Jamshedpur, April 27: To create awareness about street dogs, Animal Help Foundation with support of Humane Society International held seven workshops in the city for more than 600 children and adults between April 25and 27.
In addition to the sterilization and vaccination activities, Animal Help Foundation with support from Humane Society International, Jamshetji Tata Trust, Tata Motors and Jusco concluded the first series of awareness workshops for children and adults in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. During this first series of workshops, the local team visited three schools, Gulmohar School, Hill Top School and Madhyam Evam Ucch Vidhyalay to hold workshops with more than 500 school children.
The team also held four sessions with more than 120 Tata Motors staff members at the Telco Town Administrative Hall. These workshops are being facilitated by The Launch Pad, Vishakhapatnam, HSI and AHF’s education partner.
During these workshops, the workshop facilitator, Sangita Sehgall, from the Launch Pad, used ‘Simba’ a hand-puppet dog as a mascot and educated children and adults about being friendly with dogs, innovative solutions to manage street dog population, preventing dog-bites and rabies, first-aid in case of a dog- bite and responsible pet-ownership.
The workshops that were held were interactive in nature with use of skits, role-plays and Q&A sessions. Dr. Rajesh Pandey, program manager, Humane Dog Population Management Program shares, “It was a unique workshop that was enjoyed both by children and adults.
We found that people are unaware about issues regarding street dogs and had no access to information about it and these workshops could fill that gap. We realized that along with sterilization and vaccination, such awareness campaigns and workshops can make Jamshedpur a more dog-friendly city.”
Animal Help Foundation, with support from Humane Society International and its other partners have been implementing this humane street dog population management program in Jamshedpur, since April 2014. As on today, more than 16,000 have been sterilized and vaccinated in Jamshedpur.
In September 2015, AHF and HSI celebrated World Dog Lovers’ Day and World Rabies Week in Jamshedpur to create awareness about dogs and gave free vaccinations to street dogs. The second series of the workshops will be held in July 2016, wherein more participants will be reached out.