April 2025: Expanding our Geographical Reach - Our Animal Welfare Grant Program Goes Beyond Africa
- Animal-Kind International
- May 7
- 6 min read
Kindness to Animals has no Boundaries
April 2025
Dear Animal-Kind Friends,
A few themes run through our animal welfare work: support for LOCAL animal welfare organizations, ones that work and live in their target COMMUNITY/IES and that work with and understand local CULTURES. Each of our Partners and Grantees takes a different approach based on their situations, but in the end, their goals and ours are the same: to provide immediate relief from suffering; and in the longer term, address the root causes of animal suffering, while building a sustainable foundation for the future.
As you read below, you’ll see that these themes figure strongly in what we do.
Another theme is our geographical focus on Africa and our secondary focus area, Latin America/Caribbean. In line with our geographical theme, we are expanding our Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program into an Africa & Latin America/Caribbean Animal Welfare Grant Program. Read about our plans and eligibility requirements for AKI’s 8th Annual Animal Welfare Grant Program.
Below we explain why we decided to expand and the approach we’re taking.
AKI Blog: April Updates
AKI’s April Blog includes a post about cats and dogs who have recently benefited from the AKI-Have a Heart-Namibia Emergency Fund and reports from 3 of our 2024 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grantees who completed their projects in April.
Our Emergency Fund in Namibia: January - April 2025 is available for use (with HaH approval) for dogs and cats who have already been spayed or neutered (and in some cases, if the pet’s family agrees to s/n after-the-fact) and is meant for no/low income pet parents. And it’s part of HaH’s promise to their s/n clients that they will help provide life time care for spayed/neutered pets.
In addition to the Emergency Fund, we support HaH’s Lifetime Care Program, which includes Dip Days (anti-parasite treatment). In just one Dip Day (above), 248 dogs were dipped and some received much-needed vet care. This shows that people, especially children(!), really do care about their pets and try to do the best for them--they sometimes just need a little help.
Trap Neuter Vaccinate Return in Tanzania is Tanzania Small Animal Veterinary Organization's 2nd AKI grant project. TASAVO targeted "problem" areas, where, for 6 months, they TNVR’d community cats and dogs; provided vet care; raised awareness among community members about TNVR; and established an Animal Welfare Club at the University of Dar es Salaam, whose 1st success—essentially even before they were officially established—was to halt the administration’s planned shooting of stray dogs and cats on campus.
With an additional award from AKI for their very successful TNVR grant project, TASAVO will continue TNVR with a focus on the University of Dar es Salaam campus, demonstrating that humane population control is more effective and acceptable than shooting (or poisoning).
Blind Love-South Africa Provides Hoof Care & Nutritional Food for Cart Horses - Blind Love, a 2nd time AKI grantee, provided farrier services for hard-working cart horses, trained farriers, and planted and harvested a large field of lucerne (alfalfa), guaranteeing cart horses a sustainable and nutritional source of food.
WAG Rwanda completes their spay-neuter project - With the grant from AKI, WAG launched a community spay-neuter project during which they sterilized 45 dogs. And to help WAG become more professional and their efforts more sustainable, they purchased a medicine cabinet, drugs, suture materials, and other supplies for sterilizations and a microscope for use at the shelter to help with diagnostics, particularly for community dogs with skin and ear problems (which most community dogs have!)
Sauvons nos Animaux-Congo Update
Many of you hoped for an update about our Partner Organization in eastern Congo. On April 16, we received this news from Paterne (Sauvons nos Animaux): At the refuge, the animals are doing well. After the rebels entered Goma, causing over 8,000 deaths, the population of Bukavu began to evacuate. The few remaining Congolese soldiers and the self-defense forces (Wazalendo) tried to resist. My family and I spent three days without going out. When the noise of the guns stopped, I tried to reach the refuge. On my way, I came across soldiers who forced me to carry their luggage. Luckily, I made it to the refuge, where I discovered a rebel outpost. Unable to go back and forth between the refuge and my home, I decided to stay put at the refuge, without any means of communication, which led many people to think I was dead. For now, my family and the shelter animals are safe. On April 28, we received confirmation from Paterne that all shelter staff are safe and well.
As you can imagine, with the shortages and looting, cat and dog food (and everything else) is difficult to find and prices have increased. In lieu of commercial pet food, Paterne buys rice, maize meal, and cassava meal and mixes it with bits of fish and meat. With about 100 cats and dogs at the shelter, Sauvons nos Animaux needs our help more than ever to keep the rescued animals well-fed.
Kingston Community Animal Welfare’s Spaymobile!
It took years of discussion and planning, and then it took several months of fundraising. But finally, it’s here, the KCAW Spaymobile!
We asked and you responded. And we are so grateful that you made this dream come true for KCAW, us, and most importantly, to finally stem the overpopulation tide. Read last month’s AKI Blog post HERE about the challenges that the KCAW Spaymobile will address.
AKI’s 2025 Animal Welfare Grant Program: Expanding to the LAC Region
Our 2025 Grant Program will remain focused on African animal welfare organizations (as are our Partners), but Latin America/Caribbean has always been our secondary geographical focus.
In part, the expansion was a personal decision: I began working internationally in Latin America and made my 1st animal welfare contact with Francesca in Paraguay in 1992 with the intention of helping her rescue and provide vet care for cats (back then, it was much more difficult than it is now!) I have a “soft spot” for the region.
But of course, a decision like this is much more than a personal one. During the last few years, we received more messages from the LAC region asking for help or reporting a cruelty situation than from any other region except Africa.
We’ve seen some of the worst cruelty in LAC, but we’ve also seen some of the most dedicated animal welfare advocates and great sacrifices made by the animal rescue community there.
In addition to me, 2 of our Board members have lived in the LAC region (Costa Rica, Honduras, Jamaica, Barbados) and still have contacts there.
Serendipity brought us a recent retiree from Colombia, who worked with the Inter-American Development Bank and who knows the region very well and is now an AKI volunteer.
We decided that expanding our annual grant program to the LAC region in a 1st year pilot program is a great way to start out. We are excited about the potential of bringing immediate relief to many animals, and beyond that, addressing root causes of animal cruelty, and helping to build a sustainable foundation for change.
Given the upheavals in the world (many affecting the LAC region-migration, poverty, climate change—all of which impact animal welfare), and even though our financial situation— as almost everyone else’s— is somewhat unstable, we can’t turn out backs and felt this is the time to dive in and provide more support for LAC animal welfare.
We would be grateful for your kind support. During these times of extreme uncertainty, we are humbled by your generosity and kindness.
Karen Menczer, Founder/Director
& the Animal-Kind International Board
Our Partner Organizations work in Uganda, Namibia, DR Congo, Ghana, South Sudan, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Honduras, and Jamaica. You can donate to AKI’s general fund or designate your donation to one or more of our Partner Organizations.
Our 2024 (7th annual) Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program grantees work in: Kenya (2 grantees), Tanzania (2 grantees), South Africa (4 grantees), Rwanda, and Israel.
AKI: Since 2007, helping animals and the people who care for them in some of the poorest countries.
We are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization; donations to AKI are tax deductible in the US to the extent the law allows. 100% of your donations are used to support our Partner Organizations & our Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program.
