June 2025: Animal Welfare News from Africa & Latin America
- Animal-Kind International
- Jul 15
- 5 min read
Kindness To Animals Has No Boundaries
AKI News: June 2025
76 organizations applied for a grant from our 8th annual (2025) Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program, 15 from the Latin America/Caribbean region and 61 from Africa. The submission period is now closed. This year, we were testing the LAC waters so we invited 15 organizations from the region to apply. Almost every LAC organization we invited told us that they never before were given such an opportunity and except for a few individual donations, never received funding from outside their country. Animal welfare organizations in Central and South America and in many parts of the Caribbean survive on “shoestring” budgets trying to address the huge needs (while working in impoverished, dangerous, and/or remote areas). And our plan is to reach them with much-needed financial and technical support!
“Even if we do not win this time, the opportunity you have given us has boost our spirits to know that there are people far away who care” was a message we received from one applicant that echoed those of most.
See below for more about our 2025 Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program.
AKI Update: 2 Big Challenges
In last month’s newsletter, we mentioned 2 big challenges we were facing.
Challenge 1-We funded the Twala Trust solar system, but had to dig into the Twala Trust Pet Food Fund and needed to replenish it.
As of now, we raised about 2/3 of what Twala Trust needs for the rest of the year to feed the ~600 dogs at weekly Doggy Tuesday and send the most in-need home with a doggy bag.
Sarah (Twala Trust) wrote: “I wanted to say thank you, from the heart and from all of us at Twala, for the wonderful support we have received from Animal-Kind International. It has made a life saving difference to hundreds of rural dogs in Goromonzi, and to the animals [about 400!] who live at the sanctuary.
Being able to install new solar inverters and panels has made a massive difference to our daily operations….We are now able to do everything we need to every day using solar power.
The Doggy Tuesday dogs are going into winter in good physical condition thanks to the pet food fund….We were also able to boost the Tuesday doggy buffet with extra kibble during the power crisis, when we could not store enough meat for the dogs, and it meant the dogs still got the nutritional help that they rely on.
It is entirely accurate to say that I feel grateful for you every day.”
Challenge 2-Our Partner, 6F (@thesixfreedoms) was on the verge of rescuing the horse, Little, when we sent our May newsletter and now she has been rescued (thank you for your support!) Not only that, 6F was given a small plot (thanks to negotiations of 6F groom, Jonathan) to freely graze Little and companion Wanted.
Click here to watch the video of Little, rolling happily, finally free on the 6F plot. And know that your support made this rescue (and all the work that 6F does for Ghana’s neglected horses) possible!
6F is clearing the garbage and has put a proper lock on the gate to their new land. Depending on how things go (if further negotiations are needed, for example), 6F may build a small shelter on the plot, where they could bring even more horses.
Animal Welfare in Africa in The AKI Blog: June
From spay/neuter to our Pet Food Fund, AKI Partner Uganda SPCA relies on you and Animal-Kind International. Every day, the USPCA cooks and serves almost 700 meals (~350 cats and dogs x 2 meals/day). That’s a lot of cat and dog food and a lot of cooking. Your donations provide the food, but not only that. Your donations to AKI pay the salaries of the USPCA’s hardworking shelter staff, utilities at the shelters, payment to taxis and bodas to rescue cats and dogs from the street and at homes where they’ve been abandoned, and for other USPCA critical needs (which soon we hope will involve moving all cats and dogs to the new site).
Also in June’s AKI Blog, read about how our Partner Sauvons nos Animaux is coping with the ongoing conflict in eastern Congo (although yesterday’s news is that a cease fire deal has been reached, the danger to staff and the shelter is not over). We want to make sure that Sauvons nos Animaux can feed the 92 dogs and 16 cats at their shelter, Havre de Paix (photo below: Aganze with one of the shelter’s black kittens) since it’s one way that we can alleviate the stress of trying to survive in the middle of a war zone AND because they have no one else.
From Chile to Haiti and from South Africa to Morocco, from spay/neuter campaigns to innovative humane education to shelter construction, from organizations with decades of experience to relatively new ones (that can also benefit from our admin and technical assistance), we have a range of exciting proposals for our 13-member panel to review—which is happening right now. We will announce winning grant recipients on August 4 on our Grants 2025 webpage, our social media sites, and in the August newsletter.
In our May newsletter, we asked you to donate to our Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program for a matching donation we were offered. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED: WE RAISED THE FULL MATCH: $3000 FROM YOU + $3000 MATCH RAISED FOR OUR GRANT PROGRAM! The more we raise, the more grants we can fund this year.
Our grant program sometimes holds even more benefits than one-off financial support (which is a great benefit in itself for all the animals helped!) For our 2024 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program, three grantees received additional support due to the success of their AKI grant projects: SPCA Grahamstown (South Africa) received a large top-up donation from AKI supporters (the Good D.O.G. Fund) that they continue to use to provide vet care and spay/neuter in impoverished communities around Makhanda. Starting Over Sanctuary was able to provide vet care for more donkeys rescued from Gaza, thanks to AKI supporters who were moved by the SoS grant project that we funded. And Tanzania Small Animal Veterinary Organization received an additional financial award for being voted a top grantee by our Board. This gave TASAVO a couple more months to address the proposed shooting and poisoning of stray animals on the University of Dar es Salaam campus and saved this kitty’s life.
As always, we are so grateful for your kind support, and during these times of extreme uncertainty, we are humbled by your generosity and kind words,
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. On August 4, we’ll announce our 2025/2026 grantees!
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 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program.
