Animal-Kind International supports Animal Smile Africa (in Tanzania): Hands On Healing

Animal-Kind International's 2025 Animal Welfare Grant Program provided support to Animal Smile, located in Mpwapwa in central Tanzania, for their project, Hands On Healing.

Some of the Hands On Healing paravet students during a field exercise

The goal of Hands On Healing was:

To create future leaders in animal welfare, reduce suffering of our furry friends, protecting the public from zoonotic diseases, and inspire kindness through direct care, learning, and community engagement.

Future paravets, future animal welfare leaders!

In Tanzania, the paravet curriculum emphasizes farm animals. Cats and dogs get short shrift and as a result many students graduate feeling uncomfortable handling, diagnosing, and treating companion animals. This is an especially serious issue in rural areas where people largely rely on paravets.

Animal Smile created the Hands On Healing project to bridge the the critical skill gap (and along the way, provide free veterinary services to communities in need).

Animal Smile collaborated with and trained Visele Live Crop Skills Training Centre's paravet students. For four months, September, December, January, and March, Animal Smile and their veterinary partners from Visele presented a range of classroom courses and importantly, matched those with practical experience (hands on healing).

Topics included dog and cat behavior, humane handling of cats and dogs, vaccination and wound management, spay and neuter, pre- and post-operative care, and deworming protocols.

Hands On training while providing a community service

Preparing for a Hands On Healing exercise

Visele student vaccinates a cat

The results of Hands On Healing can be seen in the numbers and images:

-60 paravet students trained

-629 dogs and 21 cats vaccinated against rabies and dewormed

-7 dogs treated against TVT

-5 dogs spayed and 2 neutered

-459 Children educated on basic animal welfare and animal freedom

-87dogs fed

-Improved confidence in handling, examination, vaccination and treatment of dogs and cats (as described in the post-course evaluation).

Food for hungry dogs

With assistance from Animal-Kind International, Animal Smile (for the first time) introduced an online evaluation form to get feedback from the students after training. Results showed that:

·       Confidence increased with most students feeling very confident after the training

·       Most students found the practical sessions helpful

·       All students found clinical training helpful

·       Many students felt more confident understanding body language

·       All but one student said they feel more passionate towards animals after training

·       Training was rated highly effective by students

·       All students said they would recommend the training

Neema (Visele staff/paravet). Neema showed remarkable skills in handling dogs and cats after being mentored by Animal Smile. Now she's teaching others.

Animal Smile learned a lot, as well (as did we, Animal-Kind International!) Alpha (Animal Smile Director) wrote, "The funded project helped us to be very close to the community we serve, to know them in person as we were taking their names and their furry friend names for easy reporting. We have witnessed the student progress from how they approach the dogs and cats, how they do physical examination, vaccination and how they interact with the owners of the dogs and cats owner, as well as how they helped each other. This gives us confidence that we are building future animal welfare leaders."

Mr Ngairo brought his cat to an Animal Smile clinic to be vaccinated. Alpha is vaccinating the cat

Azack with his dog Popi was the 1st client at the 1st clinic in September. Animal Smile gave him a a leash as encouragement for being proactive and a good and kind dog owner.

Mr. Nelson Kanuya (Visele staff/paravet) gives instructions to children who came to an Animal Smile clinic for vaccination and deworming of their dogs

What does the future hold for Animal Smile?

"We are also discussing with Sokoine University of Agriculture College of Veterinary Medicine and Visele Live Crop Skills Training Centre to make this place a field practical station. This will combine resources, connect veterinary and paravet students, improve training and allow us to serve a larger community."

Alpha (Animal Smile Director) wrote, "Thank you Animal-Kind International for not only giving us funds but constant administrative and technical support. We really appreciate it and without your trust it would be very difficult to do this."