An Exciting Year Ahead
Written by James Florence - Chief Executive
On behalf of everyone at Wildlife & Welfare, I would like to wish you and your families a Happy New Year!
Although the past couple of years have been a bit of a challenge with COVID affecting many of our plans, 2022 is set to be an exciting year for us. We have a whole range of new projects being launched, some existing ones being expanded and we have new partnerships in the pipeline which will enable us to help more animals and charities around the world.
You have probably already noticed the first new thing for us this year and that is this website. With a fresh new look, an easier to navigate menu system and designed with our future technology requirements in mind, we have created a site that promotes our current work and is an excellent platform to start building our new projects. Remember to keep checking back, as we will have lots of new additions being added throughout the year.
What are we working on in 2022?
IAHP Animal Health Clinic in 2021
IAHP - Our major project based in Australia that is providing free animal health clinics to Indigenous communities will see the continued work in two areas of Victoria, while also looking to expand into new regions of the country. We were delighted to welcome Philippa Wilkinson as our new Country Coordinator for Australia last year and she comes with a wealth of experience to help with our expansion plans. Philippa is an experienced Veterinary Nurse who has worked in a veterinary hospital and as a teacher at two different veterinary universities. She is also a passionate wildlife conservationist who has worked on wildlife campaigning and Australian wildlife habitat work.
Thanks to the support of Dogs Trust Worldwide, this year we will be carrying out needs assessments to identify viable locations to expand the project in to. Our aim is to be delivering the IAHP services to as many Indigenous communities as possible and this is the first step in achieving that goal.
Our new Wildlife Calendar
Environmental Calendar & Wildlife Calendar - Throughout 2021 we explored the most pressing environmental issues facing our planet today. Each month we focussed on a new topic and provided facts on the causes, current issues and lots of useful tips on how you can play your part to protect the environment. We will keep all of these pages regularly updated throughout the year and we will also be releasing blog posts to give you further details on each monthly topic. All of our past blog posts can be read here.
New for 2022 is our Wildlife Calendar. Similar to how we ran the Environmental Calendar, we will release a new web page every month, but this time it will include a different country each time and will focus on two endangered wildlife species found there. Although the flagship species like elephants and bears are vitally important, we will be looking at the more unknown species that play an equal part in a balanced environment. We will present the facts about the animals, what the threats are that have caused them to become endangered and also look at what is being done to save them, including any research projects you can get involved in. Each month there will be a blog post to complement the calendar which will include interviews with charities helping to restore wildlife populations and news from other conservation projects around the world. You can read the January Wildlife Calendar page now, which is all about pine martens and natterjack toads in the UK read here.
Resource Library - The team are currently working hard writing new resources, with the plan to launch the library early this year. We want to create a portal that is aimed at charities working with animals or in the areas of wildlife or environmental conservation. It is not easy to run a not-for-profit organisation, but there are many experts out there that can provide guides and helpful tips to make it much simpler. If you work for a charity and need help with how to run an effective marketing campaign, or how to write a funding proposal, or how set up a dog/cat population management campaign, this will be the place to come. Everything from charity administration to specific project guides will be included. If you sign up to our email newsletter below, we will announce when the library is live and also keep you updated with other important news from the charity.
This is just a sample of our planned work for 2022, but keep checking back for further news on these and other new projects throughout the year. Thank you for your continued support and we hope this year sees some positive change for wildlife and the environment we all live in.
