One Health in the Argan Forest

Your support has been invaluable in making us achieve great progress and we have just returned from the field where we were preparing our next One Health intervention scheduled for September, with a massive dog rabies vaccination and awareness campaign in the project area in the argan Biosphere Reserve.

The overall objective of our project is to improve the health of local Berber women - the true custodians of the endemic argan forest - and their families, as well as that of their animals and their environment by addressing specific health challenges at the interface between humans, animals and the ecosystem.

Rabies is a critical issue as it is still endemic in Morocco, especially in remote rural areas where we are working. It is always fatal once symptoms have appeared and as such is the most dangerous zoonotic disease.

When we talked to children in schools in the project area, most of them had a story to tell us about themselves or about one of their friends having been bitten by a dog. Since dogs are not vaccinated, the only treatment is then for the kid to be taken to the nearest hospital, most often miles away, to receive post-exposure treatment which has to be repeated three times. An additional problem is the increasing population of stray dogs in the area, which have returned to a feral life and are now aggressive towards humans, especially children.

We are preparing the campaign with school teachers who are welcoming the project with great enthusiasm since our work will help protect children and their families against this fatal disease.

WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP TO CONTINUE.

We are actively seeking more funds to continue our pilot project as indicated on our fund-raising chart.