ActionAid secures funding to protect donkeys
Some women, chiefs and stakeholders from 24 communities in the Sissala East Municipality are to be supported to ensure the safety and welfare of donkeys in the area.
Officials of Action Aid Ghana disclosed this in Tumu during a meeting with stakeholders to preserve and sustain the donkeys as animals that help humans in both social and economic functions.
Madam Terence Tienaah, the Upper West Regional Manager of ActionAid, speaking at the function, said Action Aid as an organisation over the years had been friends with everyone with the objective of ensuring fairness and justice for all in society including the welfare of animals.
She said donkeys had over the years helped mankind in their work in the Sissala area, but their welfare had been neglected, hence the intervention to secure donkeys.
Madam Tienaah, therefore, reiterated the need to ensure greater welfare for the upkeep of the donkey for it to continue to help, with emphasis on its care, how it’s fed, and what to do to ensure how to sustain the animal by prioritizing the donkey from being extinct.
She said the need to secure its safety against sale for the skin in a manner that would preserve them for the support that they give to humans especially women.
Madam Abibah Nibaradun, Programme Officer at ActionAid who gave an overview of the ‘Donkey Sanctuary’ (TDS) project said, it is an 18-month project for 24 communities from June 2022 to the end of 2023 in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West region.
“The goal is to improve welfare for women with donkeys to ensure improved feed, provide and improve existing water system for donkeys, vaccines and veterinary services by increasing capacity of other stakeholders to bring about improved donkey harness, to make the carrying of load less stressful and increase the safety of the donkey,” he explained.
She said: “With a budget of £129,482.21, the Donkey Sanctuary from the United Kingdom is targeted at 54 groups,1,080 women, it will train 140 schoolteachers who will pass on the knowledge to 5,000 school children at the end of the project,” Madam Nibaradun disclosed.
Mr Duwiejua Mumuni Dramani, a Senior Development Planning Officer of the Sissala East Municipal Assembly who spoke on behalf of the Municipal Chief Executive urged the stakeholders to take key interest in the project and asked ActionAid to work with the Environmental Health Unit of Assembly to ensure effective collaboration.
He asked the women to frequently clean the environment of the donkey to keep them healthy.
Madam Damata Chimson from Vamboi a mother of seven, stressed how helpful the donkey had been to her and appealed to other women to provide shelter for the donkeys as most of them are left homeless.
Source: GNA