The Brooke - Brooke Paravets in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has the poorest people and the poorest donkeys the Brooke has ever encountered.

Working horses and donkeys in Afghanistan work incredibly hard for their poor owners – carrying bricks from kilns to towns or taking heavy loads of vegetable from fields to market. But a country ravaged by war and now affected by the worst drought in 10 years is making life so much more difficult for poor families and their hardworking animals. They have been caught up in terrible circumstances – it’s not their war but they are suffering daily because of it. And the harsh effects are clearly visible.

A lonely struggle

The Brooke first came to the country in 2003. Since then, we’ve worked closely with our local partners, including the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan, to fully understand and tackle the problems facing working horses and donkeys in this country.

What we saw was shocking - these animals are in a horrific state:

With little water, they are suffering from dehydration.
They’re exhausted and overworked.
Many have open wounds from untreated injuries, which is leaving them vulnerable to diseases like tetanus.

The saddest part of this is that horses, donkeys and their owners are struggling alone. There’s not much help available outside cities and certainly no support or aid for horses and donkeys in Afghanistan. No other equine charities operate in this country. These sick, suffering animals and their impoverished owners are alone in one of the most hostile and dangerous places in the world.

Training for local people

The Brooke is training 12 paravets to help this desperate situation. These paravets are:

Local people who we train in specialist equine care.
Trusted in the communities with whom they’ll be working.
And have the local knowledge necessary to travel out to remote areas safely.

They are our greatest chance of bringing swift help to where it’s needed most.

Paravets can improve the lives of working animals by training owners how to better care for them, such as providing regular breaks, drinks of water and manageable workloads - leading to much healthier, happier animals.

These 12 paravets can help us stop suffering and improve the lives of thousands of working horses and donkeys in Afghanistan.

Helping the community

Our next aim is to help even more through community initiatives including:

Training local farriers on equine foot care.
Working with owners to make sure they have the skills and knowledge needed to properly care for their animals.
And are helping owners to ensure that they have the equipment they need.

We know it’s an approach that works well and has a lasting positive impact for whole communities. In Pakistan, our paravets have successfully improved conditions for working animals in the long-term - working with young owners to encourage good equine care from an early age.

It’s vital we reach these long-neglected horses, donkeys and their owners as soon as we can before drought and ongoing warfare make life so much worse.

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