Dear Friends and Supporters,

 

We are certainly living in challenging and uncertain times. We have all witnessed the combined impact of a global pandemic, demands for social justice in our country, questioned national and local elections and the ever-imminent threat of climate change. While it is impossible to predict how events will unfold in the coming months, we want you to know that all of us at Brooke USA continue committed to helping working equines and people in need, here and all over the world.

 

Although 2020 has presented many difficulties, it has also proven our organizational resilience. With the direction of the Board, and through the support of our donors, we have become a stronger organization, poised to accomplish great things next year and beyond. Perhaps it is no coincidence that over the last several days we have witnessed the first administering of the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States. Personally, I take this as a sign of great things to come.

 

Over the last year, we have steadfastly focused, against adversity, on advancing our mission of significantly improving the welfare of working horses, donkeys and mules and the people they serve throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Americas, and the Caribbean. We have only been able to continue our life-changing work thanks you, our donors, and friends. We are ever so grateful!

 

We have committed to being flexible, innovative, and nimble to respond rapidly as COVID-19 impacted the communities we serve and hindered our means to raise funds in support of our work. Therefore, we launched Brooke USA’s COVID-19 Response & Recovery Fund to provide immediate emergency relief to organizations deeply affected by the pandemic. In fact, we granted close to $50,000 in micro-grants to 24 nonprofits here and abroad. 

 

Additionally, we collaborated with frontline organizations in California to help reach equines affected by the wildfires. Our Pacific Coast Equine Emergency Fund helped provide temporary shelter, feed, and immediate veterinary care to horses abandoned, displaced, or lost.

Wildfires and a pandemic have not shifted our commitment to helping some of the most vulnerable communities across the globe. During the last 12 months, we have funded more programs than ever before, including increasing safe water points in two villages in Ethiopia, reducing the travel time spent by animals and humans traveling to secure water, and increasing access to water troughs for working equines.

 

Our commitment to empowering women in Kenya to gain the skills necessary to better care for their donkeys has been at the forefront of our funding. We know that by training women on husbandry, hoof care, and first aid, we can ensure a better life for them, their families, and their working animals. We also have sustained our commitment to aiding people and their working equines in the brick kilns of southeast Asia where both people and animals live in the most deplorable conditions. It is evident that when people suffer, so do their equines, and when people thrive, so do their animals.

 

Thanks to you we also continued funding Brooke UK and Brooke East Africa as they combat the illegal trade of donkeys for the manufacture of ejiao (a derivative of donkey hides used in Traditional Chinese Medicine). A huge step for us was securing a lobbying firm to help us ban the import and sale of ejiao right here in the United States.  We have met with online retailers – all very receptive – and are getting ready to introduce legislation to that effect next year.

 

Most importantly, we launched the Power of ONE in October with a hefty goal of raising $1 million by next October. As of mid-December, we reached 40 percent of that goal and are well on our way to exceeding it. This is most important as this milestone was made possible by you, our supporters. Your gifts have made our successes possible and you have proved that ONE gift can make a difference.

 

Know that you have had a profound impact on millions of lives—ONE by ONE. ONE gift at a time, ONE animal at a time, ONE community at a time. That is the Power of ONE. Brooke USA’s friends and supporters coming together to join as ONE means that each of your gifts has added-up to a life-changing (maybe even world-changing) collective ONE.

 

Looking forward to 2021, Brooke USA will surely be celebrating a most successful year. We believe that the greatest investment we can make is in each other. And that means making sure that our interactions with each other are transformational. You have our promise that you will be kept informed and up to date on everything we do; we want you engaged and participating.

 

On behalf of the Brooke USA team, I wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year. Thank you for your support and your friendship.

 

Warmly,

Emily J. Dulin

Chief Executive Officer

We Are $76,000 Away From Making Our Annual Funding Goal!

We Have A Match!

 

Prisma Imaging saw the tremendous collective that raised the final funding for Brooke USA’s Buy A Donkey A Drink program during GivngTuesday, and Prisma’s founder and chief executive officer Michael Silver, was motivated! He has pledged a match of $2,500 through Brooke USA’s Power of ONE campaign. This means that your donation to Brooke USA for end of year will make double the impact when you give now!

 

Prisma developed the first-ever functional full-body equine imaging system for a standing, conscious horse, addressing the shortcoming of current imaging technology. The resulting system, which does not necessitate the use of anesthesia, represents a game-changer for the overall effectiveness of diagnostics and a safer, healthier and quality of life for our equine partners.

 

Michael Silver said, “My goal is to give back, and help equines both here and abroad that need our technology for a more humane existence and to continue to be an essential, effective resource. For Brooke USA, I see a future where we work in tandem as partners to raise the funds needed to address the health and welfare of working equines. This match is only the beginning!”

 

Commercial installations of the system will begin in late 2021.

 

Want to learn more about Prisma?

 

Check them out here: https://www.prismaimaging.com.

 

To donate towards this match, please visit www.brookeusa.org/mydonation or donate in our profile or through our donate button! Together we can help more working equines and families before the end of 2020 through the Power of ONE.

 

See their video here!

Can't Get Enough of Brooke USA? We're On the Road!

Number of People it Takes to Make a Difference?

ONE.