April 2026: Helping animals where our help is needed most

Animal-Kind International
May 8
5 min read

Kindness to Animals Has No Boundaries

AKI News: April 2026

Read our April 2026 newsletter below and find out how we are helping animals where our help is needed most.

Our 9th annual (2026) Animal Welfare Grant Program (for African- and Latin American/Caribbean-based animal welfare organizations) is accepting applications through May 25. We’ve already received several promising proposals. For information on how to apply:

2026 Grant Program: FAQs & Application

We formed two committees to review proposals, one for proposals from Africa (11 reviewers) and one for LAC proposals (9 reviewers). The reviewers come from countries in Africa, South and Central America, and Europe, and Australia, the UK, and US! After committee reviews, the AKI Board reviews proposals before we announce awards by mid-July.

Our grant program is 100% donor funded and the number of grants we can award depends on donations from YOU. (Here you can read about our 13 2025 grantees.) We need your help to fund hardworking animal welfare advocates working in highly impoverished communities and countries in conflict:

I'd like to donate to AKI's Grant Program

Do you know someone who’d like to hear from us? Please forward our newsletter to a friend.

Updates from our Grantees: helping animals 2025/2026 grants

This month three more 2025 grantees completed their grant projects (with only two remaining to be completed, Blind Love in South Africa and Animal Welfare Society-Cameroon):

Collage of various dogs and people helped by "Project Amadoda" to neuter 74 dogs. Includes SPCA and Animal-Kind International logos. — Beneficiaries of SPCA Grahamstown's Project Amadoda

SPCA Grahamstown neuters dogs with their grant: Project Amadoda neutered 74 dogs, treated wounds, infections, and biliary, and went door-to-door to register and check on animals in impoverished townships around Grahamstown/Makhanda, South Africa. Amadoda is isiXhosa for “Men.” And men (male pets) were the focus of SPCA Grahamstown's project.

Animal Smile-Tanzania-Hands On Healing: In Tanzania, the paravet curriculum emphasizes farm animals, and 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’s grant project, Hands On Healing, successfully addressed that issue (and continues to address it).

Tanzania Small Animal Veterinary Organization Traps Neuters Vaccinates Returns: A total of 344 cats and dogs were sterilized in communities overpopulated with free-roaming animals, preventing poisonings and other cruel methods of population control, and convincing community members and government that humane population management works!

News from AKI Partner Organizations: how we're helping animals-2026

Our Partners receive ongoing support from us (via your donations). In impoverished communities and conflict areas where we work, your support is what keeps these organizations operating and makes them effective animal advocates.

In April, I visited our long-time Partner Organization, Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras. A hospice/old folks home for cats and dogs (and injured wildlife too) in Tegucigalpa, overseen by Pilar, since 2007 we’ve covered the costs of food, vet care, and supplies for this unique organization.

Four dogs on a tiled floor with a black and white dog facing forward with big eyes and a sweet look and the others gathered around him in Honduras. — Bunny (a tripod), Ash, Dobie, and Nico in the foreground (deaf and blind): All came to HHHH with sad back stories, all have been living wonderful lives since arriving at the sanctuary.

Now downsizing (7 dogs and 4 cats remain at the sanctuary), Pilar and HHHH have been helping newer organizations become stronger and more effective.

With Pilar, we visited two organizations that she’s working with. Org ARI (Amigos Rescatistas Independientes) in Tegucigalpa is foster-based and focuses on rescue, spay/neuter, adoption, and education. Patitas is a group of students at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras that protects dogs and cats who wander onto campus, providing s/n, vaccination, shelter, food, and water, and raising awareness among university faculty and staff.

With Honduran animal welfare advocate Jonathan (thank you for all your help, Jonathan!), we visited Equinos de Honduras in Choluteca. EdH provides veterinary care and education in equine owning communities to help working horses, donkeys, and mules live healthier lives while supporting the livelihoods of families who depend on them.

Six people in an office gathered around a table covered with grooming supplies for horses in Honduras. — Above: **Remember in March’s newsletter, the horse supplies donated by Tamaya Horse Rescue?** Here they are, having been handed over to Equinos de Honduras.

AKI Partner Bam Animal Clinics completed their April donkey vet clinics and humane saddle training in Kaptanya Sub-county, Kapchorwa District. Since 2019, thanks to your support, we’ve been supporting Bam to improve the lives of donkeys in eastern Uganda.

We’re helping donkeys go from this—>

Donkeys carrying large sacks draped across both sides of the animals walk on a red dirt road in Uganda. — Donkeys carry heavy loads without adequate saddle padding resulting in wounds and injuries

to this—>

A group of eight people stand around a donkey with a padded sack saddle on her back in Uganda. — A donkey models a humane sisal sadde

There’s good news from AKI Partner Sauvons nos Animaux (which means good news for us!). Conflict and insecurity have plagued SnA for the last few years. Every move they make requires planning for and mitigation of the many risks involved. But now, a soldiers’ camp has been set up near the shelter. Yes, this turns out to be a good thing because Paterne has established a good relationship with the commander. The SnA staff feel safer than they’ve felt for the last couple of years. Not only that, SnA’s cats and dogs are safer now too. When a dog escaped a couple of days ago from the shelter, the commander of the camp told everyone to be on the look-out for the dog, who was found and returned to the shelter unharmed!

With your donations, we support Sauvons nos Animaux with cat and dog food, vet and shelter supplies, infrastructure improvements at the shelter (like repair of the water pipe that feeds the shelter, described in the March newsletter; the repair will be starting soon), and staff salaries.

AKI Partner Organization Uganda SPCA is celebrating World Veterinary Day(s). They’re offering free rabies vaccinations and de-worming for cats and dogs in their local community—sponsored by Animal-Kind International—for as long as funds last! All visitors to the shelter receive a tour and a session of USPCA’s fun-filled animal welfare education.

Uganda SPCA poster for World Veterinary Day offering free rabies vaccination, deworming, and animal welfare education and sponsored by Animal-Kind International — AKI supports USPCA's World Veterinary Day Celebration

We leave you this month with a beautiful story of kindness because everyone needs more kindness—in our lives and worldwide. Our Partner Organization, Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society provides a great example for this.

Young person in Liberia gently holds a kitten, pets him while looking at him in a caring way. — Thompson grew up in a family that believed the common negative myths about cats: they’re witches, they’re dangerous and have secret ways of harming humans. So of course, Thompson also believed the bad things he heard about cats from his parents and siblings. It’s only because of Liberia Animal Welfare & Conservation Society’s Humane Education Program, funded by Animal-Kind International supporters, that Thompson learned the truth about cats. Thanks to his experience with LAWCS’ programs, Thompson rescued a kitten and brought him home. Thompson also re-educated his whole family so that they welcomed the kitty into their home.

Animal-Kind International News

We’ve earned a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator! Check us out on the Charity Navigator site.

Thanks to your support, we’re helping effective animal advocates and animal welfare organizations working in conflict areas and impoverished communities. We’ve seen so many examples of people helping animals even when their own lives are so difficult. In countries where we work, it takes just a little to help a lot!

We are gratefully yours,

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 2025 (8th annual) Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program grantees work in: Kenya, Tanzania (2 grantees), South Africa (2 grantees), Cameroon, Namibia, Israel, Haiti, Honduras, Colombia, Ecuador, and Chile.

AKI: Since 2007, helping animals and the people who care for them in resource-poor areas.

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 Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program.