Assisting George Building Collapse rescue teams with R200,000
Brave humans and dogs of the George community have been working tirelessly searching for more survivors in the George building collapse.
As the tragedy and heartache of the George Building collapse unfolds, the true heroes of the rescue and recovery mission are emerging.
Over 200 personnel from different services have been working shifts in the difficult-to-navigate and unsafe rubble of the construction site on Victoria Street, where the building collapsed last Monday.
Assisting the mammoth effort are specially trained sniffer dogs from the SAPS K9 Search and Rescue Unit, volunteers of the K9 Search and Rescue Association of South Africa (Sara), and the Gift of the Givers K9 Unit.
At noon this past Saturday - five days after the building crumbled into a heap of metal, concrete chunks, and dust - there was joy on the morbid site: a man emerged alive after W/O Willie Visser’s dog, Abbey, picked up his scent, and W/O Riaan le Roux’s dog Rex confirmed the find.
Gift of the Givers has been instrumental in supplying the SAPS and emergency services with dogs to assist in disaster relief and other policing tasks.
Gift of the Givers has secured 60 K9 dogs of various breeds for the South African Police Service (SAPS) and another 50 dogs to enhance border security efforts.
These dogs are all in training.
Mario Ferreira, Gift of the Givers’ head representative in the Southern Cape region, has been at the disaster site in George since Monday, an hour after last week's collapse.
He says the teams work under harsh conditions, but they are determined and motivated by all the support they have received.
Some of their K9-unit dogs are also at the scene. One of their dogs was injured when his paw was cut in the rubble. A second dog has been struggling with severe trauma.
He confirmed that dogs trained in South Africa as sniffer dogs have the unique ability to distinguish whether or not the humans they detect are alive.
Mario says this makes these dogs world leaders in their field, invaluable when time can mean the difference between life and death.
REQUEST FOR: Mario Ferreira, Gift of the Givers representative in the Southern Cape
ANGEL: The Good Morning Angels Fund
SPONSORING: The Good Morning Angels Listener Fund would like to support the Gift of the Givers in their efforts in George and elsewhere by donating R100,000 to assist with whatever is needed for the rescue and recovery workers and survivors.
The Good Morning Angels Fund will also donate an additional R100,000 to the specialised K9 Unit and the efforts of Gift of the Givers to help with training and caring for these invaluable furry team members.