Project PAWN – Promoting Animal Welfare in Nigeria – is a social impact project that is promoting humane education and animal health services among animal owners, caregivers, and service providers in Nigeria. The project which is funded by Animal Kind International is achieving its goals by;
- Training animal owners and service providers on humane education, pet and livestock care, and animal welfare.
- Providing veterinary services to remote agrarian communities with small-scale pet and livestock animals.
- Establishment of an online directory of animal health and welfare service providers in Nigeria and;
- Establishment of a Hotline/WhatsApp platform that is providing access to animal health and welfare information and service referrals in Nigeria.
Over the last few months, we have achieved some of our project goals by establishing a growing online Directory for Animal Health services, and promoting the Hotline/WhatsApp platform (08055993123) which animal owners and enthusiasts can now access for animal health information and access to services.
Following up on these milestones, we will proceeding with conducting animal welfare training programs in agrarian communities. To facilitate this process, two communities were visited to map out the areas which would be suitable for the first proposed training on Humane Education and Animal Welfare and also to implement follow-up project activities. The communities were Akinyele Community and Pagun Community both in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. At the end of the exercise, Pagun Community was selected as the most suitable amongst the two communities to hold the training because there are several households with different categories of animals which include dogs, cats, rabbits, goats, pigs, cattle, poultry birds, sheep, and fishes.
Afterwards, our project team approached an elder of the community who also heads the Farmers’ Association, Mr. Lateef Oladipo to discuss program details and provide information about the organization. After much deliberation, he gave his approval and informed other stakeholder farmers in the community about the project. Our project team also met with the the Chairman of the community’s Landlord Association, who after seeking his consent gave his approval and mentioned that the training will be beneficial to pet and livestock owners in the community.
The Chairman then facilitated a follow-up meeting with members of Pagun Community Landlord Association where our project staff discussed the proposed training with them. After a lengthy discussion, the venue, date and time for the seminar was concluded to be held on 14th November, 2020 by 9:00am at the Playground (Community Field). Mr. Lateef Oladipo and the Farmers’ Association was further engaged and updated on these information.
This training will serve as an entry point to several follow-up activities in ensuring that pet and livestock owners promote animal welfare and well-being and have access to animal health information and services.
At OHDI, we look forward to a productive time with the Pagun Community, and if you are in the vicinity, please join us for this enlightening training program on Humane Education and Animal Welfare!
