Exciting plans for Retreat to Eden… with your support
The Retreat 2 Eden sanctuary near Port Alfred provides a haven for pets, farm animals and wildlife, with a focus on physical and physiological rehabilitation.
Our main focus and achievements in 2023:
Ensuring there was enough food. We provide two meals a day to anywhere between 50 and 60 dogs we’re caring for here.
We also take food to animals that are in distress. That makes about 120 meals a day.
Not one day has a rescue gone without at least two meals a day. There are so many heroes in our community who have donated dog biscuits or money to make this possible.
We want to thank them and shop owners who have allowed us to collect waste food. Graze by the River, Freshstop (on the way to Rosehill), Steers and Penny Farthing. The Brewery has donated grain.
We have a sustainable fundraising project thanks to
Jeffrey Grebe, owner of the Mr Dog brand.
Ruth and Steve Gipson supply numerous bags of Mr Dog to supporters in Bathurst and the Port Alfred area. We supply Mr Dog at cost for charitable causes.
Jeffrey Grebe donates a portion of those distribution proceeds to R2E: he’s empowered us to earn the donations and we’ve been able to help people get quality dog food at a reasonable price.
Medical care for the dogs is
done under the guidance of compassionate vets and is a big financial investment, for sterilisations, and to save lives.
R2E’s environmental projects include upcycling. We’ve also been developing several kilometres of nature trails which go down into the wildlife sanctuary under guidance of Sibuya ranger Chris Ovens.
Our goals for 2024
We desperately need to find good homes for the huge number of dogs we’re dealing with. By 2024 we double our
shelter capacity.
Other goals are to build a central volunteer centre, an adoption centre where potential owners can interact with the dogs and employing a full time rescue centre manager.
We desperately need infrastructure facilities where we can work. We need everything from a clinic to storerooms and a quarantine facility.
We’d like to put in environmentally friendly composting toilets for visitors, both on the animal welfare side and the wildlife sanctuary.
We create large enclosures, at least 200m². We’d like to build additional enclosures so we can take on greater numbers of dogs. We’re very blessed to be able to do this because of the land we’ve invested in.
We’d like to create a dog park for the local community. It could be used by trainers, as a place for people to help socialise their dogs. It would be a safe environment where they can relax and even have a picnic and a braai.
At the further end of that tract of land, we’d like to create a place where people can camp and bring their dog along. It’s in the bush, but only 15 minutes from town in a protected environment.
We will also be further developing the nature trails.
Adoptions are critical: we desperately need to find good homes for the number of dogs we’re dealing with because if a dog is in good health we don’t put them down. We wait for them to get a good home. The space that creates goes to the next rescue on the waiting list.
Our goal for 2024 is to continue having enough food and means to provide good nourishment and medical care for the many rescues.
We want to say thank you to everybody to all the wonderful businesses owners and managers and individuals, both locally and in the greater SA community, for making a difference in the lives of rescues.
It’s not within our financial means as the trustees to help as many dogs as we’d like. There are limits. Without the support of the community it would be impossible.
A massive thank you to all the champions and heroes out there whose shoulders we’re standing on and who are enabling all of this through their compassion.
They’ve made a difference and that’s what’s important.