Kindness to Animals has no Boundaries
March 2024
Dear Animal-Kind Friends,
I could talk for hours about the great work our Partner Organizations and Grantees are doing and I love to share their good news. But as you all know, behind the happy rescue stories and healthy shelter animals, there are many sad stories. It’s your support that turns sad to happy, suffering to health. Your donations turn lives around, they turn bad news into good. We’ve all been recipients of messages from organizations that send out horrifying photos, stories that shock and appall us, trying to get us to reach deeper into our pockets. That’s not us (or at least, it’s very rarely us!) We prefer to focus on the positive results—achieved with your help—like the updates below from our Partner Organizations and Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grantees. (If you missed our 2023 Annual Report, you can read about last year’s achievements and many good news stories HERE.)
AKI Partner News
Our Partner Organization, Sauvons nos Animaux in Bukavu, eastern Congo had a potentially dangerous situation on their hands when a few men who were walking by the shelter threw stones at the dogs. That made the dogs angry, some escaped through the gaps in the sheet metal fence (the same gaps the stones were thrown through), and chased the stone throwers. The men filed a complaint, but fortunately the witnesses, especially the children, who regularly visit the shelter, spoke up for the dogs!
The authorities, probably feeling more kindly toward the children than the dogs, required only that SnA better control the shelter dogs. Some moments of panic ensued-what should SnA do? Certainly we don’t want the dogs confined to their kennels all day every day when there’s so much open space to explore, so much fun to be had beyond the kennels. An inner fence, we decided, would allow the dogs to roam freely on shelter property, while remaining safe from inhumane people (and would keep the authorities satisfied too!)
The fence also makes it much easier and safer for staff while they’re preparing dog and cat food. Local dogs, attracted by the smell of food, could sneak into the shelter—through the gaps in the sheet metal fence-and would fight with the shelter dogs. Now dogs from the surrounding community can enjoy the smell through the fence, causing much less pandemonium, keeping everyone, including the staff, safe.
Thank you to Lakes Animal Friendship Society (Canada) for donating their beautiful educational material, now on its way to Honduras for our Partner Organization, Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras, to use in their Humane Ed program at local schools.
LAFS is always so willing to help us out-we are always so grateful! They sent us material in Spanish and English (for the bilingual schools that HHHH visits).
In our February newsletter, we announced the wonderful news that we had raised enough money for our newest Partner Organization, Twala Trust in Zimbabwe, to purchase a motorbike and trailer. And true to our word, this month we can show you the Doggy Waggin’, loaded for the very 1st time, with Doggy Tuesday (March 19) food.
In addition to helping Twala Trust by funding the Doggy Waggin’, we’ve promised Twala Trust that we will support Doggy Tuesday by providing dog food for the ~600 dogs who attend Doggy Tuesday every week.
The dogs aren’t only fed at Doggy Tuesday and get a “doggy bag” to go, all dogs are bathed to assist with parasite control, checked by the Twala Trust vet team, and treated for a range of issues. Some examples of the vet care provided during February’s Doggy Tuesdays: 2 dog with hematomas, 1 burn, 2 dental extractions – 1 dog with long-term issues caused by distemper had a canine tooth puncturing his top lip and the other dog also with distemper complications had 3 damaged teeth removed, 3 abscess, 1 urinary tract infection, 2 arthritis, 1 pancreatitis, 4 mange, 2 parvovirus, 1 cancerous mass in the chest of an old dog (who sadly had to be euthanized), 13 sterilizations of dogs, 1 cat sterilization. Doggy Tuesday isn’t only for dogs! Twala Trust also handed out 12 packets of cat food and vaccinated cats.
Sarah from Twala Trust wrote, “We are grateful for the ongoing support from Animal-Kind International. It has a significant positive impact on the quality of life of hundreds of rural dogs in our area, and as we head into a year of drought this assistance for the dogs will quite literally be life-saving.”
By the end of February, one more grantee (Bubu’s Animal Haven-Namibia) completed their grant project, leaving only two of our eight 2023 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program recipients, Blind Love-South Africa and Tanzania Small Animal Veterinary Organization. Both will complete their grant projects this month. Our March AKI Blog has info on Bubu’s, as well as updates from three of our Partner Organizations, The Six Freedoms-Ghana, Kingston Community Animal Welfare, and Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda.
Bubu’s Animal Haven’s grant project, Project Cat House and lifelong care of residents at the sanctuary, is a huge success with the older, unwanted cats, the beneficiaries of the beautiful new cat rooms and gardens (and cat food and vet care). Reni, director of Bubu’s, wrote, “Thank you to everybody at Animal-Kind International. I am very proud and I think we all together did a great job! It became even better, nicer and bigger as what I was expecting. It is a little cat paradise.”
The Six Freedoms-Ghana (@thesixfreedoms) has news about a birth, a rescue, and sad goodbyes to two of our favorite horses. Last month, we mentioned that AKI Partner Organization, the 6 Freedoms, had rescued Jah Bless (at that time T6F thought Jah Bless was about 11 years old, but now believe him to be 20 years old). Although his owner had turned him over to Wisdom, a groom who works with T6F, who turned him over to T6F, nothing official was in place. Based on past experience (and described in this AKI Blog post), T6F knew they needed an official signed contract that would give T6F ownership of the horse. And they got it! The owner not only agreed to hand him over, but official papers have been signed by all parties! Jah Bless is now getting the care he so needs and will never go back to his uncaring owner.
Here’s an update from AKI Partner Organization, Kingston Community Animal Welfare about several of their new rescues. It seems the number of cats and dogs on KCAW’s weekly feeding rounds never diminishes (and actually, it’s grown), even though in 2023, AKI funded the spay/neuter of 52 dogs and cats (36 females and 16 males, 40 cats and 12 dogs) living on Kingston’s streets or with impoverished families. While that’s not bad, it’s a drop in the bucket. KCAW can work with other rescuers and can spay/neuter many more, the only thing holding them back is the cost (although compared to the cost in many other locations, KCAW gets a really good deal: about US$25/dog and US$20/cat).
It makes SUCH a difference in the lives of cats and dogs who live on the streets when they’re no longer able to reproduce, and of course each animal spayed helps KCAW better manage and care for the unwanted pet population. We sure could use your support to spay and neuter many more of Kingston’s street dogs and cats!
Read about our Partner Organization, Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda, their humane saddle making training for donkey owners and their community vet clinics. Bam is addressing—through vet care and humane saddles (both combined with education/awareness raising)—the most common problems and causes of most injuries and wounds found on donkeys: carrying heavy loads using poor saddles, unbalanced and too heavy loads, not enough rest, inadequate food/poor nutrition, lack of water. Both the community vet clinics and humane saddle making are fully funded by our kind and generous AKI supporters!
Our Partner Organizations receive ongoing funding from us (thanks to your donations). Our grantees receive one-time funding (also thanks to your support)
based on a winning proposal. So far, in 2024, we’re helping 21 animal welfare organizations working in 13 countries. Their good news stories are thanks to your kindness and generosity.
With gratitude for your kindness and your much-needed and appreciated support,
Karen Menczer, Founder/Director
& the Animal-Kind International Board
AKI has Partner Organizations 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 2023 (6th annual) Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Program grantees work in: Zimbabwe (2 grantees), Tanzania (2 grantees), South Africa (2 grantees), Morocco, and Namibia.
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.