As Christmas approaches, we would like to say a huge thank you for the work you’ve made possible in 2024 helping donkeys in need – including helping us launch a new programme of work in Gaza. And today I’d like to tell you a special Christmas story – of how a donkey our mobile team provided first aid to, played an important role in the safe delivery of a baby.
And please know you were also part of this story.
All thanks to your ongoing kindness and support to Safe Haven’s work with donkeys, mules and horses – since launching earlier this year, our Gaza team have already treated around 4,200 animals in need of first aid.
We’re now taking a Christmas break, so I will be back again in the new year to tell you more about how you’ve helped support our programmes in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Egypt.
In the meantime we would like to wish you a merry Christmas and a peaceful new year.
News from Gaza
Dr Saif, who leads the team in Gaza, recently told us how a donkey was pivotal in the safe delivery of a baby. With no ambulance or car available, the animal was the only hope for a woman called Alaa, whose contractions began one evening.
Alaa made contact with Dr Saif’s brother, Mohammed, who was able to arrange for a donkey called Fatima (an animal that our mobile vet team had treated) to transport her through the ravaged streets of Khan Younis.
Alaa’s baby was safely delivered hours later in hospital, but only thanks to Fatima.
Donkeys like Fatima are now increasingly providing the most essential of services – evacuating people from danger, transporting them to hospital when they are sick, injured or, in Alaa’s case, desperately in need of a safe place to deliver a baby.
Thanks to Fatima the donkey, an animal treated by Dr Saif’s team, Alaa safely made it to hospital, where her baby was born.
It is critical we continue to treat donkeys in Gaza, not just to bring pain relief and prevent illness, but also to ensure they can continue saving lives.
Thank you ♥️♥️
It’s only with your help we are able to improve the lives of working donkeys, mules and horses in the West Bank, Gaza and Egypt. You’re also helping to fund our hospital in Nablus in the West Bank and care for our rescue donkeys in Arrana, as well as our donkeys at our sanctuary in Israel. If you’d like to read previous updates of our work, please click here to visit out blog. You can also view this update online by clicking here.
Our mobile team in Gaza is a vital resource – treating donkeys injured by the conflict or suffering with malnutrition and dehydration, increasingly likely in a place where supplies of the essentials are very scarce.