In Ghana, Humane Education is the Answer

Prior to forming the Ghana Society for the Protection & Care of Animals (GSPCA) in 2004, two Ghanaians, David and Roland, coordinated and provided guidance to“Kindness Clubs”--over 200 clubs located throughout Ghana.  In these after-school clubs, children learned about animals and did activities that helped improve the lives of animals (i.e., handed out information about rabies and rabies prevention; visited homes that kept animals to help them take better care of them; and held Rural Animal Clinics, where vets and assistants would provide, free of charge, immunizations, de-worming, flea and tick control, and other disease prevention and treatment).  To formalize the clubs and bring them into the “fold” of an NGO, David (in photo below holding the cute puppy) and Roland started the GSPCA.  Since 2007, the GSPCA has been an Animal-Kind International partner organization.  http://www.animal-kind.org/GSPCAadvocate.html.

Just last month, in a statement published by the Ghana News Agency, Amasaba Abdul-Yakeen Aluizah, GSPCA Humane Educator/Communicator (shown below teaching a humane ed class), announced a new program "to engender a sense of public love towards animal welfare and protection in Ghana."  Aluizah's statement went on to say that "this new move of education that focuses first on school children, would add value to the public health education and particular the welfare and protection of animals. Dubbed, 'Humane Education Programme,' the GSPCA has begun piloting the programme in four selected schools in Madina and Kotobabi in the Greater Accra Region. The schools are Trust Academy in the Adenta Municipality, Providence School in Kotobabi, Gospel Academy, and Action School, both at Madina in the La Nkwantanang Municipality."

This new initiative is an eight-week pilot project that covers topics such as basic care for dogs, cats and farm animals. 

Aluizah mentioned to AKI, “There is a topic on how to handle donkeys, which has for long been treated as a beast of burden. GSPCA on the other hand thinks the Donkey is a friend of mankind and should be treated humanely, and so should be other animals.”

Each school will have a focal person (a teacher), who will be trained as a mentor, and who will receive handbooks to help guide and teach the pupils.  The pilot is targeting 20 pupils from each school to be trained and equipped with all the necessary materials to continue learning about and spreading the message of kindness to animals. 

Aluizah concluded, "So far the enthusiasm shown in the schools visited was encouraging, and in all schools the number of pupils exceeded the estimated number, in certain cases the number tripled the quota of pupils required for the project. This to GSPCA is indicative of overwhelming interest to know rudiments of animals who are part of their environment.”

Thank you GSPCA, and in particular, David and Aluizah, for spreading kindness!  You can donate to the Ghana SPCA through the AKI website (link above); designate GSPCA for your donation. AKI sends 100% of your donations to our partners; we have no overhead.