Harnessing and padding needed in Tanzania

AAA founder Janet has visited one of the partner groups, a mobile clinic in Marengo in the Meru district of Tanzania. The women in the area bring their donkeys to a water point twice a week to collect up to 80kg of water, which the donkeys carry back to the villages, up to 6km away. These donkeys do not have harnessing to protect their backs from the ropes and loads. The clinic vets go to the water points in order to provide care and treatment to the donkeys. 93 donkeys were treated, with an expected 200 more through the dry season.

One donkey had fallen in a ditch and inured his leg, which had become infected. He had this injury for a couple of weeks and was walked 5km on his injured leg to the clinic. He was too tired to walk back to his village, so Janet paid $40 to hire a truck to take him back. Partner group vets will go there regularly to treat the leg.

The next focus for this area is to provide harnessing and padding for the donkeys so that they may collect water for their owners with some protection from their heavy loads.