Kindness to Animals has no Boundaries AKI News-November 2021 Dear Animal-Kind Friends,
Like you, I’m a donor too. I realized that when I donate to some other organizations, I receive a letter that thanks me, and at the same time, asks me to donate again-almost before I can close my checkbook or shut down my laptop or phone. And then it’s open season, I’m asked again and again to donate. This year, I dropped all of those organizations from my donation list.
And-although I believe AKI has always done this-we are going to double down on the practice—when someone donates, we’re going to tell them how we plan to use their donation; then we’re going to tell them how we did use their donation; and then we’re going to keep telling them how we use donations.
For years now, we have shown you and told you in a few different ways: We publish AKI Blog posts with information about how each of our Partners and Grantees uses AKI funds; we create pie charts for each of our Partners to show how they use our funds; we publish an annual report; and for our monthly donors, we send an end-of-year email to each of them with information about how their donations are used (MONTHLY DONORS, PLEASE BE ON THE LOOK-OUT FOR THAT EMAIL MESSAGE FROM ME IN EARLY DECEMBER.)
We will continue to show you and tell you, and give you, our donors, this level of confidence and information about your donations to Animal-Kind International.
Here are 4 recent stories about how 3 of our Partners (Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda, Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras, and Have a Heart-Namibia) and Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Recipient, Nairobi Feline Sanctuary, use AKI funds:
Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda: Donkeys are helped thanks to support from AKI - Thanks to AKI donors, Bam is making headway in eastern Uganda and is developing a regular presence there to monitor how donkeys are faring, provide vet care, and train owners to make and use humane saddles. Bam has trained 20 people as sisal saddle-making trainers, who will go on and train others. Read about Bam Animal Clinics’ challenges, achievements, and what AKI funds have accomplished in this post.
Photo above: At a Bam community donkey clinic in September, Bam noticed severe injuries on a young donkey who was already being trained, at this young age, to haul goods. Bam vets treated the donkey, advised the owner against this practice, and their field-based team is following up.
Helping Hands for Hounds of Honduras has started a new project to help street dogs - This is a really exciting effort initiated by a community on the northwest side of Tegucigalpa (Patrick is the spokesperson), where there are many street dogs. Patrick approached Animal-Kind Int’l and HHHH for help, but also offered to do a huge part of the work: He and his neighbors will bring the dogs to the HHHH Sanctuary, where they will stay before and after spay surgery and Pilar will transport and care for them until they are returned; his community will set up and monitor feeding stations for the street dogs; AKI will cover costs that Patrick and his neighbors are unable to cover. Read more about this community spay project in this AKI Blog post. We’re all hoping to make this a model for future community s/n efforts.
Photo above: Leica was scheduled to be the 2nd street dog from Patrick’s community to be spayed, but when Pilar took Leica to the vet, they discovered she had distemper, her white blood cell count was crazy high, and she had edema in her legs (the concern is she may have a tumor). She is currently being treated for distemper, and Dr. Ordonez will assess her condition for further treatment needs and a spay.
Nairobi Feline Sanctuary builds sleeping units & quarantine rooms - With their 2021 grant from AKI, NFS built 65 kitty condos-25 more than planned(!) and a quarantine area that can hold up to 8 cats. In this AKI Blog post, check out these cool cat pictures of the kitties enjoying the condos.
Photo above: Saba and Lesley are in a playful mood, while their friend just wants to sleep in her new kitty condo. Last year, NFS used their grant from AKI to build a play area and spay/neuter clinic. Now, they are looking forward to spreading their model throughout Kenya (and maybe beyond!)
Four months & 12 AKI-Have a Heart-Namibia Emergency Fund Cases - HaH’s Geesche says it best: “The AKI Emergency Fund for HaH helps the sick or injured animal to get help as fast as possible; the less fortunate but caring owner in a heartbreaking situation; the HaH volunteers to know there is a way, we are not helpless, we can help; the vet who doesn't need to put down a loved and wanted animal with a treatable illness or injury only because there is no money. We really cannot stress enough how much AKI does for the dogs and cats and people in Namibia!!!”
Photo above: Trixie was an AKI-HaH Emergency Fund patient after someone threw a rock at her and broke her leg. At only 6 kg, her family feels it’s very difficult to keep her safe in their community, and although they love her dearly and she is currently staying with them, they asked the local shelter to find a safer home for Trixie. Meanwhile, by paying for the surgery and pain killers (as a previous HaH client, Trixie had already been spayed), the AKI-HaH Emergency Fund saved Trixie from lifelong pain.
Our Gratitude to Digital Scrapbook
For the “Charity Shout Out” on their website-we are so grateful to Digital Scrapbook for letting a whole new community know about Animal-Kind International! DigitaI Scrapbook is a great place to find graphics to use in online portraits—especially for the holidays.
Check them out at digitalscrapbook.com.
Animal welfare can be dirty business : )
I’ve often written about our Partner Organization, Uganda SPCA, and their hair-raising rescues. Cats caught in razor wire, digging through culverts to get to a litter of puppies, and of course, the puppies and kittens that fall into pit latrines. The Uganda SPCA sees it all and does it all! Here’s a “show & tell” of one of their recent rescues of a kitten who fell into a pit latrine (The simple solution is to cover the pit of the pit latrine with a piece of wood or rock, but that isn’t always done.)
On November 5, Uganda SPCA Haven manager tried to rescue the kitten, but was unable to. He returned on November 6, and success! With a rope and lasso, he got the kitty, who had been at the bottom of the pit for 5 days, out of the latrine! Who would have known that the little kitten was actually gold?
Animal-Kind International supports Uganda SPCA’s shelter, The Haven, by providing the funding for rent, staff salaries, transport, cat and dog food, electricity, gas, and phone for The Haven, as well as whatever other priority needs they have.
And lately, they have many needs that we are all struggling to fulfill. During covid, the Uganda SPCA has lost so many donors, they have incurred more costs due to the increasing number of rescues, the restaurants and shops that used to regularly donate food are no longer able to. If you can spare a donation for The Haven’s cats and dogs, we are very grateful. In next month’s AKI Newsletter, we’ll update you about the needs and plans for the big move to the new Haven plot of land.
November 30 is Giving Tuesday, which has become a big giving day for charities. Although we like to think that every day and any day is a good day for donating to Animal-Kind Int’l, with the attention given to Giving Tuesday in recent years, it’s impossible not to join in. We hope you’ll donate when your moved to donate to AKI, be that Giving Tuesday or any other day. No matter when, we are grateful for your donations this holiday season. (You can click on the photo below to bring you to our donate page.)
For reviews of Animal-Kind International, you can check Great NonProfits 2021; Charity Navigator; and Guidestar, where you will find evaluations from external sources-we are proud of all of them. (Note on the Charity Navigator site, our evaluation is incomplete because an organization has to raise at least US$200,000 to be fully evaluated.)
100% of your donations go to AKI-supported organizations, our Partner Organizations in 9 countries: Uganda (2 partners), Tanzania, South Sudan, Namibia (2 partners), Liberia, Ghana, Armenia, Jamaica, and Honduras; and AKI's 2021 Africa-Based Animal Welfare Organization Grant Recipients who work in Ghana, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (3 grantees). Please help us get the word out about AKI by forwarding this message to your friends and family who love animals. With Gratitude, Karen Menczer, Founder & Director & the AKI Board