Main
activities of the year
Awareness
creation
Besides the day to day activity of educating and telephone counseling of
people about animals, HAPS also managed to respond on the issues raised on
Ethio Channel news paper concerning animal welfare according to the
information received as a result of its wider communication network by
explaining in detail how to control homeless dogs which finally educated
the community.
In addition the awareness creation activity towards animal welfare and the
importance of spay neuter and vaccination for pets in terms of keeping the
health of the community and the animals has been done throughout the year
using the society’s car and megaphone and by distributing informational
leaflets, by handling telephone calls and by using internet and different
newspapers to keep the public informed about the issue.
Several people who need information about different problems they are
facing with their pets are also directed to their nearby vet clinics.
HAPS educational and spay neuter car really made the awareness creation
work easy as people easily recognize whenever it moves from place to place
either for education and administrative work or to rescue dogs.
Awareness creation activity for thousands of people has been done on how
to control the population of dogs and protect the spread of the deadly
disease rabies as it is becoming a serious issue in the community.
It has been done by directly moving through different areas in the city
and speaking to the community about the situation of the homeless dogs in
their area.
In this process more than 15,000 educational leaflets and broachers has
been produced and distributed to encourage people take their dogs to their
nearby vet clinics for vaccination and spay neuter.
People are made to be aware of animal welfare and its importance as
animals are also important to peoples live, especially in a developing
country like ours where most rural and urban community uses animals in
different ways as a means of survival, this is done by the time two horses
that are abandoned by their owners were reported to HAPS by the local
people.
HAPS also made a telephone interview with The Humane Society of the United
States publications department
Julie Falconer
about its work for the animals to be published in All Animals
magazine,
which gives HAPS a better exposure to get support for its work for the
animals, which finally got published in September 2009. In addition
HAPS'
feature is up on the famous Little Lotus Hearts' website:
http://www.littlelotushearts.com/shelter_spotlight/archive.html
Workshop and Training
HAPS participated on animal welfare stakeholders meeting and nominated as
a member of the national working group of animal welfare clearly
explaining that it is a pioneer indigenous animal welfare organization to
advocate animal welfare in our country.
As the core group of the national animal welfare working group HAPS put a
remarkable effort towards the formulation of national animal welfare
legislation and did a great deal of contribution as a pioneer animal
welfare organization in the country.
We also got the opportunity to participate on the African Animal welfare
workshop and Seminar on the Alternatives to use of Animals in Experiments
in Education & Training. In which we shared valuable information of each
other’s country experience.
The Seminar on the Alternatives to use of Animals in Experiments in
Education & Training presented by InterNICHE was also valuable knowledge
for us to communicate to the educational institutions of our country in
which we already started the process with Addis Ababa University Science
Faculty to show and provide the CD’s donated to HAPS by InterNICHE that
can be used as an alternative to using live animals in education and
training.
Emergency
Care
As a result of the above mentioned extensive educational activities
several emergency reports of severely hurt and sick homeless dogs
suffering with severe pain in the middle of the street have been received
from different location of the city and were handled.
HAPS provided support by providing food and medical treatment in
collaboration with the community for dogs that are found injured and hurt
due to different reasons such as car hit and inappropriate handling of
owners based on the call received from the community themselves.
In most cases the surrounding community also showed its cooperation by
providing shelter and food until the dogs get better from their problems
because they get convinced by what HAPS team educated them about animal
welfare and its importance in general.
HAPS also work with the local private vet clinics to give medical
treatment for the dogs.
Accordingly more than 50 homeless dogs are taken care of by HAPS emergency
program regardless of the financial constraint that the society faced in
the fiscal year.
We also facilitated for emergency medical treatments to be given by SPANA
Project for two abandoned horses suffering from a severe pain of
Epizootic
Lymphangitis.
Adoption
Most of the dogs that are given treatment by HAPS emergency program are
adopted to a family.
In addition Dogs that the owners already decided to avoid using any means
with the reason that they no more want them, are reported and saved by
HAPS and adopted to a new family.
Adoption from house to house has also been done by telephone
communication, a family that want to give away a dog report to HAPS either
by telephone or e-mail and then HAPS keep the record of the type of the
dog and the address of the owner and provide to those who report they need
a dog.
In this way more than 10 dogs are adopted in the adoption program. Here
the most important thing is that people are aware that there is a
possibility of adopting a dog and also animal welfare.
Administrative Activities
At the beginning of year 2009 It is being managed to finalize the last
year’s activity of the society by summarizing the financial and activity
report.
The financial document which was summarized is also examined by chartered
certified accountants and authorized auditors and inventory recording of
the materials that the society owns is also made.
It is also being managed to organize the documents that should be sent to
the donor community for the purpose of presenting the report and getting
continual support in collaboration with the society’s board and other
experienced members and supporters.
In addition to this, the preparation of the general assembly meeting to
present both the audit and activity report and discuss and decide on
different agendas that are raised by the board and the members of the
society is also been finalized.
Besides the day to day administrative activities, discussion about the
current situation and problems facing the society has been done with
different concerned bodies to get solutions and ensure the continuation of
the society for the animals.
Speaking to different concerned officials on different matters that are
important to the society’s day to day activities are also been done by
organizing committee constituting members from the society’s Board, the
Management, the general
Members and other concerned supporters to secure the rights of our society
HAPS from those trace passing its legality with their irresponsible move.
Accordingly the six members of the committee spoke to the governmental
authority having a direct working relation with our society with the City
Government of Addis Ababa Trade and Industrial Bureau, Head Mr. Fitsum
Arega regarding the continual activity of the society and current
problems.
While discussing with him in his office he recalled about what he watched
by TV about the rescue of the dogs from Gido cave and appreciated the
contribution of our society for the community.
At the same time the committee started to contact different people and
organizations that are thought to be able to support to ask for support
for the day to day activities of the society.
The Sixth general assembly meeting of HAPS was also held on July 19, 2009
to present the annual activity and audit reports of the year ended on
December 31, 2008 to the members and to discusses and decide on different
agendas from the management and also on those forwarded from the members.
Finally members agreed to keep on working harder and harder to insure the
continuation of the good work of the society as it is the Hero in our
country in confidently presenting itself to the general public without any
hesitation by withstanding and trying to solve the challenges.
Urgent general assembly meeting has also been held on October 25, 2009 in
order to discuss about the re-registration of the society and to
communicate the new guideline of the society which was prepared in
accordance with the new government regulation of Societies and charities
registration in the country.
Members also discussed and vote it should be re-registered and continue
its effort towards creating awareness about animal welfare to the
community and saving the suffering animals.
Accordingly the necessary documents are compiled and presented to the
newly established Societies and Charities Agency and got re-registered
with charity number 0417.
Problems
encountered
Lack of financial support,
-
To reestablish
the shelter at least to be able to handle the emergency cases, that are
reported
to
our office every day and carry on the awareness creation work and
administrative activities.
-
Pay bills
-
Buy fuel and
pay for car maintenance and KM service of the car we are using for all
activities of the society
-
Pay vet. fee
for handling emergency cases
-
To facilitate
Adoption
-
And different
very crucial administrative expenses
People having their own interest are still coming up by having the
mentality of the Bale dog shooters to create pressure on the activity of
our society instead of encouraging our establishment and successful
management of such an organization working for animals in this socio
economically backward country.
Due to this and other related problems our society could not manage to get
the necessary support to implement its annual plan.
Our society is unable to give temporary shelter for rescued dogs and
respond to all rescue calls as it does before due to lack of capacity to
rent a shelter and cannot resist the rescue voice of dogs here and there.
Special Thanks
HAPS would like to pass its grateful thanks to
Kim Bartlett,
President of Animal People USA for her kind all round support to our
society’s activity from the beginning, without which every of our success
could have not been possible.
Our special thanks go to Katrina Morison and her husband Dave Price from
Australia for their kind financial support which relieves our society from
its current problems apart from their continual support in providing
different materials for our work.
We also would like to forward our deepest thanks to Philip Wollen
OAM, The Winsome Constance Kindness Trust, Australia for his immediate
response to our request for support by sending donation.
We also would like to thank Anna Little, James Clark,
Sarah Schmidt, Carlos Neyra, Fay Forman,
Janet Forman, Kristine Kennedy, Marilyn
and Jack Weaver,
Wendie
and Stephen Ryter,
for their financial support to our activity.
We also deeply thank Genevieve Van de Merghel
of the Little Lotus Hearts for keeping HAPS feature on their famous
website and Julie
Falconer
Publications Dept of Humane Society of the United States for publishing
HAPS Street Dog
article on All Animals magazine, in which both gave
our society HAPS a better exposure to the international community.
We also thank ANAW and
InterNICHE for giving a chance for our society to participate in the
African Animal Welfare Conference and Seminar on the Alternatives to use
of Animals in Experiments in Education & Training.
We finally forward our grateful thanks for all those supported in order
our work for the animals continue and kindly request by the name of the
poor animals for their valuable support to continue.
Homeless Animals Protection Society
December
31, 2009
