Three World Animal Day grant winners are announced!
Charities everywhere are feeling the pinch that results from global prices rises. As many not-for-profit animal welfare organisations depend entirely on supporter donations, Naturewatch Foundation trustees decided that the 2023 World Animal Day grant should be increased accordingly.
Instead of offering a grant worth £5,000 to World Animal Day ambassadors, Naturewatch Foundation doubled the grants’ worth to £10,000 in the hope that the extra amount would ease charity pressures slightly and, most importantly, help more animals!
And, as the increased amount offers the possibility of covering three World Animal Day ambassador’s projects, we are pleased to announce three winners!
We’re delighted to share with you that the main winners of the 2023 World Animal Day grant are Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) in Indonesia. They will purchase a mobile veterinary clinic that will help them with their vital work around Bali, Java and Sumatra. Working as a legal partner to the government, JAAN rescues, rehabilitates and provides veterinary care to stray and wild animals across the country – but does not receive government funding for the work they do. The organisation has now become so trusted to work with enforcement and the government to help remove animals from wildlife crime and abuse cases that their workload has increased substantially, leading to the need for improved veterinary equipment and a better vehicle to help the animals they rescue.
An employee of JAAN syringe-feeds a rescued monkey water.
As the main grant winners, JAAN will be able to buy a van containing veterinary equipment, such as an anaesthetic machine, which allow them to both transport and treat animals from the vehicle.
They plan to use the converted vehicle to:
- neuter large numbers of stray animals in remote areas
- treat and move animals confiscated from cruelty cases
- transport wildlife between their centres on different islands, and
- release rehabilitated animals.
We look forward to seeing the important work they do and the animals they help using this much-needed ambulance!
JAAN play an important role in neutering
stray animals throughout Indonesia.
There are two other well-deserving grant winners in 2023 – Cape Animal Welfare Forum (CAWF) for a Compassion Fatigue workshop and Swaziland Animal Welfare Society (SAWS) for educational materials.
We chose to award a small part of the grant to CAWF’s workshop as many animal welfare professionals become exhausted from the emotional burden that comes with working in the sector. CAWF acts as an umbrella organisation for 58 other animal welfare charities and not-for-profits, meaning that they often see this issue amongst their members and wanted to do something to help. With the grant money, the organisation plans to host a workshop on ‘Compassion Fatigue in the Workplace’, which will be recorded and made available to the member organisations. They hope that, by holding this event, they will be indirectly helping animals by providing support to burnt-out professionals and empowering them in their animal welfare roles.
And, last but not least, we awarded the remaining grant money to SAWS to cover the cost of 10,000 educational leaflets that will be distributed within rural areas. The leaflets will contain information about how to care for animals and will introduce topics of animal welfare to communities with little to no awareness on the issue.
We believe that all of these grant winners will use their share of the funds to deliver the best outcome they can for the animals they aim to help, and we look forward to sharing updates on each of their projects.