Every day in Kabul, hundreds of working horses and donkeys push their bodies to the absolute limit—carrying heavy loads over rough terrain to help their owners earn a humble living.
Sadly, traditional carts made from splintered, heavy wood and harsh, old stiff tyres with no suspension and abrasive ropes leave so many of these animals suffering from shoulder strain, lameness, and often deep friction wounds. But we’ve been figuring for a while – there has to be a better way!
Driven by a passion for prevention, our lead vet, Dr. Reshad, and the team have been working hard on a very cool initiative…brand-new, welfare-friendly cart and harness systems!
So far, these carts seem to be making the work so much easier already for the horses we’ve been trialling them with, particularly because of the built-in suspension we’ve included – basically simple but really effective shock absorbers that cushion every bump on the rough roads. The central bar right across between the tyres also distributes the heavy weight far more evenly, and the soft padding replaces all the nasty abrasive ropes they previously used. All of this, with the lighter-weight wood we hope, starts to end the constant cycle of painful friction sores that we’ve seen so much of over the years.
Each cart takes around 15 days to craft and costs around £500 depending on the cost of local parts and how easily we can get them — but don’t you think the difference it makes to an animal’s daily life is priceless?
None of this vital, life-saving work would be possible without the incredible support of our donors and ever-wonderful supporters like you who believe in a brighter, kinder future for Kabul’s working animals.
Check out these photos of the old and now new carts in action! And, if you’d like to donate towards this initiative to help construct even more carts, please go to our donate page at https://www.nowzad.com/support-us or simply click the button below!
Thank you so much and a very happy sunday!