AKI's Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program-2022
Our Grant Program reaches worthy Africa-based organizations, beyond our Partner Organizations, and supports them to implement high impact projects aimed at improving the lives of domesticated animals (mainly dogs, cats, donkeys, and horses, and secondarily "livestock": cows, pigs, goats, chickens). This is the 5th year that we've been able to hold the only grant program that specifically targets animal welfare organizations in Africa and that is 100% donor-funded!
This year we received 66 eligible proposals to our Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program. Read about our nine 2022 Grant Recipients (below). Grantee Progress Reports will be posted on this page so you can track their progress and achievements.
Reports from our 2022 Grant Recipients
AKI's 2022 Grant Recipients
HorseSafety-Ghana (now known as The Six Freedoms): This is the 2nd year that HorseSafety has received an AKI Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant. Their 2022 grant project,Welfare for neglected horses in Accra and beyond, raising awareness and providing education for grooms and horse owners, will:
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Improve the welfare of neglected horses in Accra, by providing education to the owners and grooms from six stables in Accra and to veterinary students in Ghana. HorseSafety has volunteers ranging from animal nutritionists to a behavior specialist, expert groomers (including for tooth care), and a vet, and with their assistance will provide advice to keep the 80 horses at the six stables mentally and physically healthy.
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Rescue horses in emergencies.
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Keep HorseSafety's 13 rescued horses in good health and continue their healing process.
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Information will be shared virtually to reach horse owners throughout and beyond Ghana. (HorseSafety has a strong and growing virtual network).
Pictures below: HorseSafety's demonstration of good care (3 photos); HorseSafety events (2 photos); many horses are kept tied tightly without access to exercise, socialization, and regular watering and nutritious food. HorseSafety aims to change this.
Zambezi Working Donkey Project (Zambia): Zambezi Working Donkey Project is a two-time grantee. This year, they will implement the Community Education Project, which will educate rural communities about the welfare of donkeys through community training days and educational programs in schools with the assistance of existing Community Livestock Officers (CLO). The project will continue the work started during the previous Animal-Kind International funded CLO project. The Zambezi Working Donkey Project improves the lives of working donkeys and supports their owners in a
practical way by:
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Educating people about how to care for their animals; a healthy, happy donkey will be a worthwhile long term investment.
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Providing training to make harnesses and modify carts and plows, ensuring they are appropriate for equine use and the job they need to do.
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Rescuing and rehabilitating animals in need of short or long term special care.
Botswana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals: A first time AKI grantee and previously an AKI Partner Organization, Botswana SPCA will implement the Pet Sterilization Campaign with their 2022 AKI grant. The BSPCA will reach poverty stricken animal lovers in remote areas of Botswana who cannot afford to sterilize their dogs and cats. They will focus on the community of Tlokweng (south east district, 13km away from the BSPCA shelter). The project will take about 4 months to accomplish in phases: Pre-campaign; Sterilization; and Post-Campaign, and they will sterilize a minimum of 140 animals and educate at least 1000 people on animal welfare.
Botswana SPCA's mission is to raise awareness of animal welfare in Botswana, to teach and foster good pet parenting practices, and to promote community pet sterilization programs with an aim to eradicate the need to euthanize healthy and adoptable companion animals.
Feral Cat Care: Feral Cat Care's grant project, Trap, neuter, return (TNR), veterinarian care and feeding of community cats in Boemfontein, South Africa will TNR and feed community cats at locations where nobody is willing or able to pay for the sterilizations, e.g. government properties and those of the poor and elderly, and where no feeding programs exist for cat
colonies. Over about three months, Feral Cat Care will sterilize about 109 community cats. They chose the following locations, where they already have approvals to s/n, for their grant project:
• Government premises that include the Army (TEMPE). Feral Cat Care TNR'd more than 30 community cats there in 2020 and still more than 50 need to be sterilized to obtain a controlled colony.
• Government hospitals, such as the National Hospital and Oranje Hospital, where Feral Cat Care TNR'd more than 50
cats during 2020 and 2021 and need to sterilize another 30 to obtain a controlled colony there.
• With the remainder of the grant, they will help the poor and elderly to sterilize the community cats in their areas. Unfortunately, people move or do not (or cannot) sterilize their pets, and community cats are the offspring of those abandoned or unsterilized cats.
Hero in my Hood (South Africa): Hero in my Hood creates children's story activity books with a significant focus on pet care, such as their Afrikaans book about Lucky the dog and coloring pages for younger children with 20 illustrations showing positive care of dogs. With their byline, Encouraging children to be courageous and kind, Hero in my Hood distributes their material to NGOs working with disadvantaged children in the poorer areas of South Africa. Their AKI grant project, Teaching Children How to Care for Their Dog, will print and distribute 3000 sets of pet care materials to four organizations that they've worked with in the past and that are always in need of educational materials.
Pwani Animal Welfare Community Based Organization (Kenya): Pwani's AKI grant project, Providing safe living quarters for rescued stray cats and dogs, will create comfortable living quarters for their rescued cats and dogs and will ensure sick rescued cats and dogs are separated from the healthy ones in a quarantined area to prevent transfer of infections. Pwani will build 24 cat cages and 4 dog kennels within Pwani Animal Welfare’s grounds. Pwani Animal Welfare is located in Mombasa, where their advocacy against cruelty and violence towards dogs has had the "most resistance within the predominantly Islamic community." But their work to "demystify the notion that dogs are impure in Islam has resulted in changes. Now, a lot more Muslims in the community are becoming more informed due to the Pwani Animal Welfare community advocacy forums on kindness to dogs and they are becoming more accepting of dogs as pets."
SPCA Grahamstown (Eastern Cape, South Africa): SPCA Grahamstown's AKI grant project, Who Let the Dogs Out?, will replace the kennel gates in 3 kennel blocks which are rusting badly. Many have broken metal which could harm dogs and handlers. The shelter has 34 dog kennels, which hold up to 2 dogs each, plus 4 large, modern kennels which are in good condition and house litters of puppies, as well dogs awaiting sterilization. Many of the gates have a close-knit mesh which makes it difficult for the smaller dogs to see out of their kennels. The reconstructed gates will have a wider mesh to improve visibility and the dogs' chances for adoption. The SPCA is the only animal shelter in their area that takes in stray and surrendered animals. They do not receive any municipal or other government funding and are located in an area with high unemployment and poverty.
The Twala Trust Animal Sanctuary (Zimbabwe): With the grant from AKI, Twala Trust will provide 4 months of food for rural dogs from low income households who attend their weekly Doggy Tuesday free community veterinary clinic. Twala has run the free community vet clinic and dog feeding program for 8 years in the Goromonzi area, where it is affectionately known by the community as ‘Doggy Tuesday.’ The program has grown from 4 dogs attending the first clinic in 2014, to around 600 dogs now attending each week. All dogs are provided with a nutritious meal (often their only substantial meal for the week), a free vet check with any subsequent required vet care, and a flea and tick treatment. Doggy Tuesdays also provide the perfect forum to educate people from the surrounding community about animal welfare – firstly for their dogs, and then
extending to cats, farm animals such as donkeys, goats and chickens and how to manage interactions with wild animals.
(Photo 1) preparing food for the ~600 dogs who attend Doggy Tuesday every week, a massive undertaking. The photo shows the wood used to cook the food; Photos 2-5) Doggy Tuesday)
Save Animals in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Save Animals-DRC is a 4th time AKI grant recipient (2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022), our only 4th time grant recipient! Save Animals' grant project, Let's promote our valued dogs: an event showcasing dogs & advocating against dog fighting, continues their work promoting dogs as pets, friends, and part of the family, while they spread the word that dog fighting is unacceptable, illegal, and will be prosecuted. The big event will take place on World Animal Day in October and will bring together dog owners in Kinshasa at an event where they will have agility contests, a "beauty contest," and demonstrate good training practices. Saint-Ubert, a priest, will be invited to give a prayer and the blessing of the animals. There will be stands with information, where SA will have material about animal care and about dog fighting, and nature conservation organizations will also have exhibits. The 2nd activity under this grant project involves SA working with the police to track and arrest dog fighters. They have done this before in collaboration with police. Without the extra push from SA, the police are unlikely to arrest dog fighters, but SA is making headway, and some police officers are beginning to understand how wrong dog fighting actually is.