Luke's December 2018 Update

Luke's December 2018 Update

Happy New Year!!!!!

2018 Parcels Total number of parcels dispatched this year has been 1,056 (approximately 2112kg in weight!!). These lifesaving supplies totalled a value of £398,868.20 (equivalent of £1092.79 per day)!

Education In 2018, 942,908 people were rabies educated! The grand total is now 2,935,480 people that have been directly rabies educated by our teams across the globe. The big news this month is we passed the 1m mark for children rabies educated in India. In Goa - the teams visited 86% of all schools in the entire state. In Blantyre/Zomba/Chiradzulu, the teams covered just over 80% of all schools (they beat the target!) Ranchi Zero human rabies deaths in 2018 which is awesome news! We’ve had 12,504 dogs vaccinated and Praveen and his team at Hope sterilised 11,334 of these. 14 rabid dogs were picked up by the surveillance team however, and eight of these tested positive. The Government are now prepared to support ongoing vaccination work again which is an important step. Our team also reached 101,915 school children in the city to educate them about the risks of rabies. Goa Over 97,000 vaccinations in 2018!!! Zero human rabies deaths and declining canine cases – this is what our work is all about. We’ve also enhanced our rabies testing capacity. Julie’s report is mind-blowing!

This month we held a press conference to celebrate educating 1 million children across the nation and the Times of India ran an article with the headline, ‘Goa on its way to becoming nation’s only rabies-free state.’ The Chief Minister then retweeted the article to his followers on Twitter, which was a real honour for us. The support of the Goan Government has made this project win and empowered it to be a blueprint for canine rabies elimination in one of the worst affected areas for rabies in the world. A sincere and humble thanks to all within the Goan Government departments for the privilege of being a part of this project with them. Hicks 26 courses, 209 participants trained, 11,765 animals sterilised, 5,407 additional treatment cases seen, 1,026 emergency animal rescues and 306 adoptions!! The team have been powering forward for animal welfare in Goa! Please read Karlette’s outstanding report – it’s just incredible. Truck The truck programme sterilised 2,627 dogs last year – the target was 2,500 so awesome work! Karlette has also written the TT report below. Ooty

30 courses (6 working equine), 328 participants trained, 8,910 animals vaccinated, 4,740 animals sterilised, 1,720 treatments cases, 69 rescues and 26 adoptions – these statistics are just incredible! The working equine project, all thanks to the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Trust and WTG, has now expanded to Tanzania and soon to Ethiopia so will definitely be one to watch in 2019! Thailand 17 courses, 150 participants trained, 13 mobile outreach clinics run, 3 specialist seminars, 760 animals rescued and treated, 40 dogs adopted and 4,960 animals sterilised. Dr G’s uplifting report is below. The growth of WVS Thailand has been astounding this year and the team have achieved incredible results, exceeding all targets. Ian, G, Guy, Ou, Manida and the amazing WVS Thailand team have been phenomenal. Malawi 92,748 dogs were vaccinated in 2018. No human rabies deaths occurred in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital from any of the areas we have worked in. The team in Blantyre have also sterilised over 1,000 animals at the BSPCA.

Dagmar has grown the centre exponentially (report below) and the plans for 2019 are typically super ambitious but absolutely achievable with such a fantastic team focused on them. Thanks hugely to Dr Patrick Chikungwa and the brilliant team at the DHALD who have made all this possible by shaping, advising and empowering the project to power on. Also, a massive thanks to Professor Neil Sargison and Dr Nick Blayney who have worked with Jo so fantastically to drive the One Mission Project which is going from strength to strength on the livestock aspects of our work in Blantyre District. Other news A phenomenal thanks to all our amazing sponsors and supporters for their help in making last year win. Dogs Trust, The Marchig Trust, MSD Animal Health, Sir Peter O’Sullevan Trust, Rotary, WTG, BBF, WSAVA Foundation, OAT and a multitude of other donors have been the bedrock in empowering so much of what we’ve been able to do. Dr Ryan Wallace, Dr Jesse Blanton and the team at CDC have been both a colossal support and inspiration on a multitude of fronts with Mission Rabies, likewise the help and guidance from Dr Charles Rupprecht, Dr Bernadette and Dr Gongal at WHO has been incredible. Thanks also to Professor David Argyle, Professor Mellanby and the team at Edinburgh who have also supported and guided our projects and the publications that are now beginning to fire out will keep steering us for years to come in making the biggest practical difference possible. So, in summary, our teams directly rabies vaccinated 236,685 dogs last year, we ran 73 training courses, trained 625 vets/vet students, sterilised over 30,000 animals and we sent out on average 2.89 parcel donations each day – as well as sending at least 2 vet teams each week on projects around the world. Thank you for an outstanding year. We’ve made a huge difference!! Let’s continue to show the world what we can do – there is a way to go yet! 2019 - LET’S POWER IT UP!!!!!!!! Rock on!! Luke

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