May 2025: Facing big challenges & Animal Welfare Grants 2025
- Animal-Kind International
- Jun 7
- 5 min read
AKI & our Animal Welfare Partners are facing challenges (2 big ones & some smaller ones!)
Two of our Animal Welfare Partner Organizations, Twala Trust-Zimbabwe and the Six Freedoms-Ghana, are facing major challenges and we don’t want these challenges to turn into emergencies. So we are asking for your help before they do. We’ll tell you more about what’s going on, but 1st, some good news….
Read below about the challenge out Partner Organization 6 Freedoms is facing.
MATCHING DONATION OPPORTUNITY! A long-time AKI supporter wants to help us raise more money for our grant program and fund more grant projects. But she doesn’t want to do this alone. She wants to see more people step up to help. She’s offering a match of US$1 for every US$1 we can raise -specifically for the grant program—up to US$2500. If we’re successful, an additional 2 to 3 grant projects can be funded this year! To donate, click the above link, write “match” on the comment line and if you can’t donate now, maybe you know someone else who can-please forward our info if you do.
Our 2025/2026 Animal Welfare Grant Program will accept proposals starting on Sunday, May 25 until June 22. We’ve assembled a 13 member committee to review proposals and provide their recommendations to the AKI Board.
For the 1st time since 2018 when we started providing grants (vs. ongoing support to our Partner Organizations), we’re including Latin American/Caribbean animal welfare organizations (by invitation only for this 1st year).
For prospective grant applicants: Click here for the FAQs and the application form. Also, for your interest and review, previous grants that we’ve funded (2018-2024) are under “Our Grant Program” on the website.
Every month we add new articles to the AKI Blog with updates from our Partners and Grantees, and sometimes personal stories we think you’ll find interesting, like this one from a great AKI supporter, Alexandra George (From the Wild to the Familiar), about her journey into the Okavango Delta, as chronicled in her beautifully written and photographed book.
Earlier this month, we received alarming news from AKI Partner Twala Trust: "Disaster has struck here, quite literally, with a lightning strike to our electricity transformer which has been destroyed.” We overcame that challenge together. But to do that, we had to dig into money designated for the Twala Trust Pet Food Fund. Now we need to replenish the Pet Food Fund before that becomes an emergency!
Keep reading this AKI Blog post about how we met one challenge and how you can help us overcome the next.
Here are 2 more articles in this month’s AKI Blog:
SPCA-Grahamstown helps people in their community take care of cats and dogs: Once their 2024 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant was completed, SPCA-G started using AKI’s top-up grant (The Good D.O.G. Fund”—Dogs of Grahamstown). The top-up grant provides free spay/neuter and vet care in under-served, impoverished communities. SPCA-G’s Michelle, who manages this AKI fund told us, "It is truly a miracle-working fund for us." READ THESE SWEET STORIES ABOUT SOME OF THE GOOD D.O.G. FUND’S RECIPIENTS.
Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda: April 2025 donkey welfare clinics: During one of Bam’s free donkey veterinary clinics (entirely funded by AKI donors), the Bam team was confronted with a donkey whose leg was injured and then made worse after receiving poor care from a local vet. We’re hoping that Bam can send a vet surgeon (with expertise in equine medicine) to examine the donkey and relieve his suffering. With this disability, the donkey is at risk from animal and human predators, including the donkey skin traders. (Read more in this blog post)
The 6 Freedoms’ Big Challenge
In early May, we received alarming news from our Partner, 6F in Ghana: “[6F volunteer] Miriam is trying since weeks now to get this poor mare and her baby from the streets and tries negotiating with the owner. The mother cannot walk properly already at only two years old. She has back problems - they’ve been riding her. It’s a very critical situation. We can only secure safety when the horses are in our hands officially or with someone else we trust.”
After days of discussions, the owner still refused to sell the horses. During the negotiations, a few more horses came to the attention of Miriam and fellow 6F volunteers, Jonathan and Moses, including the one in the picture at the top of this newsletter. As too often happens, 6F and the owner were unable to reach an agreement. This is just one of the challenges that we and 6F face when it comes to rescuing horses.
But finally, it looks like we will have the opportunity to rescue Little, a young mare kept in a ramshackle stable by the beach. 6F volunteer Miriam wrote, “Her owner has tried to take care of her but it hasn’t been enough. She is underweight, has old saddle sore wounds and has already given birth to two foals. She is destined for life as a brood mare without adequate nutrition and care, her malnourished body forced to carry foal after foal. During these pregnancies, she will be forced to give rides to tourists along at the city’s beaches. Her owner has realised he cannot take care of her adequately and has reluctantly agreed to part with her. I’m still in negotiations, but, we’ve pretty much reached a deal.” We’ll have more news about —what we hope will be—Little’s journey to safety in the next newsletter.
While we know that purchasing neglected animals is far from ideal and can appear to be a bonus for neglecting an animal, for horses, especially, it is often the only option. On top of that, in countries where very weak—or no—animal welfare legislation exists, it is the only way to secure the rescue of a horse. And that brings us to another challenge that 6 F faces, not only the cost to rescue a horse (prices vary, but US$600-$1000 is typical), then there is the rehabilitation, vet care, and ongoing upkeep of rescued horses—not to mention needing a location for rescued horses (more on that in future newsletters).
With 6F, we will be offering sponsorships for people who want to help rescue and provide maintenance costs for rescued horses. We think this is a really exciting way to help relieve so much suffering of these intelligent, grand animals. For now, please consider a donation to AKI, designated for 6F, to help us bring Little to safety.
Before you go!—> I want to add a quick reminder about the “dog rescue scam,” which now includes cats and rabbits, and scammers can be found on all social media platforms and in every language (thanks to translation software). If you haven’t already read it or if you want to refresh your memory, YOU CAN READ OUR AKI BLOG POST ABOUT THE SCAM HERE.
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.
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.
