Soccer match in Angola scores a big win for rabies awareness

Eu Cuido (I Care) was the name given to a rabies-awareness event that the association Friends of Animals and the Environment, also known as Angola Rescue, organized on 9 January at the Coqueiro Stadium in Luanda, Angola.

At the first soccer match of the year in Angola, Angola Rescue was able to gather together more than 50 famous artists and public figures to participate in the soccer match and to help educate attendees about animal health and rabies. However, the true heroes that day were the animals.

The Cavalry and Canine Training Command of the national police was an important partner in this event, which was attended by more than 4,000 people, amongst them schools, associations and civilians interested in knowing more about how to prevent and combat rabies.   

A parade with National Police cavalry and a series of exercises demonstrating skills by the canine brigade further brightened the soccer match where artists, public figures and soccer players literally shared the field with dogs, which were in the field participating in the match and even scoring goals.    

Public figures had the opportunity to parade with their pets on a specially created catwalk. The winners were awarded prizes for their animals.

Snacks, water, juice, caps and T-shirts were donated to the spectators. On this day full of love, there was a will to learn more about how to understand animals and prevent and combat rabies.  Angola Rescue shared information about the care and health of animals including communicable diseases, vaccinations and responsible ownership.

Besides the direct objective of teaching more about rabies and demystifying the false idea that all street animals have rabies, this event also served to introduce Angola Rescue to the community and to recruit more volunteers to its cause.

The rescue of animals on the streets, their clinical treatment, and their follow-up until adoption are processes that require hands-on intervention.  The more volunteers there are, the greater the probability of success that Angola will have in the national fight against rabies.

Public and private entities believed in the project, identified themselves with it, and participated in the event, appreciating the effort that Angola Rescue has made towards this greater objective.            

Many positive results appeared from this event that allowed Angola Rescue to begin to think about reapplying itself, in a more realistic manner, to the various municipalities in the country.             

The support and sponsorships obtained–at the governmental and at the private level–were essential to this event’s success, a success that was not only for Angola Rescue, but for Angola and Angolans.             

At this time, Angola Rescue feels that activities with schools and associations in communities will provide the best chance to work towards their global objective.

To help serve this purpose, a series of supporting documents are being prepared and distributed free of charge. These documents, some of them adapted from international institutions, such as GARC’s “Want a Friend, Be a Friend” booklet and others developed by Angola Rescue, will be fundamental tools to combat and prevent rabies.

Submitted by Fátima Pires on behalf of the Angola Rescue team in Luanda, Republic of Angola in southern Africa. For more information on Angola Rescue visit www.luanda.rescue.com. Read more about the event on Angola Rescue’s Facebook page and in the news story (in Portuguese) in Semanário Economico.

Translated from the original Portuguese by Translators without Borders