STRAW (Stray Relief and Animal Welfare), pursues the idea of Animal Welfare through Education.

STRAW (Stray Relief and Animal Welfare) is one of India’s leading animal protection organisations that work for the welfare of animals through the medium of human and animal welfare education. While their chief work lies in New Delhi, their initiative ‘Compassionate Classrooms’- takes humane education all over India through school textbooks.

Set up Vasanthi and her husband Dinesh, the duo has always believed that education is the key to bring about any kind of a change in the society. This core belief has led to STRAW’s complete focus on humane education. Besides being manager of all the projects at STRAW, Vasanthi has served as a Board Member for the Federation of Indian Animal Protectors' Organization, (FIAPO) and has also received the "Outreach for Animals" Award in November 2012.

Aware of the growing influence of social media, Vasanthi was keen to expand the breadth of her work through social media, where she hoped to build compassion in students as well as find youngsters who would be keen on volunteering in Delhi to educate and spread compassion. Working in collaboration with FIAPO, a social media dialogue was undertaken by a few members along with FIAPO’s in-house Digital Media Manager- Vinayak Bajpai . The session aimed at providing a working knowledge of social media and then focused on customized solutions for the unique problems faced by each NGO. The workshop bridged the gap between the organizations by discussing the challenges they have been facing and coming up with solutions to these problems.

To this end, FIAPO is working with STRAW to not only get more volunteers but also retain them in the long-run .As a first step to this initiative –we are setting up a WhatsApp group where new volunteers will be engaged and helped to grow! We hope this new army of volunteers is successful in inspiring Delhi’s school children to be compassionate to animals.

In case you are one those who love animals and children at the same time and are interested to join this group, please WhatsApp your name and phone details to Vasanthi Kumar whose phone number is 9958555443. STRAW is also willing to guide and pay a stipend to those who would like to work on a part-time basis, to conduct humane education programs independently in their own hometowns and cities.