Helping in Nepal

Tree of Compassion Director, Tania Duratovic, is back in Nepal helping out at the Animal Liberation Sanctuary (ALS) associated with Kopan Monastery, a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in the Kathmandu Valley. The project involves looking after animals that have been rescued from local butcher stalls that are found in the streets across Nepal. Tania is also a Project Coordinator of the ALS.

The project is at a critical point. Construction has been taking place on nearby land in order to create new and more suitable accommodation for the sanctuary animals, currently living in a section of the monastery grounds. The sanctuary needs to provide a safe and healthy environment for the animals for the rest of their lives – not a normal situation for ‘farm animals’. In order to provide facilities to cater for new arrivals, sick and injured residents, and to provide safe shelter for weaker as well as strong animals living close together a lot of thought has gone into the design. Another issue is the internal fencing to ensure the mostly goat population doesn’t strip the place bare. There is a quarantine shelter and area of new animals and potentially infectious ones, as well as a treatment room that can provide sterile facilities for medical procedures (the local government animal hospital is far from clean and the risk of infection following operations is considerable).

On top of construction activity there is the ongoing care of animals that requires constant vigilance.

For more information about this project, go to the Animal Liberation Sanctuary page.

Dr Umesh and Tania with residents

Dr Umesh and Tania with residents