This generation of Chinese children will see a seismic shift in awareness of animal welfare issues.

That’s Animals Asia’s aim as we embark on an ambitious programme to inform and educate young people in partnership with a not-for profit education group called Evergreen.

By adopting a “train the trainers” approach, Animals Asia will create a future army of ambassadors who will distribute information and inspire youngsters to support animal welfare now and in the future.

Evergreen is a organisation which teaches about threats facing modern society including humans’ impact on the environment and the natural world. By going into schools and speaking to children, they hope to be the catalyst for long-term change and improvement.

The partnership between Animals Asia and Evergreen is the brainchild of Animals Asia’s animal welfare team.

Lisa Qing Yang, Animal Welfare Department Manager in China, explained:

“Essentially we’re operating at a real grass roots level here - speaking directly to the next generation to make them aware of what they can do to improve the lives of animals and to aid conservation. We have 40 educators on the program and for this first phase we will be mainly targeting schools in Beijing. We’ll hopefully extend this to other cities as the programme develops.”

The programme involves Animals Asia experts delivering lectures to Evergreen staff and teachers over several sessions. Once they have the knowledge and understanding of the issues, the staff and teachers then use their existing relationships with schools to pass on what they have learnt to students.

It is a 32-hour programme covering a comprehensive range of topics, including animal welfare, animal emotions and social lives as well as issues surrounding research on animals and farming.

Lisa adds:

“The first session took place in June and was a basic introduction to Animals Asia, some global animal welfare issues and animal sentience. We are already looking forward to the next session with Evergreen in September.”

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