Animal Welfare Eswatini Project #17105

Using Animal Care to Promote Empathy in Children

by Vusumnotfo

Project Report | Jan 16, 2021
What a difference a little Holsum can make

By Breanna Thompson | Vusumnotfo Programme Officer

Before and After

This mother dog belongs to the Malambe family who is enrolled in our pilot activity "to provide structured technical, material and training support to children with special needs at family level”.

At first glance, this is a very skinny dog. But after observing, two other things were even more striking:

1. The mother dog is so very patient with letting her 5 puppies feed, even though they can already eat solids, and

2 The family is very caring to all the animals at the homestead. Their positive interaction seems to carry through, as the mother dog and family cat even like to sit in the sun together!

As a short-term intervention, we gave the family some Holsum to add to the dog’s food. Holsum is an inexpensive type of lard readily available in rural Eswatini.

Over the course of a week, shave a 125-gram packet into the dog’s food, which tends to be left over food scraps. This increases the energy content of the food scraps just enough to help the dog gain weight and improve their fur (if you use too much, the dog will get diarrhea).

Just one month later the result is striking!

Vusumnotfo uses animal care to demonstrate responsibility and empathy to children. The Malambe homestead was already a positive example of both, so our short-term intervention was just information, the noticeable results of which are now influencing their neighbors.

Links:

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Sep 18, 2020
#45 - Empathy in action

By Breanna N Thompson | Early Childhood Training Programme Manager

Sweet cards

When I moved to the Vusumnotfo grounds back in March, I quickly became attached to the three dogs that lived here; Coffee, DJ and Rhino. Rhino and Coffee always wanted love, but DJ took lots of effort, I had to be very intentional with her. As a puppy she had been stolen from her mother and stuffed up a drainpipe; 15 years later the physical scar was still visible.

Over the last 6 months I grew to love DJ, as did my little sisi (sister) who comes to visit me often on the weekends. Khosi - through spending time with Coffee, DJ, and Rhino - learnt how to treat dogs, how to love them and how dogs give back love in return.

Sadly, back in June, DJ passed away peacefully in her sleep. She had lived a wonderful 15 years filled with love, walks, great food and all the humans she could ever ask for. Losing DJ was difficult, but something I didn’t expect from the experience was the visual proof of how a companionship with dogs can motivate empathy in children!

After DJ died, we had Khosi and her friend Siyamthanda come over to spend some time with Coffee and Rhino. When they came, they brought these amazing cards for my boss Kathy, which said “RIP DJ I will miss you. Sorry Kathy and Alliancen”. After they gave the cards to us, they then went out to the grave to pay their respects, and say their goodbyes to DJ.

If you had told me this would be their reaction a year ago, I would not have believed you. However, these two little girls have been able to grow as young ladies and expand their emotional abilities as a direct result of spending time with these dogs! It truly is an amazing transformation to witness!

One of our main programme activities is our annual spay day. Spay day is part of Vusumnotfo's early childhood training programme "to increase knowledge of early childhood development and learning, including factors that influence this". Specifically we use the spay day as an example to show how animal care can demonstrate responsibility and empathy to children.

Having these amazing experience with Khosi and Siyamthanda remind me daily of how much a family pet can in fact change the lives of their humans. By supporting our project, you help make what we do possible! Please note that all donations made up to $50 on September 14 to 18 will be matched by GlobalGiving at 50%.

For updates on our related activities, go to our Instagram handle Vusumnotfo.Eswatini and our Facebook page Vusumnotfo.Eswatini.

Khosi, DJ and Coffee

Links:

Vusumnotfo web site

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Sep 14, 2020
#44 - Permission Granted

By Katherine J Gau | Vusumnotfo Director

Nkamanzi Libandla meeting

Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our original date for the spay day in June has been put on hold until restrictions are lifted. However, we decided that since the situation has lasted for longer than we had all thought possible, we would focus on the preparations that we could within this crazy reality.

Nkamanzi community was selected. This community is 20 Km down a gravel road. There are three dip tanks with a total of 765 dogs (278 owners), so this community is truly in need of a spay day! Both cattle and dogs are registered specific to a dip tank, cows for tick dipping and dogs for annual rabies injections.

As Vusumnotfo is in the process of drilling 5 boreholes at Nkamanzi for domestic water supply, we have been driving the gravel road into Nkamanzi often. The high number of scrappy looking dogs on the road is striking.

We presented the "what, why and how" of the spay day to Nkamanzi Libandla (chiefdom council) for their permission. I found it particularly rewarding that Libandla members had already heard positive results from friends and family members whose dogs had been operated on at the 2019 spay day at Mkhuzweni Primary School (25 Km away).

We also carried out a site visit with Swaziland Animal Welfare Society to view the buildings at Nkamanzi Primary School. This was to ensure that the required basic infrastructure is available (or if need be can be brought to the school).

Prior to this the head teacher from Mkhuzweni Primary School called the head teacher from Nkamanzi to explain first hand the practicalities of the day as they relate to school operations.

As is protocol, we left the permission form with the Libandla for their final consideration. We have since received written permission from both Nkamanzi Libandla and the Head of Nkamanzi Primary School, so this critical step in the process is completed.

Our annual spay day is part of Vusumnotfo's early childhood training programme "to increase knowledge of early childhood development and learning, including factors that influence this". Specifically we use the spay day as an example to show how animal care can demonstrate responsibility and empathy to children.

For updates on our related activities, go to Instagram handle Vusumnotfo.Eswatini.

Your continued support makes this possible. Please note that all donations made up to $50 on September 14 to 18 will be matched by GlobalGiving at 50%.

Scrappy dog

So in need of Vet Care

Links:

http://www.vusumnotfo.org

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