WILL YOU BUY A DONKEY A DRINK?

Providing water access to over 2,000 working equines, 10,000 livestock, supporting close to 6,000 people in Ethiopia.

A fundraising appeal to alleviate the suffering and mortality of horses and donkeys in Ethiopia.

The Problem

Villages across Ethiopia need access to safe potable water. The government cannot afford to provide clean drinking water, and traveling long distances to collect safe water is hard on people and their working animals. They face difficulties including long, grueling trips to find clean water; waterborne diseases from unclean water; and overworked, overloaded equines who may face heat stress and dehydration.

In 2020, Brooke USA will fund safe water supplies in Bule woreda and Doloda woreda, two rural communities in Ethiopia. This project is focused on increasing safe water points across the villages, reducing the time spent by animals and humans at water points and increasing access to water troughs for working equines. This will provide water access to 2,090 working horses, donkeys and mules, 10,028 livestock, and 5,412 women and children.

Brooke USA funded a similar project in other woredas where there is great need, and the benefits were immediately clear. Following the installation of a water point in the Siraro woreda, a female equine owner said: “My daily trip to fetch water has reduced from five hours a day to one. I now have time for a coffee in the morning, my donkey is healthier, my children go to school, and I have time to play with them, too.”

The Solution

Brooke's shade shelters allow these tired little animals to have respite and some freedom from the sun, heat, and flies, then have a drink, a meal, and a rest before they resume their long journeys home.

From staggering loss to dramatic improvement

In two previously constructed Brooke shade shelters in other market areas, the number of equine deaths due to dehydration fell from 87 to almost zero, and the number of equines who were lost to theft fell from 54 to almost zero.

With Your Help We Reduce The Immediate Suffering Of The World’s Most Vulnerable Working Horses, Donkeys And Mules, Achieve Global Impact And Make Sustainable Improvements.