Carecube has set out to scale these issues, providing support and assistance to animal welfare via its newest project.

Its South African pet vaccination initiative is headed by Dr Mpho Hlalele and managed via the Carecube platform. The initial aim of the project was to distribute10,000 free 5-in-1 vaccinations to registered animal welfare hospitals in the region. However, the project expanded in scope when Dana Rodriguez, a freelance member of the Carecube creative team proposed the idea of extending vaccination distributions to include mobile clinics.

“In order to assist the animal welfare sector in South Africa we first of all need to help the clinics, most of which are inundated with animals and under staffed,” said Gerrit Schmidt III, CEO of Carecube. “We believe that Dr Hlalele’s free immune-boosting vaccination project will prevent thousands of animals from ever needing treatment, which will help to free up time and resources and ensure more animals enjoy a better quality of life in South Africa.”

Carecube’s goal is to provide a healthy, immunized pet population in South Africa and reduce the prevalence of communicable animal diseases in disadvantaged communities. Carecube plans to distribute a total of 10,000 vaccinations to animal welfare organizations in the region, including the Animal Welfare Society in Stellenbosch. The AWSS will provide both free immunizations at its own animal hospital and deploy mobile clinics to help communities in and around the Western Cape. Mobile clinics will include the immensely underprivileged areas of Klapmuts, Kylemore, Jonkershoek and Jamestown. As of the 29th of June, 250 vaccinations have already arrived at the AWSS clinic.

Along with relieving the frequently heavily inundated animal hospitals in the Western Cape, Dr Hlalele hopes to educate and create awareness in these underprivileged areas as part of her greater prevention plan.

Carecube coordinates vaccinations supplied via the Carebooster Project, and these are distributed directly by veterinary wholesalers such as

Lakato and the pharmaceutical group MSD, a registered global pharmaceutical company.

For more information about this project, please contact Secretary Christine Small at christine@carecube.org.

To find out more, visit https://carecube.org/