The BE KIND Foundation

6th Oct, 2025

Written by founder Jessica Robertson

Professional photography by Chasing Light Photography

Due to the onslaught of Covid, I started The BE KIND Foundation, a non-profit organisation, to bring hot meals to women and children in the informal settlement of Du Noon, near Cape Town, and then children on the farms around Durbanville who were experiencing food insecurity during the pandemic.

The need to help neglected dogs and cats on these farms soon became evident and things grew from there.

The BE KIND Foundation receives a small amount of support on social media from individuals who want to assist us in caring for abused animals, ensuring that they’re sterilised and cared for while actively continuing to educate their owners and those around them.

In 2023 our team of one became a team of two when we met and welcomed Meredith Kujawa into the mix. Meredith assists me in Bellville South by monitoring cases of neglect, feeding pets, and trying to remove dogs off chains; she’s truly become an invaluable part of the organisation and I cannot imagine how we’d cope without her!

The areas we’ve covered over the last five years are Bellville South, Khayelitsha, Morningstar (Durbanville), Durbanville and Kuilsriver wine farms, and more recently Kalksteenfontein and Bishop Lavis.

Our main focus is the sterilisation of animals, education, providing food to owners in need and reporting neglect cases if we can’t handle the neglect ourselves. Chaining and illegal confinement is a massive problem in most disadvantaged areas but we’ve recently been able to fence off a few properties for dogs that are more frustrated than most, enabling them to finally be chain-free.

Over the past five years my leadership abilities have grown significantly and I’m proud to be able to build strong relationships with the animal owners and the children we work with and their pets, who grow to love us and rely on not only our donations but our insight and opinions when/where necessary.

You can help!

The BE KIND Foundation relies entirely on donations. Needs include:

Hooves: Because we encounter and work with so many illegally confined and chained dogs, we buy bags of hooves (50 for R130) and go through a minimum of one bag a week. As we receive minimal donations, this isn’t actually a cost that we can afford, but we do it to provide some happiness for frustrated dogs.
Veterinary care: Because we’re not vets we can’t offer urgent medical assistance, but what we do offer is deworming and tick-and-flea medication – but do so with our jaws clenched as we’re not sure how we’ll be able to buy more stock once it’s finished.
Collars and leads: We also give sterilised dogs collars when we see fit and leads, but specifically go through a lot of them when assisting chained dogs, as they break the items.
Kennels: We urgently need kennels which we use as a “bargaining chip” when needing to sterilise dogs.
Support for children: Even though our main focus is animals in need, we also build very strong relationships with the children in each area that we work in and take them on outings when we can. Towards Christmas time we need children’s toys, gently worn or new clothes (socks and underwear is a huge need), soap, toiletries, and sweets.