By Rafiq Vayani
KARACHI: Ayesha Chundrigar, founder and CEO of Pakistan’s first and largest animal rescue, Ayesha Chundrigar Foundation (also known as ACF) announces the launch of the foundation’s Mobile Clinic – A Storybook on Wheels. The ACF Mobile Clinic will be a separate entity from the already ongoing rescue service and sanctuary. The clinic will be exclusively dedicated for donkey medical camps and rabies vaccination/TNR of dogs across Karachi. Currently, the organization is looking for support from donors and volunteers to make this a community project that can benefit all of Karachi. ACF has previously worked on several part-time outreach projects for many years and now hopes to make it a full-time project.
Aesthetically designed to look like a storybook on wheels, the mobile clinic depicts images of animals and humans living together in harmony. The layout was developed to guide people on how to treat animals with kindness and empathy. The characters on the van imply relatability in one way or another and shows humans in their everyday lives and how they enjoy a loving relationship with animals. The ACF Mobile Clinic is primarily going to be used for several outreach activities and will be used for empathic education as well.
“The biggest thing missing in our society is empathic education and I kept thinking about what the fastest, most effective way would be to show by example and imagery without lectures or seminars or talks. So, I thought, let’s do a storybook on wheels. And create characters that look like us, who all of us can relate to in one way or another, and show their loving relationship with animals. Just looking at this car will subliminally put the idea of kindness, and more so, kindness towards animals in people’s and children’s minds. It’ll also get them to start thinking a bit differently about animals hopefully.” stated Ayesha Chundrigar, the founder and CEO of ACF.
Initially, the ACF Mobile Clinic will solely treat street animals and will also be providing on-location treatment for street pets. However, by taking progressive steps over time, ACF hopes to broaden their goals by including pets at home, providing their services to all animals off the streets as well.
The idea for the Mobile Clinic was created as the result of seeing how brutally street dogs and donkeys are treated. ACF’s clinic on wheels will provide services across Karachi so that the unnecessary act of culling dogs would be put to an end and donkeys would be treated better by their owners.
“There is absolutely no need for it when we have been working on vaccination/Trap/Neuter/Release for years now-it’s a tried and tested method all over the world except Pakistan. There is so much scientific proof from across the world that culling actually increases the dog population,” voiced Ayesha Chundrigar. She further went on to state, “Also, Pakistan is one of the largest donkey populated countries in the world and a high majority of our daily wagers are donkey owners. Yet there is no support to help their only source of income-the donkey. If a donkey is battered and broken, running with a heavy load on his back, a broken leg and no food for days, he will collapse and not be able to work. The donkey owner will suffer a grave loss. What we have been doing for years is going into different areas and educating donkey owners on how to treat their animals better and understand donkey behavior because if you understand how a donkey works, you won’t need to beat him to pulp to make him run. We also provide free medical treatment for the donkeys who are usually in awful conditions.”
ACF has brought this initiative together as it benefits society as a whole, not just animals alone. It will benefit donkey owners/daily wagers, it will maintain that the streets are safe for people by vaccinating all dogs against rabies, and sterilizing them to control the dog population. ACF Animal Rescue has several other operations currently in the works for 2021, more on that will be disclosed at a later date.
