Tikobane Trust update on their November activity

AAA's partner group Tikobane Trust have sent us their November report:

"The farming season has just started, we have received a few rains and everyone is hurrying to the fields. However most of the working donkeys involved in farming are in bad shape, they are not healthy enough to pull the ox drawn plough. The hitching and harnessing used during ploughing is not humane for donkeys. We visited four villages during the month of November, 203 donkeys were attended to and most were treated of harness wounds and severe beatings. We dewormed 117 donkeys and educated 86 donkey handlers and users.

The comings of rain brings relief to many, however this is the time donkeys develop hoof problems as most of them are enclosed in improper shelters that expose them to rain during the night. We are educating donkey owners and farmers to pick donkey hooves always before they work.

Although we have received rains we still don’t have grass, a worrying problem considering that donkeys will be working hard and need the feed. We have received a number of 3 deaths in the last few weeks that we believe the cause was over using donkeys while their bodies are fragile and in bad health.

We advise farmers to use only two donkeys at a time, for a period of not than 1 hour, 30 min and exchange with a fresh pair, this will help the other pair to rest and feed while the other is working, instead of using all four donkeys at once for long hours

• We have successfully advocated for the keeping of Thursday as a cultural rest day, on this day no one is allowed to enter the fields as away of asking for rain. It also plays an important part in the lives of working donkeys as the rest will allow donkeys to recover and feed.

• We continue with our efforts to deworm at least 500 donkeys before the peak of the farming season.

• We seek to tackle harness wounds through educating farmers on the importance of humane harnessing and also provide more humane harness for working donkeys"