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  1. Guardians of the Forest Youth Rangers, Kenya

    The Precious Cornerstone Academy in Nairobi began teaching the Guardians of the Forest Youth Rangers Program to their Youth Rangers Club in August. Precious Cornerstone is a mixed day and boarding school in Ruiru.Their Youth Rangers Club, which is currently running our Guardians of the Forest Youth Rangers Program, is just one of their extra curricular activities, and aims at educating the students on matters of animal welfare and nature conservation. Their instructor, Mary Kabz is inspired to train children and youth, so we can raise a generation that is ready to protect and take care of the environment, animals and wildlife.

    Sessions have been very physical and fun, using drama, music and song in the learning. The children were very quick to learn to use the instruments in their sessions. They’ve been litter picking, and placing increased numbers of rubbish bins around their school; making notebooks and eco bricks out of recycled materials, and have then began using their notebooks in later sessions and excursions.

    The students were eager to continue during their school break, so were even making eco bricks at home.

    Of course, they’ve also been learning the fundamentals of what it means to be a ranger, with sessions on ‘The Role of a Ranger’ and ‘Safety in the Forest’. Very important sessions, as in September they went on the first of their excursions: a visit to Nairobi Safari Walk to spend the day with the rangers there!



    The Safari walk is part of Nairobi National Park, alongside the Animal Orphanage, with examples of native wildlife in a setting that mimics their natural environment. The park is home to rare bongo, white rhino and albino zebra as well as big cats, antelopes, primates and 150 species of local trees.

    Our Youth Rangers from Precious Cornerstone really made the most of their time with the rangers, learning from them more about the importance of wildlife care and conservation in their local area, and students left the sanctuary with a renewed passion for protecting their environment, and hopefully the start of a rewarding partnership with local rangers!

    This is just their first excursion, the next, planned for November will be to the only public animal rescue and shelter in Kenya, so our youth rangers can learn more compassion for animals, and how to care for domestic animals.

     

     

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  2. Over the past months, we have been able to continue to send regular donations to partners around the world. Thanks to the continued generosity of our donors, we have been making a great impact in Tanzania and Brazil.

    In Tanzania, as well as continuing his frequent rescues, Ismael has been able to get vaccinations and sterilisation to a group of neighborhood dogs in the past month.

    In Brazil, Paula also continues with her adorable rescues. The donation sent in August has provided food and, again, much needed vaccinations to the rescued pups.

    To be able to continue to support these amazing people, helping these amazing animals, we do rely on donations for you wonderful people, so we would like to say thank you for your contribution too!

     

    We look forward to sharing more exciting stories soon!

    https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/darwinanimaldoctors

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  3. Program Progress in Nairobi

    After successful completion of the training program in July, our partners in Africa were eager to get underway and pass their new knowledge and skills on to their own students.

    The Precious Cornerstone Academy in Nairobi has been running the program with their students throughout August and have been making amazing progress.

     

    The sessions have been very physical and fun, using drama and music in the learning. They’ve been litter picking, making notebooks and eco bricks out of recycled materials, and of course, learning the fundamentals of what it means to be a ranger.

    It’s been absolutely brilliant seeing the children working together and seeing them so committed to the program. They will soon be paired with rangers from the national park so they can learn more about the importance of protecting their natural environment! We can’t wait to share more of their progress! They look like they’re having so much fun!

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  4. New Programmes in Africa!!!

    Earlier this year, we were excited to announce our new partnerships in Kenya and Zimbabwe.

    The three amazing organisations we are working with have, over the course of the last month, been training with our Community Developer, Sarah, in implementing our Youth Rangers Programme. Just this week, the directors and teams at each of the organisations have completed the training programme and are now ready to start teaching Youth Rangers in their communities.
     
     
    The Guardians of the Forest Youth Rangers programme is designed to support and enable young people to learn about the importance of environment, conservation and animal welfare, empowering them to be champion’s. It increases employability skills and community engagement.
     
    Applying a number of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the course has been incredibly well received, despite the set back of being delivered virtually. We’ve seen a number of physical activities taking place including group drumming sessions, recycling projects, tree hugging, drama and urban gardening.
     
     
    We asked the directors what motivated them:
     
    ‘My major motivation was my love for animals and nature.
    Also being a veterinary professional, I realized most of the people don’t value animals especially wild animals nor do they take care of the environment .
    So you find a lot of injured or killed animals mostly wild animals as they are considered dangerous and harmful.
    Also there is a lot of cutting down of trees either for timber or to develop/ farm in forest areas, this is why the wildlife animals and the forests are declining at a higher rate causing imbalance in the nature/ecosystem.
    So I realised that if we can bring up the children who are conscious of taking care of animals and the environment we can save/protect the nature in the coming years.
    My vision is to train the children and youth when they are still young so that we can raise a generation that is ready to protect and take care of the environment and animals including wildlife.’.    -Mary


    ‘We are motivated by the negative impacts that we are seeing on our environment. With all this happening no one is taking the first step to involve children and youth to cultivate empathy and responsibility over nature, animals and human kind.
    We envisage a biodiverse, animal friendly, empathetic and humane community that sees all living beings as equals.’.    -Alfred
     
    We can’t wait to share more from our amazing new partners, so keep watching over coming weeks! We will definitely be seeing more of them soon!
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  5. Paw Patrol: Kenya Youth Rangers

    Things may be quiet around the world, but behind the scenes we’re as busy as ever. As you all know, we’re expanding our partnerships in Africa. After months of organising and online meetings, it’s time to share with you some of our new collaborations. This week: Pwani Animal Welfare (PAW) in Kenya. https://pawmombasa.co.ke/home/

    Pwani Animal Welfare Organisation (PAW) was founded by Nusrat Mohammed along with a few friends passionate about animal welfare in July 2019. Nusrat has homed rescued cats since she was 7 years old and is now focused on humane dog/cat population control in Mombasa county; accessibility of rabies vaccinations and awareness in low income communities.

    The community-based organisation addresses the welfare of all domestic animals and emphasises conservation of local ecosystems. Not only do they do amazing work rescuing and re-homing animals (mainly cats up to this point) but they also work very strongly in their rabies vaccination campaigns; working to vaccinate animals and educate their local communities.

    Educating and empowering the youth of their community on animal welfare, conservation and awareness is an important part of their mission and we at Darwin Animal Doctors are excited to work with them on their Youth Rangers Program (aka PAW Patrol).

    The Youth Rangers Program will be part of their outreach community activities, providing an opportunity to learn about the importance of animal welfare and protection of the environment whilst developing employability skills and a sense of ownership, belonging, and the eagerness to help and support their local environment.

    “Keeping the environment safe for people and all kinds of wildlife is the most important part of a ranger’s job. Educating the public on their conduct with companion animals in their areas and how to conduct themselves in wildlife areas helps accomplish this. The participants will take part in a variety of activities from litter pick up and how to be safe when encountering stray animals in [their] communities and being safe and responsible when encountering wildlife. They will learn physical activities like restoring habitats and litter pick up. As part of the monitoring process, youth will learn about endangered species. Participants will have the chance to develop a simple community survey to identify the needs of the local community and how communities can also support the work of rangers. Participants will learn about trees and plant them in specific areas to help revitalize the area.”

    In all, we’re very excited for this new partnership, and whilst we can’t yet be there in person, our team will be delivering interactive online training until the borders open and we can work face to face again.

    Until then, PAW’s mission statement is a very positive message to work towards: ‘Creating a one health community: Happy People Happy Animals!’

    https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/darwinanimaldoctors 

    -Tod and the Team, Darwin Animal Doctors

    In loving memory of our hero, Piggy:

    Pictures and quotes taken from PAW website

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