Using Animal Care to Promote Empathy in Children

Hi, I am Niina, a Finnish intern working at Hlanganani Pre and Primary school in Piggs Peak, Swaziland.

In Finland, I grew up enjoying the companionships of pets, but many of the students attending Hlanganani did not. By having the two cats at the school, our objective is to support students learning to enjoy pets. Recently, I took 2 kittens to the school for additional sharing.

The kittens spent most of their school day up at the preschool where the children from grade 000 and 00 got to pet them and follow them playing around the classrooms. Some children were more reserved, where others wanted to hold them.

It makes me happy to see how the students are starting to show affection and care towards pets, because most of the students were very afraid of cats before the school started this project.

Much of the negative behaviour towards cats and dogs arises because children did not grow up with them in a positive manner. This is the negative cycle we are trying to turn around.

This project has three benefits - the veterinary services provided to dogs and cats at the community spay day, and at the school by the local vet; the positive impact observed by people whose animals received these services; and the influence this has on our social norms.

Thank you so much for your continued support to carry out this activity.  Thank you for sharing the greater message about the social norms arising from positive animal care.  It is these little things that overtime add up to big changes. 

In preparation for our 3rd spay clinic, from July 5 - 12 we carried out education sessions at 8 schools.

As the location for our 2017 spay clinic is 30 Km from our previous two spay clinics, only a few students had some awareness, most were totally new to the concept.

This showed in the students' questions - will animals operated on die?, will they still be able to hunt?, will they still be able to guard the homesteads? Due to the lack of available veterinary services for dogs and cats in the rural area, very few people know about, or have direct experience with, treatment options. 

After explaining about the spay clinic services and the schedule for registration at the dip tanks, we discussed the important features of daily animal care, and how these influence our social norms around responsibility and empathy.

All told, 219 staff members and 4,167 students were exposed to the animal care message. 

We at Vusumnotfo feel strongly that this project has three benefits - the veterinary services to dogs and cats, the positive demonstration this provides at community level about animal care, and the resulting influence this has on our social norms.

Thank you so much for your continued support to carry out this service.  And thank you for sharing the greater message regarding the social norms related to good animal care.