By Emma Mortiboy | Public Fundraising Officer
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.
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