November 2025 Excellence in Action: The Animal Aider Project

 

In August 2024, GARC recognized its first Rabies Centers of Excellence (RCE). RCEs approach rabies elimination in their community with a keen awareness of local challenges. As part of our Communities Against Rabies initiative, we want to showcase the incredible work that they do. For this month’s Excellence in Action, we are proud to share the work of The Animal Aider Project, Ghana. 

The Animal Aider Project is a Ghana-based veterinary non-profit organization founded in 2022 under the Clinton Global Initiative University Fellowship. The organization is headquartered in Accra and operate across several regions of Ghana. TAAP focuses on advancing animal health, welfare, and public health by controlling animal-borne diseases, particularly rabies, through community outreach and education. Their slogan is “No animal left behind and no person uniformed”, fueling their mission and vision on ensuring every animal in Ghana gets access to veterinary preventive care irrespective of the owner’s financial situation and no person in Ghana is left uninformed about rabies.

 

Tell us more about who you are and where you work.

My name is Dr. Akosua Kumi Nyarko, a veterinarian from Ghana and the Founder & CEO of The Animal Aider Project (TAAP). Together with my amazing team and volunteers, TAAP has been running for 3 years now.

Our work includes:

• Free Mass Rabies Vaccinations and deworming for pets (dogs, cats, monkeys).
• Free ectoparasite control for pets
• Community Education and Awareness on bite prevention, responsible pet ownership, and rabies prevention.
• Outreach to underserved communities, where access to veterinary care is limited.
• Collaborations with local authorities, schools, and veterinary services to ensure sustainable, community-driven interventions.

Through our programme, VetReach (Veterinary Outreach), we conduct mobile vaccination and education drives in communities, reaching hundreds of animals and community members every year. Since our inception, VetReach has cut across over 20 communities in 5 different regions in Ghana with over 980 rabies vaccinations and deworming, and 500 PPR vaccinations done and over 3000 public education on rabies and other animal borne illnesses.

 

 

What are your biggest challenges in working as an RCE?

As Ghana’s first Rabies Center of Excellence (RCE) awardee, our responsibilities have increased substantially. However, several challenges persist:

• Limited Funding: Despite growing donor support, sustaining large-scale vaccination and education campaigns remains financially demanding.
• Logistical Barriers: Reaching rural and remote communities often requires significant transport, accommodation, and equipment costs.
• Public Awareness Gaps: Many pet owners in underserved communities still lack adequate knowledge about rabies prevention and responsible pet care.
• Volunteer Capacity: While our team is passionate, expanding our programmes to new areas requires more volunteers of which we can’t cater for due to limited funding.
• Cold Chain Maintenance: Ensuring proper vaccine storage and transport during outreach missions can be challenging in rural conditions.

 

Why did you want to be a GARC Rabies Center of Excellence?

We sought to become a GARC Rabies Center of Excellence (RCE) to strengthen our technical capacity, expand our impact, and align our efforts with global best practices in rabies control.

This recognition has greatly benefitted TAAP by:

• Enhancing our credibility within Ghana and the West African sub-region.
• Expanding access to GARC’s global network and learning resources.
• Empowering our team with evidence-based tools and data to design impactful programmes.
• Attracting partnerships and funding, including recognition by organizations such as Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI).
• It has also inspired confidence among our volunteers, donors, and community partners to intensify the fight against rabies.

 

 

Do you have any campaigns that you want to highlight for 2025?

For now, our programmes for 2025 have ended. However, TAAP significantly expanded our outreach and vaccination coverage through the following key campaigns:

• Expansion of the VetReach Programme: Extending free veterinary care and rabies vaccination to communities in 2 different regions in Ghana (Ashanti and Bono East Regions)
• Mass Rabies Vaccination Drive: At least 386 dogs and cats were vaccinated and dewormed across over 7 communities in 3 different Regions in Ghana (Greater Accra, Bono-East and Ashanti Regions) this year.
• Rabies Education Initiative: Awareness was created among over 1600 people, including school children and community members on rabies prevention and bite management.

 

How have you used the GARC resources in your community?

TAAP has actively utilized GARC’s resources to enhance our rabies control efforts. These resources have:

• Guided our community education strategies, helping us deliver clear, evidence-based messages on rabies prevention.
• Strengthened our training materials for volunteers and outreach teams.
• Empowered us to organize more vaccination and community education outreaches.
• Supported our recognition as a Rabies Center of Excellence, enabling us to align our monitoring, evaluation, and outreach models with GARC’s standards.
• Creating a tailored rabies educational material using GARC’s educational template
• Volunteers signing up and becoming certified Rabies educators under GARC’s REC.
• Using the Vaccination and Sterilization Tracker as well as the Education Tracker to record, measure, analyze and view our vaccination and education data

 

 

Through these resources, TAAP has improved the effectiveness and consistency of our messaging, increased vaccination coverage, and built stronger community trust in our rabies prevention work.

Being a Rabies Center of Excellence has been a big stepping stone for The Animal Aider Project in our operations and we hope to expand even further. We call on everyone to come on board and support us leave no animal behind and no person uninformed.

 

This project was supported by Battersea Dogs and Cats Home.