Physical Health Tanzania, United Republic of Project #1953

HeroRATs: Sniffing Out Landmines and Tuberculosis

by APOPO vzw

Project Report | Apr 4, 2023
Today is an apt day to have your gift matched!

By Emma Mortiboy | Public Fundraising Officer

Ronin playing in the play cages

Hello and welcome to your latest update on your support of APOPO’s HeroRATs, which arrives on a very important day for APOPO. Today is World Rat Day and Landmine Awareness Day. To top it all, GlobalGiving is running its Little x Little appeal, which means that your gift will be matched today! The last quarter has been busy as always and your support has enabled so much. We are very excited to update you and we hope that we inspire you to have your gift matched by GlobalGiving today of all days.

During the last quarter, your generosity supported our HeroRAT training program, allowing us to train a further 12 HeroRATs to detect tuberculosis (TB). This new team of TB HeroRATs are well on their way to getting ready to start work in the coming months. Our TB detection program is saving lives, thanks to your support, and on March 24th (World TB Day) APOPO participated in several high-profile events to raise awareness and send the message, that “Yes, we can end TB!” So far, with your generous help, our HeroRATS have identified 26,378 additional TB patients for our partner clinics who otherwise would not have been diagnosed. Knowing that one person with active pulmonary TB can spread it to up to 15 people a year, our efforts in finding additional TB cases and getting these patients onto medication means over a quarter of a million potential TB infections were prevented with your support. Together, we really can end TB!

In terms of mine action, your kindness has allowed our HeroRATs to detect an amazing 830 explosive remnants of war, over the last three months, which means that whole communities across the globe are living safely for the first time. Your support has cleared over 2 million sqm of land, which is an incredible feat.

Unfortunately, war continues and not every government has signed the International Ban on Landmines (Ottawa Treaty). This means that our HeroRAT teams must work harder than ever to return peace to war-afflicted villages wherever we can, with you behind us.

APOPO and our HeroRATs are on target (or exceeding targets in some countries) to clear all of the tasks we have agreed to clear in 2023. From Angola to Cambodia and Zimbabwe – together, with your generosity, there will be thousands of beneficiaries this year, despite the ongoing challenges.

Thank you again for an incredible quarter – our HeroRATs and their amazing ability to detect TB and landmines are genuinely saving lives. Your belief in our work continues to take us to new heights, where APOPO is considered a necessity in terms of partnerships in the countries we work.

We hope you will consider supporting our HeroRATs on our new project page (project number 58093) and having your donation matched at no extra cost to you. We understand that it may not always be possible to give, but please do spread the word. Your support in whatever form it takes truly keeps us going. Thank you so very much.

Ilaria working in mine detection

Ronin and his handler in Cambodia

TB detecting, HeroRAT Carolina in Tanzania

Links:

Permalink

Feb 8, 2022
Your HeroRATs Update for the last Quarter!

By Emma Mortiboy | Public Fundraising Officer

Volunteer, Rashidi helping with treatment

LAST QUARTER

The last quarter has been bittersweet. Our HeroRATs have continued their lifesaving work around the world, and as you may have seen in the news, in January, our much beloved Magawa passed away peacefully in his sleep. It was very sad, especially for the handlers and trainers who worked so closely with Magawa, but he did live to a grand old age of eight and in his memory, our supporters raised over $10,000 to help support future HeroRATs.

At our Tanzanian Training Center, we have just had a new litter of HeroPUPs born - they are still nestled up with mum and will begin the process of socialization at 4 - 5 weeks of age. Socialization means that APOPO trainers gently carry them around, introducing them to sights, sounds, smells, and noises, to adapt them to the training environment and their human trainers. Our HeroRATs are always so friendly and adaptable with people, and it is this crucial part of the training, which makes this the case.

The total landmines and other explosives cleared, and safe land released throughout last year, has benefitted both direct and indirect beneficiaries, allowing children to play freely and creating safe paths to school and work. Thank you.

COMING UP

Next month on the 24th of March, it is World Tuberculosis Day, which is where we join the thousands of other health agencies to raise awareness and promote donations to those helping in the fight against tuberculosis. Fighting tuberculosis in countries such as Ethiopia, Mozambique, and Tanzania, is more important than ever with the emergence of COVID19, adding another severe acute respiratory illness into the mix. It is more important than ever that our work detecting missed tuberculosis samples continues.

The fight to eradicate tuberculosis (TB) involves the combined efforts of clinics, programs, and volunteers working together to address the diagnosis and treatment shortfalls. APOPO's TB detection HeroRATs do their part by helping find undiagnosed cases of TB. After a positive sample has been confirmed, the partner clinic is notified so that patients can start treatment and begin feeling better. Once the clinic receives the notice of a positive diagnosis, APOPO's community partner steps in to help provide additional education and support and ensure that medications are completed. APOPO has volunteer healthcare workers who provide much-needed outreach to underserved communities and rural areas where there is a high gap from diagnosis, to linkage, to care.

Many of these volunteer healthcare workers have themselves suffered tuberculosis or provided care to families afflicted with the debilitating disease. Knowing the hardship tuberculosis imposes, they now help those in need.

Our HeroRATs detect 40% more cases of tuberculosis than microscopy alone, meaning your donation not only saves lives from the horrors of war, but also from the horrendous symptoms associated with tuberculosis. Thank you.

Warm wishes,

One of our HeroRATs at play!

Tuberculosis handler with HeroRAT

Harnessing up for a morning of landmine clearance

Links:

Permalink

Apr 25, 2014
Rats saved William's life

By APOPO HeroRATs | Project Leader

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 12 ›

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 recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.

Sign up for updates

Organization Information

APOPO vzw

Location: Morogoro, Tanzania - Tanzania, United Republic of
Website: https://www.apopo.org
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @HeroRATs

Project Leader:
Paul Delbar
Public Fundraising Manager
Sokoine University , Morogoro Tanzania, United Republic of

Funded Project!

Thanks to 4,664 donors like you, a total of $249,508 was raised for this project on GlobalGiving. Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.