ERADICATING RABIES ONE VACCINE AT A TIME
Rabies Vaccination Campaigns in the African Bush
To date, we have held three vaccine clinics in remote villages in Malawi and Zambia. In 2017, we vaccinated 550 dogs in Malawi and Zambia. In 2018, we set our goal even higher and embarked on our first mass vaccination campaign in Mzuzu, a large city in northern Malawi. Over five days we vaccinated 12,000 dogs. In 2019, we continued our vaccination campaign in northern Malawi and vaccinated another 3,000 dogs in Mzimba township, an hour south of Mzuzu. Our aim is to raise awareness and funding so we can continue to provide these large scale vaccine clinics throughout Malawi. We are currently working with the government of Malawi and Rabies Free Africa to set up a sustainable and cost-effective model in order to reach the goal of ending Rabies by 2030. As this process progresses we will continue to return to Malawi to keep up vaccination in the North.
Medical Supplies
Medical Supplies in the areas we target are scarce and we collect donations to be taken to the bush veterinary clinics each year. Currently we supply the veterinary clinic in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia which is supported by Conservation South Luangwa. We are able to find a use for even the most rudimentary supplies and welcome any and all donations. Transportation of the donations is always a challenge as the cost tends to be quite high, so monetary donations are also welcome.
Spay and Neuter Field Clinics
We are working to create a pop up veterinary field clinics to spay and neuter the dogs in the villages and the bush. The areas that we travel to have little to no medical services for humans or their ever-growing animal population. Spay and neuter help control the canine population and helps prevent government-sponsored culling of the canine population - a system that is outdated and not proven to be effective but still practiced in Africa. In the future, we plan to take veterinary students from the Universities to assist in these clinics. The clinics will provide a desperately needed service for the animals and the members of the village while also providing an educational experience for aspiring veterinary students who are globally-minded.
