AKI in South Sudan

Because global travel was severely curtailed during the COVID-19 outbreak, our plans for the 1st spay/neuter campaign in South Sudan had been on hold. But in 2021, the team was back at work organizing the spay/neuter campaign--bringing in supplies, getting permission from government authorities, identifying locations, coordinating with interested organizations. We hope 2022 will be the year of the 1st South Sudan Spay/Neuter Campaign!

AKI's Humane Ed volunteers have put their efforts on hold during the pandemic.

AKI in South Sudan: Humane Ed & Spay/Neuter

Since 2006, AKI has supported Humane Education in South Sudan. It all started with a gasoline soaked puppy, that we rescued from a group of boys. That incident spurred a conversation between AKI Founder & Director, Karen, who was working in South Sudan at the time and two Americans, who had been living there for about 3 years, working for aid organizations.

The two Americans decided to start a Humane Education Program for South Sudan. AKI sent the volunteers HE material, we gave advice and moral support, and they spent their spare time raising awareness about animal care and welfare and working to change negative attitudes towards animals and stop cruel behavior targeting animals. They talked to community, school, and church groups about treating animals kindly.

Just before they left South Sudan, they "passed the baton" to 2 other American aid workers.

Because of the dangerous conditions in South Sudan and the requirements of their full time jobs, we've agreed to keep our HE volunteers anonymous. The only support we provide to the volunteers is HE material and advice.

And now we have an opportunity to do much more in South Sudan!

Starting in 2016, we began receiving more complaints than ever before about animal cruelty in South Sudan. So we (AKI) started an email group mainly consisting of international aid workers, who had contacted us about the animal welfare situation there, to discuss a way forward. Out of that, we started planning the FIRST EVER SPAY/NEUTER CAMPAIGN for South Sudan.

The s/n campaign will:

Bring a vet and vet tech from outside South Sudan to train local vets, vet techs, and community animal health workers in high volume, field-based spay/neuter;
Train volunteers in humane capture of cats and dogs;
Train volunteers to organize and operate a s/n clinic (PR, admin, record-keeping);
Work closely with relevant ministries and local government to ensure widespread support for this clinic and for future clinics;
Develop a group of well-trained vets, vet techs, and support staff who will run future clinics;
Obtain supplies and equipment for this and future clinics;
Raise awareness of s/n benefits, animal health care, and kindness to animals; and
Provide free s/n and rabies vaccines to as many cats and dogs (owned and free-roaming animals) as possible over a two-week period. We estimate we'll be able to sterilize about 500 cats and dogs during the campaign.

It's a HUGE effort that will take time and significant funding, but if we don't start now, there will only be more suffering for South Sudan's animals.

Pictures below are some of the cats and dogs who will benefit from the spay/neuter campaign and 2 pictures of 4 of our team members.

Donations in support of South Sudan's spay/neuter campaign can be made directly on this page or to our GoFundMe fund raiser: https://www.gofundme.com/f/karen039s-campaign-for-animal-kind-international

One of many free roaming cats in Juba, South Sudan

A South Sudan kitty who lives on the street

UPDATE: Thanks to Project VETS and transporter KJ, we received some of the supplies we'll need for the spay/neuter campaign. Two suitcases of supplies, from Colorado, USA to Nairobi, Kenya now await the start of the campaign: