Community

We work with communities, so that improvements to the welfare of working horses, donkeys and mules come from local people themselves, helped and guided by the Brooke.

Most of the welfare problems that the Brooke encounters can be prevented if local communities have adequate information and can access essential services and resources.

The Brooke, through its affiliates and partners, works with communities to:

• Understand and respond to issues affecting the welfare of their animals, which can impact on livelihoods.
  
• Provide training in equine care to local vets, animal health workers and farriers.
  
• Deliver animal welfare information through radio broadcasts to people in remote areas.
  
• Support programs in schools to engage with children who work with or can influence animal owners.
  
• Identify the most prevalent and severe problems affecting working horses, donkeys and mules.
  
• Develop appropriate activities to improve animal welfare in a measurable way.
  

Approach

The Brooke applies learning methods that have been used successfully in a human health and development context by other international non-governmental organizations.

One such approach is Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) which uses a variety of means, group exercises, role plays and pictures, to share information between participants.

In India, we have worked with communities to show how old rubber tires make a safer and more comfortable place to tether animals than inflexible and hazardous wooden posts.

In Ethiopia, working with people at the timber market led to animals being unloaded between delivery and sale of timber – a simple sustainable change which has a big impact.