Good works in Gambia

    Starten Sie den Audio-Text

    Mit dem Audio-Player können Sie sich den Text anhören. Darunter finden Sie das Transkript.

     

    Transcript: Heather Armstrong, director of the charity the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust

    The main function of our work is to educate Gambian people. We work with the farmers; we work with the children who traditionally look after the donkeys. We train paravets at the college, and Gambia is one of the few countries in the world now that teaches animal welfare at university level. We do have a few permanent residents up at the centre. There are some, inevitably. Most horses come in, are treated and go home, and the owners are given some training. But, inevitably, there are a few that don’t or can’t or whatever, and they stay with us, and we use them as demonstrations [for] education. The classical one was the horse that actually founded the charity. A horse called Lazarus. I have never in my life seen a horse so emaciated that survived. And his hip bones had even come through his skin. My sister found him in a compound. He couldn’t get up. He was lying there in a dreadful state, and her first reaction was to put him out of his misery. You know, he was too far gone. But, of course, there are no vets in the Gambia, very few anyway, and none with any equine speciality training. So she went off to look for a vet, but she brought food and water for it before she went. She came back with a vet. And by then, the horse had managed to stand up and he was very weak and frail, but tottering around. And she said there was just something about him that told her he didn’t want to die. So they treated him for trypanosomiasis, which is caused by the tsetse fly. It’s a wasting disease, really. And he responded and he’s now, we’ve had him now for 16 years and he’s our mascot. The staff call him the boss. And he’s the most beautiful black stallion you could ever see. And he’s the light of my life. I adore him.