Brooke East Africa office research

In 2014, Brooke East Africa and two of their partner organisations presented work at the International Colloquium on Working Equids in London.

The effect of perennial floods on donkey welfare

Eric Ologa from our partner Animal Welfare for Public Health presented a poster on the donkey welfare challenges associated with perennial floods in the Kano plains (PDF 2.9Mb), an area in Kenya which floods every year. The floods cause a variety of welfare problems: lack of pasture for grazing means donkeys are forced onto roads and hit by cars; carcass disposal is unregulated, leading to spread of disease.

How donkeys contribute to the livelihoods of Kenya's marginalised populations

In his poster Michael Kendagor from our partner Farming Systems Kenya discussed the contribution donkeys make to the livelihoods of Kenya’s marginalised populations such as single women and those with HIV/AIDs. These are people who are often among the worst affected by an economic downturn. Owning a donkey can provide a direct income, allowing them to rejoin society.

Brooke East Africa's use of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) tools

Brooke East Africa's Neema Kawe's poster described a baseline study that used specific participatory rural appraisal tools (PDF 1.9Mb). These tools help communities identify their animals’ welfare needs 

The relationship between women's practices and donkey behaviour

The colloquium built the team’s enthusiasm for sharing the work that they do. The following year, Neema was invited to deliver an oral presentation on the relationship between women’s practices and donkey behaviour (PDF 3Mb) at the International Society for Anthrozoology’s conference. Neema said “My interaction with other delegates made me aware that little is known about the Brooke and it delighted me to have the opportunity to talk more of what Brooke does in terms of our focus, approach and our strategic objectives as an organisation."

Using Brooke's welfare assessment tool to investigate body lesions and work types

Building on this success in 2015, Brooke East Africa vet James Kithuka was awarded a conference organisers' travel bursary to make an oral presentation at the International Symposium for Veterinary Epidemiology and Economics in Mexico.

James presented Assessment of donkey body lesions and work types using the Brooke's standardised equine based welfare assessment tool (PDF 4.5Mb). He said: "Quite a number of presentations were very captivating yet in over 200 posters and 420 oral presentations only one was on donkeys - from me! Is it that donkeys are not a researchable animal? Therefore, I learnt that Brooke will need to keep on doing one little thing: champion this donkey and donkey welfare knowledge generation to fill in the existing gaps in working donkey welfare improvement".