Animal welfare awareness sessions inspire communities
World Animal Day is an international day of action for animal welfare celebrated annually on the 4th of October, the feast day of Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals
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FOUR PAWS will be celebrating the day with educational awareness sessions in the Eastern Free State next week for both adult and youth groups. These would be presented by the Education Facilitator of FOUR PAWS in South Africa, Gladys Mokwena at Qathula Day Care Centre in Bethlehem on the 4th and the 6th of October.
Gladys is a well-loved and popular representative of FOUR PAWS, is known for her awareness sessions for children at the FOUR PAWS Education Centre at LIONSROCK Big Cat Sanctuary near Bethlehem. She also hosts school visits, community awareness sessions and projects, and organises celebration days. She has been involved with the Educational Centre at LIONSROCK for an impressive eight years.
Very often visits by learners to LIONSROCK include a walking tour in between the enclosures of the lions, leopards, and tigers on the Sanctuary, with the learners especially eager to watch the behaviour of the three leopards in their enclosures.
The enthusiastic educationalist, who uses storytelling about the animals as a tool, says this might have much to do with a poem about leopards that she uses to introduce her learning sessions with.
For Gladys, her work as Education Facilitator, is more a calling than just a job, as she has been at LIONSROCK even before the facility was taken over by FOUR PAWS in 2006. She still carries a dream in her heart to use her role to change the way that communities in the vicinity think about animal welfare.
To her, it is all about making a change where it matters: in the attitudes, hearts, and minds. She feels the team at FOUR PAWS has achieved much as communities are now beginning to report animal welfare abuses.
“I have a big vision for animal welfare and want people to adapt and change the way we treat animals. I want to make a real difference by going forward with my career in animal welfare. It will be a real achievement to me to see attitudes and the treatment of animals change for the better in my lifetime.”
She believes one of the strong points of her sessions with learners are educational material like the colouring in of illustrations on animal welfare that she uses in the five-hour visits learners make to the centre. During the upcoming workshops hosted on Animal Welfare Day, she will also use the popular FOUR PAWS Education Manual: Close to Animals.
“Using the material leads to questions on animals and animal welfare. It affords me the opportunity to educate them on what they want to know and are curious about.”
What she likes most about these sessions is the walking tour with the kids and especially walking to the enclosures of the older animals in the Special Care Unit.
Her favourite remains female leopard, Tulani who with leopard Mike are some of the oldest inhabitants of the Sanctuary. Tulani was one of the animals whose care was taken over by FOUR PAWS as she arrived as a cub in February 2003.
“I admire animals like Tulani for their fortitude. People need to know that like humans, animals have feelings, and these must be considered with respect.”
