~Your Generosity Will Help People and Working Equines Everywhere~
(Lexington, KY – December 20, 2024) – As Brooke USA approaches the end of a remarkable year and during this Holiday Season, the organization recognizes the many supporters and friends, who through their compassionate giving year-round, have helped families across the world cope with the desolation brought on by poverty. Representing 8% of the global population and making under $2 a day, these families depend on a working horse, donkey or mule for the most basic and routine chores – from fetching water from miles away to transporting perishables for sale at markets and make a messily living.
There are 100 million working equines worldwide, earning an income that around 600 million people rely on to put food on their tables and send their children to school. These animals are the backbones of poverty-stricken communities and the engines that mobilize their lives. They work alongside their owners in some of the most challenging environments on earth such as brick kilns, construction sites and gold and coal mines. They suffer in silence from exhaustion, malnutrition and disease because of poor health and welfare resources. Brooke USA, thanks to its family of supporters, can provide necessary tools and resources that improve the lives of these working equines and thus, the wellbeing of their owners.
“The present and the future of working equines and their owners is intertwined. Without appropriate husbandry, nutrition, veterinary care, farriery and adequate handling, working equines cannot support their owners,” explained Emily Dulin CEO of Brooke USA. “At Brooke USA we know that when working equines thrive so do the families that depend on them, and when an equine suffers their owners do too,” added Dulin.
Unfortunately, understanding the role of working equines is often overseen by granting organizations and federal agencies. It is thanks to individual donors and corporate partners, mainly in the equestrian world, that Brooke USA can make a difference, reaching close to 300,000 working equines and 65,000 people in 2024. Brooke USA funded programs in Africa, Asia, and Latin America while partnering with EQUUS Foundation to aid equine charities in the United States. Also, in 2024 and within just a few days of devastating Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Brooke USA launched an emergency campaign to aid working equines and their owners in the affected states which raised $24,000 for Equestrian Aid Foundation, EQUUS Foundation and Fleet of Angels.
During the Holiday season, we are reminded of how fortunate we are and how a little help can go a long way. Donor support means that Brooke USA can continue to aid thousands of people each year who need so much (yet so little). This is why Brooke USA is asking friends and supporters to make an additional one-time, year-end donation to help meet the immediate needs of people and animals living in deplorable conditions while helping Brooke USA reach a new milestone in its growth and commitment to those who need it most. Brooke USA is only $73,210 from attaining, for the first time in its nine-year history, $2 million in donation revenue, $400,000 more than planned for 2024. “We hope that our supporters and friends will help us reach this unprecedented revenue figure which in turn will help more people and animals than ever before,” pleaded Dulin.
As people give to Brooke USA during the Holidays, they are making a worldwide difference today, the next year and beyond. To make that extra gift at the end of the year, please visit www.BrookeUSA.org/mydonation before December 31, help a family with a working equine in need, and help Brooke USA reach its $2 million milestone in anticipation of its 10th Anniversary in 2025. Your gift and generosity truly touch the lives of those Brooke USA serves.
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About Brooke USA Foundation (Brooke USA): The mission of Brooke USA is to significantly improve the health, welfare, and productivity of working horses, donkeys and mules and the people who depend on them for survival worldwide. We are committed to sustainable economic development by reducing poverty, increasing food security, ensuring access to water, providing a means to education, and raising basic standards of living through improved equine health and welfare. We accomplish this by raising funds and responsibly directing them to the areas of greatest need.
Brooke USA strives to alleviate the suffering and vulnerability of developing communities by funding and implementing programs that improve the quality of life and health of working equines and thereby positively impacting their economic sustainability, protecting the planet, ensuring gender equality, and guaranteeing life on land resilience. We want to see healthy, happy people and equines that work in partnership to achieve sustainable local economies.
Media Contact:
Emily Dulin
305-505-6170
Emily.Dulin@BrookeUSA.org
Kendall Bierer
561-309-9873
Kendall.Bierer@BrookeUSA.org