World Rabies Day 2008
After the success of our first World Rabies Day celebrations in 2007, we were keen to make this years even bigger and better. We wanted maximum impact to get the important message accross - that Rabies is a 100% preventable disease.
Indian trustee and secretary, Dhairya Soni, known as Deepak made it his mission to do the best that he could at organizing the event.
A puppy with Rabies
The day began with a Rabies awareness march where hundreds of students from five local schools came together:
- Raghukul School
- Praveen Bal Neketan School
- Pragya School
- Parashar School
- Fior di Loto School for underprivileged children - who on a yearly basis provide funds for TOLFA to sterilise and vaccinate dogs from Pushkar
The children congregated behind the infamous Brahma temple waiting in anticipation for the march to begin. To draw maximum attention, the four girls leading the march were facepainted as animals by TOLFA volunteers, Maya and Rajkumari.
Face painted students leading the awareness march
Carrying banners and placards with useful information about Rabies and how to prevent it, the students started on their circuit around the holy Pushkar lake.
Assembling the troops to begin the march
As locals, tourists and media looked on with interest, the children shouted slogans such as ‘Together, lets make Rabies history’ and ‘Walk together and raise the public awareness of Rabies’ in hindi.
School students carrying placards and information about Rabies and how to prevent it
Once the awareness march had finished the students moved on to a donated venue to begin the organized welcome, information and quiz programme. TOLFA trustees and staff were joined by special guests Mr and Mrs C.P.Singh from Mayo College, Mr Sharma and Mr Chouhan From Intervet Pharmaceuticals, Mr Arvind Singh, Founder of Raghukul School and Dr Manoj Mathur, Trustee and Doctor in Ajmer’s Animal Husbandry Department.
Head TOLFA doctor Ashok Sahu delivering a speech about Rabies
An introduction to TOLFAs aims and motivation to help stray animals was given by our doctors and trustees and why there was the need to celebrate World Rabies Day. How every year more than 55,000 people die from Rabies, that’s one every 10 minutes, despite it being a 100% preventable disease.
Students listening on intently
2 weeks before the World Rabies Day celebrations began, information regarding Rabies; what it is, what are the signs, how to prevent it and how you can protect yourself, along with question sheets were distributed to all the students from the schools participating on the day.
Deepak ran the open stage question and answer session, where students had to prove their learning and understanding of the topic of rabies prevention. The first student to raise their hand with the correct answer was rewarded with small prizes such as pens, calculators and staplers. Questions and answers were kindly compiled by Dr Manoj Mathur.
TOLFA Trustee Deepak conducting the Rabies quiz programme
The day was rounded off by a speech from the teachers, regarding their appreciation of the day and the information given to their students that could potentially be life saving. As well as the educational aspect, TOLFA ran a free Rabies vaccination clinic in Pushkar where residents were encouraged to bring their pets along for free vaccination.
Dr Irshad, Parveen and Kishore running our free Rabies vaccination programme
Our 2008 World Rabies Day Celebrations were kindly sponsored by the following donors:
- Mr Yusuf from Nasirabad
- Mr and Mrs CP Singh from Mayo College
- Kamlesh - TOLFA Trustee from money collected in Pushkar
- Intervet Pharmaceutical Company
- Mr Raka from Ajmer Kuttishala
- Dhairya Soni -TOLFA Trustee, Ajmer
