Journal entry global significance

My project makes a difference in my community because it created a fun activity that brought the tennis & pickleball community together. I also have and will continue to spread information around animal cruelty, and the impact our diet has. This project will give animals, even if it’s just a few, a chance for a new life. It can give people in hard economic situations care for their pets, inspire change, and inspire respect for animals. 

To create change in my community I began by organizing my fundraiser, and raised over a thousand dollars. Now I’m in the process of creating awareness surrounding my project, setting up social media accounts to inform my community and form a system to report animals in need of veterinary care. Through this I’ll be able to spread information I’m passionate about and maybe even source donations. I’m additionally eventually applying for a grant on the Wonderment to be able to continue this project. One of the biggest challenges is getting enough funding, veterinary costs are extremely high, and there’s so many animals in need. To get over this challenge I realized first of all that my expectations for the scale of impact this project will have, need to be lowered slightly. But nevertheless I’m set on helping as many dogs/pets as possible by sourcing funds from as many places as I can, and seeking discounts from the vet I’ll be working with. Another obstacle I’m facing is the logistics of how I’m going to take these animals once they are reported to me. I’ve had many people come up to me already and tell me about homes that heavily mistreat their pets. My obstacle comes when I have to go and talk to these people and ask them to let me take their pet in order to help them. Most people likely won’t be very pleased that we are criticizing the way they treat their animals and won’t comply when we try to take them away. To overcome this I’ve brainstormed different ways to convince people to let us take their pets when they are clearly in inhumane conditions, I will always first approach the situation in a friendly manner with no judgment. But in case that fails, methods such as threatening to make a complaint or “denuncia ” to Senasa is an option. 

Animal cruelty is an issue we see all around the world, our lack of respect for their lives and this feeling of superiority we’ve developed as humans manifests into so many different things. My project addresses animal cruelty on a smaller scale, the neglect and abuse many animals face around my communities is innacceptable, the culture in Guanacaste very much sees dogs as house protection rather than pets. Ill also be adressing larger global issues by posting little informative infographics through social media to create awareness on factory farming, and it’s impact on climate/ animal cruelty in general.