Founder of Saving the Survivors, Dr Johan Marais, an equine and wildlife surgeon working at the University of Pretoria's Onderspoort Veterinary Faculty says, "It is really great to work with an international respected company like HAVAS, which uses creativity and innovative ideas to get the message across."
The campaign shows actual amputees making the point that, thanks to rapid and expert medical help, they may have lost a limb but their lives were saved.
Thanks to the commitment of several high-profile media organisations such as Posterscope who organised free outdoor space with Adpost for the digital screen in Hyde Park and iPoint for the digital screens in malls, Havas Worldwide has been able to place this campaign in prominent national mainstream media and magazine titles as well as outdoor sites countrywide.
Eoin Welsh, Chief Creative Officer at Havas Worldwide Johannesburg says, "We believe that Saving the Survivors is a remarkable organisation deserving of our full attention, so we wanted to put our communication skills at their disposal. We had to find a way to bring attention to their cause and work so that we can generate support. This is a slightly different initiative to creating public awareness of rhino poaching because their key objective is to help save rhinos that already have had their horns removed."
One of the brave amputees in the campaign is 41-year old Partington Mtatabikwa, who lost an arm and a leg in a mining accident. Partington says "I was lucky - help came. Otherwise I would have lost much more. Rhinos are seldom so lucky. The loss of their horn doesn't kill them - but being left mutilated and discarded does."
To support this cause, please visit www.savingthesurvivors.co.za
