inspiration

In Egypt I saw some terrible things, that saddened,shocked amd disgusted me at times.horses that were walking skeletons, with rope tied through their flesh, with severed tongues, donkey carrying morse than their own weight on their backs, or pulling more weight than you can imagine, camels with such bad sores on their legs from being forced to live and sleep tied in th road that I could fit my whole hand in the wound.  some of the wounds and conditions were more horrible than you can imagine Yet I have come home ,feeling inspired, by all the positive things, just as their are bad people in the world, their are those who do incredible amounts of good, sometimes in the face of extreme adversity, overwhelming odds, little support, and no rewards. Overall it has left me with the feeling that I too want to make change, to help and do what I can for those that can't help themselves, in short it did leave me with the desire to become a better and more selfless human been. The work we did their was grim,  working with the worst of the worst, in the areas that have the terrible animal rights, high poverty, low education and a host of other problems. it really was the asshole of egypt. The team of us from New Zealand, worked in conjunction with an Egyptian charity, and a team of farriers from England,setting up street clinics to help care for the animals and provide first aid. We took our own medical supplies an d paid for the trip out of our own pocket, and it was well worth it  To be honest at times I wanted to find a way to humanly just put some fo the animals out of their misery, becaue frankly their was nothing good about their lives sat all. We were there for one month. Their are people who face this day after day, month after month, year after year, and they manage to keep working towards caring for these animals, for change,and for the good of every animal they see. The vets also face the attitude of a lot of egyptians, that there profession is some way second class, probably stemming from the fact theat there is no respect for animals, therefore none for those who care for them. Facing this kind of adversity and continuing, is to me is hugely inspiring, because it is hard, with little reward and most of your success you will never see. I was lucky enough to do a day in the countryside working with a charity caring for the donkeys, that worked on farms and brick factories. This was one of the most positive experiances, the charity was extremely organized had great succes, not only treating the animals, but also getting the owners to change detrimental practices and start to actions to prevent problems from occurring. They had a system that worked well, and they had really created change in the area they worked. The conditions for the donkeys in the brick factories had improved dramatically although a long way form perfect, and they communicated with factory owners to better, their business practices in a way that improved their profit, as well as the donkeys life. Truly inspirational However some of the saddest things I saw was not the neglect. But when people actually had tried to care for their animals, and it had gone wrong. Working with the donkey charity, we did an emergency call out to a donky with a cast on its leg. We got their and knew it was bad. An otherwise fat and healthy donkey, wouldn't get up, could barely walk, and ws hoping on three legs. Whoever put the cast on had set it wrong, as well as applying it jot tightly. We got half way through taking off the cast , when the vet said the worst "watch out guys the foot is gunna come off with this " The cast being to tight had cut off all circulation to the donkeys foot, causing it to die and rot off inside the casing. Sure enough as we unwrapped it, the hoof jus peeled away before our eyes, with blood and puss just oozing everywhere. The stench and the horror were beyound belief. The pain for that donkey would have been excruciating. It was a tragedy all around, for the owners who had tried to do the right thing, for the donkey, and for us, as their was nothing we could ,do to save the poor creature. All we were able to do was wrap the legs in a more comfortable way, provide pain relief, and negotiate with the owners to arrange to have the donkey euthanized as quickly as possible (which is very hard over their beause it goes against a lot of people's beliefs and customs). To me this was the saddest case for all involved. Another great charity had a equine hospital in Cairo, where they took in all sorts of cases, but again provided education and preventative treatment to owners. They had their own farrier, gave medical cards for the horses to owners to monster treatment. Set up water troughs for the public to use for their animals(extreme dehydration was one of the biggest problems we saw), and provided emergency care, and a horse ambulance, as well as paying compensations to owners who wer willing to euthanize animals that could not be saved. Seeing the horses in there emergency ward was inspiring, horrific injuries form being hit by cars,working in factories etc and here they were healing and receiving the best care possible for injuries that even in this country would sometimes cost to much for owners to attempt treatment. Yet here these horses were healing, being cared for, and recovering from there wounds, without any cost to the owners wo brought them in. Every success like this helped, change peoples faith in 'traditional' medicine and turn to the vets in order to save their animals,  I think I learned that change is possible, there are amazing, kind and inspirational people worldwide, despite race and religious and media portrayal.wanting to make change and do good has to be selfless and not for personal gratification. yet with time small steps and hard work change can happen for the better. If change was easy it would have already happened, and it takes all these hardworking people, willing to make change and help those who cant, who work quietly away for years at a time who make these changes possible. truly inspirational