The small charity making a big difference to the working animals in Egypt.
OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMME
Teaching preventative methods and animal care
Animals are often overloaded, undernourished and work non-stop in the relentless heat. Lack of education has meant that families often have little or no knowledge of how to care for these hard working animals.
ACE has been working in Luxor since July 2000, and we have seen how with even only a little time and few resources we can help prevent suffering, not only of the working animals but also domestic and wild animals too. By using and teaching preventative methods, treatment and education of basic animal care and welfare, it can and does make a real difference to help improve the lives of all the animals in Luxor.
Educating Owners
We often see animals that are badly treated or left too long with their injury before seeing us. The owners frequently protest that they didn’t realise or that it doesn’t matter – it can’t feel it. This lack of understanding is common place and something we are trying to change. Whenever we see an animal that should have come sooner or that has been abused our vets explain the reasoning and how this can be prevented in the future. This is a very important part of our work. While we can treat the animal in the present moment we also need to try and protect them for the future. Educating owners to have a better understanding and realising animals are just like us can help in reducing their suffering.
Children are the Future
We educate a different class of up to fifty students, from the schools in Luxor, four times a week. They are taught that animals feel pain and how to care for them. They learn to be kind and respectful to all living creatures. This is vital for the long term improvement of animal welfare in the area. Much of what we see is through ignorance and breaking the cycle of misunderstandings and lack of knowledge will make sure there is a brighter future for animals in Egypt.
Looking at them coming off the bus into ACE with a lot of noise and very much unorganised – it makes you think that a lesson would never have any effect on these kind of poor and badly educated kids …
...Finding some of them in tears when they see our photos of bleeding and badly treated animals. Looking at how much most of them are reacting with the lesson and how much they love the song and the story… It really makes you know that we are not wasting our time. They are really learning…. And you feel that a lot of them are already changed before they return to the bus.
These young boys came to ACE when they noticed their donkey had a sore beginning to form on his back, it was starting to get painful and they saw blood.
Children come to the hospital and learn in the classroom but also get shown around the stables and get to see first-hand how we help animals and it is explained how to prevent their animal from suffering the same fate as those they see hospitalised.
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Many of the children are often saddened by what they see and have a great compassion towards the animals. By learning that they may have hurt their own animal at home without realising it they can be very upset. By supporting children through this and giving them the knowledge to make things better for their animals children can feel empowered to help ensure their animal doesn’t suffer.
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We have been teaching local children in the area for several years now and already we know we are having an impact. We are now seeing the children we taught come to ACE with their animals for preventative care as well as veterinary treatment.
