TEARS is a non-profit, pro-life animal rescue society, since the beginning of the centre in 1999, they have re-homed over 4500 animals. TEARS works directly with local communities and informal settlements not only rescuing animals but providing food parcels, veterinary treatment and animal care education for those that could not otherwise afford it. TEARS is in the business of "hand-on, grass-roots" social improvement. They try to teach children, by example, an ethic of compassion for animals. To do this to people who are struggling to survive themselves, is a tough job. Studies have shown that where traumatised and sometimes brutalised children, teenagers and adults are taught to care for something more helpless than them, the cycle of abuse can be broken, and this is an area where TEARS is trying to have input. TEARS also is assisted by the work of the international fund for animal welfare (IFAW) by providing a base of operations for the IFAW representative, Nicholas, and his operations to provide regular, front-line primary animal healthcare within the local communities.