Eradicating rabies in Bali one village at a time

A Community That Cares

As a community driven school, our responsibility extends well beyond our campus to the world we all share. But right here in Sibang Kaja, is a community we share everyday. It is home to more than 5,000 people and 1,400 dogs. Their health and safety is our health and safety. When we improve dog health, sterilization and vaccination rates, we improve the health and safety of our staff, the local people of Sibang Kaja and our children.

A Cause That Cures

Program Dharma is gaining nation-wide attention for their success in eliminating rabies one village at a time. This Bali led initiative, supported by the Center of Public Health Innovation out of Udayana University in Denpasar, has been working with BAWA and growing governmental support with powerful results. In 2016, it launched its first pilot program in Sanur Regency. Those three Sanur villages have been rabies free ever since.

But that’s not the end of the story

The increasing health of Sanur’s dog population continues to be managed and improved each year. Their work enabled Sanur to pass the first ever village animal welfare and dog meat regulation ban in Bali and all of Indonesia. Now, government officials from all around Indonesia are flying to Bali to learn about this innovative program.

A Window Of Opportunity

Our opportunity to show Bali and the world what this community is made of is here. From November 2019 to April 2020 Project Dharma will work side-by-side with local Banjars to train eight local representatives to document every single dog in Sibang Kaja, begin the dog welfare educational programs and initiate health days for sterilization, vaccination, mange and scabies treatments. Sibang Kaja and Green School will be able to say we are rabies free as early as April 2020.

So what do we need to start?

Our Sibang Kaja community needs to raise $33,500 for the first 6 months of Program Dharma.  After 6 months, the salaries of local program representatives will be incorporated into local Banjar budgets. Ongoing education, dog census and vaccination will ensure that when we drive to school, we’ll see dogs like Chichi who used to look like this...

(Before photo)  


looking a little more like this . (After photo)



A Plan That Protects

Community isn’t something that has a beginning or end. This initiative and its benefits will extend far beyond April 2020. Once we have reached our funding goals I Lawrence Cowell as parent and member of  the Green School community will personally oversee the withdrawal and transfer of funds to the Program Dharma team to specially fund the following activities. Fifty percent of the funding will go towards sterilizations, vaccinations, and medical treatments of the dogs for 6 months. The balance of the funds go towards, village and community engagement, the purchase of equipment to collect ongoing dog census data,  the training and salaries of 7 village program ambassadors, as well as program administration overhead. Once Program Dharma has been established the village ambassadors will then be funded and permanently employed by Sibang Kaja, which will ensure that we continue to improve the health and safety of every living creature who calls our community home.