Fundraising campaign reaches its target!

Our end-of-year fundraising campaign was to print Want a Friend, Be a Friend booklets to be distributed in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Harare is experiencing a severe outbreak of rabies, and GARC is working on a mass dog vaccination with in-country partners the Zimbabwean Ministry of Livestock and Veterinary Services, Zimbabwe National SPCA ZNSPCA) along with their Harare SPCA branch, Veterinarians for Animal Welfare Zimbabwe (VAWZ) and the Twala Animal Trust.

This mass dog vaccination (kicking off this month) is an ideal time to strengthen local children’s understanding of the importance of taking good care of dogs and understanding how to behave safely around them.

“Rabies prevention isn’t taught in schools in Zimbabwe. A Want a Friend, Be a Friend booklet might be the only information children receive about this fatal disease.”

Lambert Gwenhure, Laboratory Scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture, Zimbabwe.

Last year, veterinary students delivered these booklets to children in South Africa during a similar exercise. This is what the students had to say:

• “The booklets contain all the vital information and will make sure that what we taught will remain fresh in their minds and at their fingertips if ever they need a reminder.”
• “With the help of the rabies booklets the learners will also be able to share their knowledge with other members of the community.”
•  “We even managed to inspire some of them to become veterinarians.”

Imagine that! Life-saving knowledge and inspiration to join the ranks of people working to prevent rabies in the future.

It puts a smile on our faces to say the campaign reached its target and raised £1,007.04! As a result, hundreds of copies of Want a Friend, Be a Friend booklets will be handed out during the vaccination campaign to local children in the coming months.

Thank you to everyone who donated and otherwise supported the campaign – particularly those who preferred to remain anonymous and may not have received a personal thank you.

 

Contributed by Liz Davidson, who coordinated the fundraiser on behalf of GARC