Get involved
Money buys vaccine and fuel. It does not buy qualified hands in the surgery tent, a spare room in Arusha, or a ward office willing to open the gate. Those come from people.
Vets, nurses and final-year students join a round for two weeks or longer. You will do high-volume sterilisation under supervision and a great deal of field anaesthesia.
Post-operative cases, puppies too young for the kennels, and dogs that will not settle in a run. Usually two to six weeks. We supply food, medicine and the vet.
If you run a ward office, a school or a company in northern Tanzania, the useful things you can offer are a date, a place to park, and permission to speak to people.
| Item | Quantity | Cost | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rabies vaccine | 9,000 doses a year | $7,400 | Funded to March |
| Absorbable suture, 2-0 and 3-0 | 900 packets a year | $1,850 | Needed now |
| Isoflurane and a second vaporiser | 1 unit | $2,100 | Needed now |
| Motorbike tyres, 17 inch | 2 | $95 | Funded |
| Roofing sheets, isolation kennels | 14 sheets | $310 | Needed before the short rains |
| Cold box and spare batteries | 1 set | $480 | Funded |
Sending physical goods into Tanzania is slower and more expensive than it looks, and customs on veterinary drugs is its own project. Talk to us before you ship anything — for most of this list it is cheaper for everyone if we buy it in Arusha and you fund the line.
The round runs March to November. December to February is the long rains and the short season in between: roads to the escarpment villages are unreliable, and we use the time for kennel work, training and the annual audit.
Placements are unpaid and you arrange your own flights and accommodation; we can point you at guest houses in Arusha that other volunteers have used. Bring loupes if you own them.
One hundred and eighty dollars puts the vehicle, the team and the drugs in a village square for a day — about ninety dogs vaccinated and twenty sterilised, at no cost to the households that feed them.
