Thought I would share this great letter from Sue Gardiner who has lived on Tonga for years, is a Kiwi and helped us set up on Tonga.
March 2011
Dear Karen and the team at SPAW
I would like to express my sincere thanks to SPAW and your generous sponsors Pfizer and Shoof for the vet clinic recently held in Tonga.
I have resided in Tonga for ten years and during this time I have been deeply troubled to see the state of many of the animals here. Unfortunately, with the cost of living being far higher than the average salary, the care of animals is usually way down the list for most Tongan families priorities. They simply can not afford the cost of taking an animal to the vets . Our local vet clinic is in appalling shape. Often they have no drugs to assist sick and dying animals and at times they operate purely on the generosity of overseas donations which are few and far between.
The clinic has had many positive outcomes. Firstly you have managed to spay well over 100 animals and treat many more. These are animals that would not have otherwise been seen by a vet. Secondly, the visiting vets have passed on valuable skills and knowledge to our local vets . The local vets would not have been exposed to this training had your team not visited Tonga. There is no resources to send our local vets overseas for further training. In addition the clinic was able to further educate the public on caring and valuing their pets.
To Pfizer and Shoof I would like to extend my sincere gratitude. Without the generous sponsorship from you this clinic would not have been possible. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your extremely kind donations.
To the lovely Vets that visited us...thank you for caring enough to come to Tonga to help us and our animals. Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us .
It is very important to us that the SPAW continues the clinics in Tonga. Education regarding the proper care of animals is very important . I urge SPAW and your wonderful sponsors to keep up the good work and please come visit us again in May.
Kind Regards
Sue Gardiner
General Manager
Forum Travel
GSA for Tonga
