Hello everybody!

I’m Louise, A life loving Veterinary Nurse from Wendover Buckinghamshire UK.

After working full time in practice for ten years, I have decided that this is the year to do some volunteer work and use my nursing skills and medical knowledge in another country!

In May I am flying out to Blantyre, Malawi in Africa to take part in ‘Mission Rabies’.

Mission Rabies is a project that has been running for the past two years in India, vaccinating dogs against the deadly rabies virus. This disease kills 100 people worldwide every day and the most common form of transmission to humans is via dog bites.

Unfortunately, due to the lack of knowledge about the disease and the lack of medical treatment available, most people that contract the disease die and these are most commonly children.

Mission rabies is changing this!

Despite a human vaccine being available, it is far more expensive to manufacture and difficult to implement adequate vaccination schemes to all that need it around the world, but by targeting the canine population we are hoping to dramatically cut the fatalities from the disease.

In the past two years in India mission rabies has vaccinated over 300,000 dogs, and founder Luke Gamble, who is also a Vet, is hopeful that canine rabies can be eradicated from world by 2030 by targeting different areas where the disease is most prevalent over the forthcoming years.

The mission is not just about vaccinating the dogs but also about raising awareness of rabies and teaching people, specifically children how to stay safe with dogs.

My colleague Lisa who is a Vet at WHVC  has volunteered  in India the past two years and her experience has inspired me to follow in her footsteps. Mission Rabies (and Lisa) have made a big difference in such a short space of time, and I wish to help make a difference in Africa this year.

I will be working alongside 60 other volunteers and we hope to vaccinate an amazing 50,000 dogs in one month. I will be spending my first week going into schools and educating the children on how to stay safe with dogs, how to look after their pet dogs and potentially inspire a few Vets or Veterinary Nurses of the future! The rest of the time, I will be on the vaccination street team administering life saving vaccines to dogs. We may also perform neutering and administer vital medical and surgical treatments on both street and pet dogs along the way.

For more information about what I will be getting up to please visit www.missionrabies.com and watch the video on the home screen.

On return Lisa & I will be doing a presentation about our trip at Wendover Heights Veterinary Centre so you can all come and see what we’ve been up to and how your money has helped such a worthwhile cause. Keep an eye on the Wendover Heights Veterinary Centre Facebook page as we will be posting updates whilst we are out there (When we have WIFI!) www.facebook.com/whvcpets

THANK YOU SO MUCH!