Project summary

The Sahel region of Northern Nigeria holds a massive farmed animal population, yet it suffers from a near-total absence of animal protection work. The Sahel Animal Welfare & Advocacy Initiative (SAWAI) is launching targeted campaigns across the region to secure corporate cage-free commitments from commercial egg buyers and establish basic humane transport and slaughter standards with local livestock authorities.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Over the next 12 months, our main objective is to establish foundational, enforceable welfare standards for farmed poultry and livestock across key agricultural hubs in Northern Nigeria. First, we are targeting 3 to 5 corporate cage-free commitments from university dining services, commercial hotel chains, and major food providers in urban centers like Kano and Abuja. We will achieve this through direct outreach to procurement managers, presenting economic case studies tailored to local market realities, and building constructive dialogue around ethical sourcing. Second, we aim to introduce practical humane handling and transport guidelines across four high-density livestock trade routes. We will partner with regional transport unions, market association leaders, and local veterinary authorities to run practical training workshops in hubs like Zaria and Katsina, focusing on reducing truck overcrowding, improving resting schedules, and adopting gentler handling during loading and slaughter.

How will this funding be used?

We are requesting $4,000 to cover direct, on-the-ground campaign and logistical expenses for our 12-month pilot. Because SAWAI operates entirely on a volunteer basis, no grant money will be spent on salaries, administrative stipends, or personal compensation. Instead, $1,300 will fund interstate road transport and fuel for field coordinators traveling between our target campaign cities in Kano, Katsina, Zaria, and Abuja. Another $1,200 is allocated to designing, translating into Hausa, and printing physical corporate campaign kits, policy briefs, and cage-free research materials for institutional food buyers. We will set aside $1,100 to cover venue rentals, printing of handling manuals, and basic logistics for four interactive workshops with local transport unions and market handlers. Finally, $400 will go toward official non-profit organizational registration, legal compliance filings, and web infrastructure.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Here is the text rewritten from your first-person perspective:

I lead SAWAI alongside a core team of volunteer animal advocates and recent graduates in animal science and agricultural economics based across Kano, Zaria, and Abuja. As a graduate researcher in Chemistry at Federal University, Dutsin-Ma, I manage our overall campaign strategy, stakeholder outreach, and project logistics. We work in close consultation with academic and agricultural researchers at institutions like Bayero University Kano, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, and Federal University Dutsin-Ma, who help review our handling guidelines and ensure our campaign materials reflect local supply chain realities. While SAWAI is an early-stage grassroots initiative launching its first formal pilot, our team brings deep local context, direct access to key regional hubs, and established campus networks in a region that global animal advocacy organizations do not currently reach. Because everyone on our team operates entirely on a volunteer basis, we run extremely lean and ensure every dollar goes directly into field operations, campaign materials, and local workshops.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

The most significant risk to this project is institutional inertia and resistance from decision-makers. University dining administrators and corporate food buyers may delay decisions or view cage-free shifts as a low priority, while livestock transport unions might attend our workshops but prove slow to change entrenched daily practices due to economic pressure to overload trucks. Additionally, unpredictable fuel price spikes or security issues along specific Northern transit corridors could occasionally restrict our interstate road travel. If corporate commitments stall, the project still yields value by producing the first comprehensive baseline data on institutional poultry procurement in Northern Nigeria, allowing us to pivot toward smaller, independent campus concessionaires to demonstrate proof of concept. If transport unions resist voluntary compliance, we will adapt by engaging local municipal veterinary officers to incorporate basic humane handling checks into existing market entry routines. To manage travel risks, we rely on local volunteer coordinators already living in Kano, Zaria, and Abuja to execute field outreach directly within their home cities.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

We have not received any external grants or institutional funding in the last 12 months. Up to this point, our core team members have pooled small personal contributions out of pocket to cover the basic administrative costs required to legally incorporate and register SAWAI as an official non-profit organization in Nigeria. This application to Manifund represents our first formal request for outside grant funding.