The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust

The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust works tirelessly to promote welfare amongst the many horses and donkeys that are used within the rural community as working animals. Through poverty and lack of knowledge these animals have often suffered terribly so the Trust’s work is vital.

The aim is to provide the Gambians with the knowledge to deal with the problems themselves, so they have enlisted the help of World Horse Welfare to help train farriers and harness makers, they provided scholarships for students to train as paravets and link with the University of Liverpool vet school to provide training on equines. They also teach in schools and through the Donkey Club they work with the young boys who traditionally care for the donkeys and teach them to have fun, build a friendship and to take a pride in their donkeys. The Gambia horse and Donkey Trust have mobile clinics a basic hospital, laboratory facilities and stabling for 25 animals. 

Animal Friends arranged with suppliers Robinsons (www.robinsons-uk.com) to ship 350 head collars to The Gambia giving immediate relief to 350 horses and donkeys. A short extract from the following email from the Trust shows just how important this aid was:-

Dear Elaine,

Just to let you know that three huge boxes of head collars have arrived, I simply cannot believe it and I keep going just to look at them all! It really is a very wonderful thing you have done, I hope that by now you might have seen our video and realise how much easier it is for the horse to be led by a head collar then rope or wire around the lower jaw. They also tend to tether them by one foot and we see a few broken limbs as a result. The head collars we collect are for the immediate relief of the animals suffering now, hopefully in time, we shall have our own well trained harness makers in The Gambia and then we won't need to import them.

It just feels as if Christmas has come early! I still cannot believe our luck! With very best wishes Heather

To visit their website or find out more about them, please click on their link. The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust