Animal Welfare Eswatini Project #17105

Using Animal Care to Promote Empathy in Children

by Vusumnotfo

Project Report | May 16, 2022
#50/Promoting animal care at Hlanganani Primary

By Cynthia Shabangu | Hlanganani School Secretary

Griffen owns the office

Several years back we introduced Griffen to Hlanganani Primary School. Hlanganani is a Not-for-Profit school 35 Km from Vusumnotfo, with the aim of "affordable access to quality education in northern Eswatini".

Although many children in rural Eswatini are exposed to cats and dogs, their interaction tends to be harsh. We wanted to introduce students to a well cared for cat as a strategy to encourage the development of more positive interactions.

Well - it certainly worked! Griffen basically owns the school office, as cats tend to do. Parents have gotten used to Griffen lazing about. Most importantly the students have come to love Griffen; many run to greet Griffen when they arrive each morning. Griffen of course takes it all in stride, offering his purrs and warmth to each and every child.

Introducing a cat to a school takes a bit of extra time and effort. The process needs to be supported with many teachable moments; explaining the why to parents, and the how to children. However based on our experience at Hlanganani, I can highly recommend the value gained from having a school cat.

We are in the process of confirming our venue for our upcoming spay day on June 25th. So good to be back in action after COVID restrictions! Thank you for providing the resources to make this happen!

----------------------------------

Facebook - Hlanganani Pre and Primary School

Instagram - Hlanganani Schools

Special time happens throughout the day

Permalink

Jan 13, 2022
#49/Making Friends

By Katherine J Gau | Director

Teachable moments

During workshops at Vusumnotfo it is a pleasure to observe people become more comfortable around the dogs. By half way through a workshop I can tell that each dog has chosen "their" participant.

Many people start out very scared, due to negative experiences and attitudes they grew up around. This gives us an opportunity to explain animal behaviour - that a wagging tail is a good sign, that a dog wants to greet you, that dogs communicate through smell, and what to do (and not do) to let a dog get used to you.

The contrast to most of the dogs at community level is stark and very much noticed so this provides many teachable moments. Participants ask a lot of questions about what we feed the dogs and why our dogs do not have ticks and fleas. We also explain the benefits of sterilizing dogs and cats. In doing so we promote the services of Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS) which is where we get our dogs from.

People have started calling to ask about when will be the next veterinary clinic which speaks to the value arising from the dogs and cats that have received veterinary services through this project.

Thanks to your support, this project is now fully funded. This allows us to plan with SAWS for our 2022 veterinary clinic.

I will be posting a series of recap photos so that you can fully appreciate the positive impact from your support to this project.

This project is one of Vusumnotfo's 9 core activities -

1.1. Parenting -
Train - to increase knowledge of early childhood developmental milestones and learning standards; and to understand factors that influence these.
Conduct - a veterinary clinic annually, as a strategy to promote animal care as a positive demonstration of responsibility and empathy to children.

So we will continue to implement and report on it under our new posting "Vusumnotfo - Parenting for a Sustainable Future" - http://goto.gg/55139.

New Friends

Hanging out with participants

Links:

Vusumnotfo - Parenting for a Sustainable Future

Permalink

Sep 17, 2021
#48/Integration

By Katherine J Gau | Director, Vusumnotfo

Story book time is always time

Integration across our activities strengthens our impact:

Nosmilo waiting for her Shonaquip device to be refitted i.e. providing structured support to children with special needs at family level.

While her sister enjoys reading a BookDash book to her i.e. promoting a love of bilingual reading.

While Chaco watches over them both i.e. using animal care as a positive demonstration of responsiblity and empathy to children.

I enjoy watching when new participants come for training at Vusumnotfo. On Monday many are nervous of the dogs, Rocky, Chaco and Rhino. By Tuesday participants are becoming a bit more relaxed. By Wednesday I find each dog sitting in front of the person who has started sharing food scraps during lunch. By Thursday I hear participants greeting the dogs by name. By Friday people are asking about why our dogs are so healthy and friendly compared to theirs.

This gives many teachable moments to explain about dog care and dog behavior. We promote the services of Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS) which is where we got Rocky, Chaco and Rhino (and through the years, all of the dogs and cats that have been part of the Vusumnotfo family)

Government schools reopened last week after another closure due to COVID-19. SAWS is confirming if they can import the drugs needed for the spay day, as there have been some supply chain issues. Fingers crossed we will be moving forward on our next spay activity in the very near future. People are asking and calling about it all the time now!

Your interest and support is highly appreciated during these extra challenging times. Keep safe.

Tibi Tendlu participants enjoying kitty therapy

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 21 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.