As you read this, a donkey is lying injured in the gold-mining region of Geita, Tanzania – waiting. Waiting for someone to rescue them. Waiting for relief from the pain.
Injured donkeys in Geita don’t have time to wait.
And we are running out of the supplies needed to treat them.
How do we know there is an injured donkey right now? Because there always is. Recently, our team found three donkeys in a single day in exactly this situation, fighting for their lives.
First, we came across Mgasa – a foal hit by a car and left for dead on the roadside while her mother worked in the mines. With multiple fractures, she was in unbearable pain. Heartbreakingly, she didn’t make it.
Just a few hours later, we raced to the rescue of Bujiku. She had been hacked on the hind leg with a machete by a farmer – simply for trying to graze after a gruelling day hauling heavy loads in the mines.
And then came Lwimba. She collapsed under the crushing weight of sand, stone and brick she was forced to carry every day down the steep, jagged terrain of the Mgusu gold mine. Her wound, left untreated, had become a severely infected abscess.
A foal left for dead on the roadside. A donkey slashed with a machete. Another collapsed while working in the mines. Just one day in Geita’s gold mines – each story a painful reminder of what life is like for the region’s donkeys. Source: NFA/Byron Seale
This is the brutal reality for donkeys in the gold mines of Geita, Tanzania.
Donkeys in Geita are worked to exhaustion, injured and often brutally punished for simply trying to rest or find food. And when they are no longer useful, they are left to suffer.
There is hope – and it’s because of animal lovers like you.
Our partner, the Lake Zone Animal Welfare Organization (LAZAWO), works across six small-scale gold mines in Geita, rescuing and treating donkeys in desperate need.
Thanks to your support, we have been able to build a dedicated donkey sanctuary in nearby Katoro – a safe place where sick, injured and vulnerable donkeys can finally receive the care, rest and protection they deserve.
These donkeys haul crushing loads down steep, jagged terrain every single day. They are worked to exhaustion, punished for slowing down and abandoned when they become injured or can’t keep up. Source: NFA/Byron Seale
This sanctuary means that when donkeys need help, there is somewhere to take them.
But now, we face a new challenge.
Our team is being overwhelmed by the scale and severity of the injuries we are seeing.
Every day, donkeys suffer deep, infected wounds, brutal lacerations from sharp materials or acts of cruelty and terrible injuries from collapsing under heavy loads.
But we don’t have enough medical supplies to treat them all.
Untreated wounds, severe lacerations and bodies breaking under heavy loads – an endless cycle of pain and suffering for Geita’s donkeys. Source: NFA/Byron Seale
Our emergency medical supplies are being depleted faster than we can replace them.
Without urgent support, even treatable injuries will become fatal. That’s why we desperately need your help today.
To continue treating and saving donkeys, we urgently need:
- Bandages and dressings to clean and protect open wounds
- Pain relief and anti-inflammatory medication to ease suffering
- Antibiotics to fight life-threatening infections
- Suture kits to close severe wounds
These are simple items, but with more of them, we can save more donkey lives.
If we can raise $7,620 (£5,770), we can keep our medical kit fully stocked for an entire year. Will you help ensure vulnerable donkeys have year-round access to care by donating today?
You helped build the first-ever donkey sanctuary in Geita. Now, you can be the reason that no donkey in pain goes untreated.
Where there was once only suffering, our team now brings life-saving care – cleaning wounds, treating injuries and offering relief. But our medical supplies are running low. Source: NFA/Byron Seale
Please help us to urgently restock our emergency donkey medical kit by donating as generously as you possibly can today.
