By Philip Tengzu
Taffiasi (UW/R), May 11, GNA – ActionAid Ghana (AAG) has observed this year’s World Donkey Day with a call on donkey owners to give them the proper care to derive the maximum benefit from these animals.
The day was celebrated on May 8, on the theme: “Providing Better Care for Donkeys to Serve you Better,” and funded by the Donkey Sanctuary in the United Kingdom (UK).
Madam Abiba Nibaradun, the Upper West Regional Programme Manager, ActionAid, said the right treatment and care for the animals would prolong their lifespan to about 50 years.
About 300 people, including women, school children, veterinary officers and community leaders attended the event at the Taffiasi Community in the Sissala East Municipality of the Upper West Region.
She urged donkey owners to eschew negative practices such as inflicting physical harm on them and ensure their proper feeding and treatment to ensure good health for better work output.
“It is important for you to maintain good health for your donkeys because that is the only way you can get these animals to perform their best,” she noted.
The event, titled: “The Donkey is one of Us”, was aimed at improving the nutrition of the animals and best practices of owners and their children for the best work outputs.
It preceded a one and half year-project implemented by ActionAid Ghana (AAG) and its partners on improving the welfare of donkeys to support women livelihoods in Northern Ghana, funded by the Donkey Sanctuary.
As part of the project, AAG formed the “Friends of Animals Platform (FAP)” in 24 communities in the Sissala East Municipality, including the Taffiasi Basic School, to educate the children on proper care for donkeys.
This is because the children support their mothers in caring for and working with the donkeys.
The World Donkey Day was characterised by quiz competitions among the FAP members, focusing on care and treatment to test the pupils’ knowledge and understanding of the best practices and well-being of the animals.
Veterinary officers examined 123 donkeys at the event and treated the sick ones at a minimal fee to the owners.
Healthy donkeys were also identified and their owners were commended, while some women owners conducted physical examination on their animals, which saw the best five owners rewarded with donkeys’ drinking troughs.
“The purpose of this exercise is to inculcate in the women the need to regularly examine their donkeys for early detection and reporting of signs of ill health to veterinary officers for technical examination and treatment”, Madam Nibaradum said.
Madam Sahadatu Inusah, a donkey owner at Taffiasi, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that through the project she had learnt how to provide proper care for her donkey, especially feeding and treatment.
She said her donkey provided her with services like carrying loads such as firewood and water as well as carrying her to and from the farm, which increased her productivity.
“We get more income from the donkey. We use it to carry water for many uses such as spraying our farms. We use the donkey to carry firewood to sell and get money for our children’s school fees and for food.”
Mr Eric Tergu, the Acting Sissala East Municipal Veterinary Officer, said many of the donkeys examined were healthy, which was laudable.
He, however, discouraged the owners from resorting to self-medication of their animals when they saw signs of illness and visit the veterinary for the proper treatment.
GNA