For the first time in Yemen, in 2018 FUST organized World Rabies Day celebration event in the Capital Sana'a along with intensive community awareness campaigns. The celebration was held with partnership of Municipals & Environment Sector of Secretariat of Capital Sana'a and succeeded in delivering key messages to the attended representatives from the concerned government bodies, Local Authorities, International & Local NGOs, private sector, Academic & Education Institutions, Health & Animal Sectors, and community leaders.
The real impacts of the event were on the concerned government officials where they agreed to work together and unify their efforts towards rabies control following the One Health Approach and to change their previous policies and methodology (like mass dog culling).
Coinciding with the Main Event (WRD), community awareness campaigns were conducted in partnership with Ministry of Education which targeted 10 public schools in Sana'a city.
FUST organization made great efforts to show the real problem of rabies and the spread of stray dogs and present it to the officials of those bodies and to highlight the community's suffering as well as educate them on rabies's risks, symptoms and prevention. The efforts also included an explanation of the best methods adopted globally and reviews of international and regional efforts, in particular the global strategic plan to end human deaths of dog-mediated rabies by 2030 along with successful stories in some countries.
Through these efforts, more than 200 active officials and representatives from 10 government ministries, 24 sub-government units and local authorities, 8 civil society organizations, 15 private sector entities and a number of community leaders were targeted through several activities and events.
One result was that several official ministerial decisions were issued, included the formation of a joint technical committee to update the recent national rabies control plan in comply with the goals of the Global Project (ZERO BY 30).
In 2019, FUST started a new mechanism to collect rabies data, and the first stage of this project is now running in the main Rabies Control Unit in Sana'a.
(Extract from nomination)
View 2019 World Rabies Day event
