CAPTIVE WILD-ANIMALS' WELFARE COURSE: THE COURSE THAT RAISE VIETNAM'S WELFARE STANDARD

Wild animals are being rescued and kept at many rescue centres across Vietnam. However, it is not not easy to ensure hygiene standards, maintaining health and preserving their inherent wild behavior. For endangered species, ensuring their welfare standards is even more of an important conservation issue.

Aiming to build the national capacity and raising standards of captive animal welfare in Vietnam, our course “Captive Wildlife Animals’ Welfare” (CAW) was organised in collaboration with Law School - Vietnam National University, Hanoi. This course is within the framework of our " National Capacity Building Program"

The course has received many applications from the public. We have selected 35 qualified students to join the course. They are young people from the age of 22 to 32 , from 12 different provinces of Vietnam, with different backgrounds but they have a common interest in animal welfare. Due to Covid19 situation, the theoretical section was taught online via Zoom from July 12 to July 23, 2021 with the participation of 16 guest speakers from 10 organizations in the conservation.

During the 2 weeks of the theoretical section, students are assigned individual and group exercises to ensure they understand the knowledge they have learned. After the theoretical course, 85% of students have improved their Animal Welfare’s knowledge, which was proven through our mini-tests. This is the result of a process of learning and engaging discussion between students and guest-speakers over the course of 2 weeks. We encouraged guest-speakers utilizing various interactive tools such as Kahoot, Zoom poll, Mentimeter, Jamboard, and group discussions to engage students’ interaction during the online lessons.

The theory section ended with positive feedback from students and speakers. Through a short survey sent to the speakers after each session, up to 88.9% of the speakers were relatively satisfied with the quality of the course, they thought it was a useful course and would be happy to be invited to join the course in the future.

From August - September 2021, students will start to work on their professional placement, at NGOs or government agencies, such as Animals Asia Foundation, Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, Cat Tien National Park,etc. Students are expected to accomplish their placement and submit a report by the end of September 2021. 

The course has given scholarships to 5 students from provinces outside of Hanoi to participate in the practical session, which will be held in Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Province. 3 research scholarships for outstanding professional placement were also awarded to students of the course. The scholarships not only encourage students to be more active, but also motivates them to turn their ideas into reality.

The current cohort is midway through the CAW course. We are looking forward to visiting Cuc Phuong National Park with our students, to get a hand-on experience on rescuing and taking care of rescued wild animals at Save Vietnam’s Widllife, Endangered Primate Rescue Centre and Asian Turtle Programs!

IF you are interested in our course, please contact us at: wildedu@wildact-vn.org