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APHE’s Interview with Pei F. Su, Executive Director of ACTAsia

1. How did you become involved in humane education?

When I worked for an animal protection organisation in Taiwan back in 1993, I undertook a project to develop a companion animal protection curriculum which targets children of Grades 1- 6 in primary school. At the time I thought humane education was good for promoting the welfare of animals, but I did not think it was crucial. In fact, at the time I thought people, who concentrated on doing humane education and not campaigning type of work, were much ado about nothing! However, after working on the issue of animal welfare in China and other Asian countries for more than 20 years, I deeply felt that our movement needs to take political, social and cultural contexts into account. Therefore, the direct transfer of a western model to Asia would not work and we wouldn’t be able to change people’s mindset to the necessary extent. That’s why, after being a devoted member of campaigning against animal cruelty camp for many years, I realised that we need to take a different and more strategic approach to the problem. That’s why we set up ACTAsia with a fellow Indian activist and why we focus on Humane Education.

2. Please tell us about founding ACTAsia, the organization’s accomplishments and future goals.

While ACTAsia may have a shoe string of a budget as an organisation itself, all of its members and advisors have many years of experience in the field of humane education. This, in combination with the knowledge and understanding of cultural issues, is one of the reasons why ACTAsia has been so successful in its work.

Our Caring for Life (CLE) Humane Education Course started in 2012 and to date, ACTAsia is reaching more than 100 schools in China – this amounts to more than 14.000 students and 600 teachers across 10 provinces and these numbers are increasing every year through our CLE Course. The evaluation of our projects is showing great progress for youth in their behaviours. One of the major features of our CLE programme is that our curriculum is taught by the primary school teachers and they use school curriculum time to teach this. In addition, it is not ad hoc presentations but it consists of a 12 lesson program spanning throughout an academic year. We have developed two years of curriculums for teachers, which means that students can receive our humane education messages in Grades 1 and 2, a total of 24 lessons of learning. As Dr. William Samuels, from the School of Education, City University of New York pointed out “ACTAsia's Caring for Life humane education program has been a great success. A large-scale evaluation of the program found strong evidence that it can change children's attitudes and behaviors. Teachers and administrators must agree, because it is now being conducted in dozens of schools with thousands of children in several cities across China. It has even impressed the hard-to-please Bureau of Education; they have now incorporated the CLE program into the endorsed state curriculum. There's nothing like it that I know of in the States."

Furthermore, ACTAsia has held multiple workshops for local NGOs and hosted the first (and second) ever Fur Free Fashion Shows. While only 200 people attended the Fashion

Show each time, the estimated reach through media is approx. 720 million viewers! The Fashion Show aims to educate consumers and promote a Cruelty Free Lifestyle while simultaneously recruiting Fur Free designers and retailers as part of the Fur Free Alliance global scheme.

With regards to professional education, veterinary information materials have been translated and distributed to all ACTAsia’s trained veterinarians. From 2013 onward, the Chinese trainers have led the workshops with support from Vets Beyond Borders personnel and seven Chinese trainers were selected to train other across China. A manual and DVD are translated and produced in Chinese. This means that pet owners are receiving better advice, veterinarians are providing better care for their animals and Rabies prevention is being promoted more actively.

3. What do you see as the biggest challenge to humane education in the countries in which you work and how are you overcoming it?

The greatest challenges for ACTAsia’s Caring for Life Education program include both internal and external ones.

Externally, the main challenge is that humane education is a completely new concept and we have to define it, and explain it to both authorities and teachers: what it is, why we are doing it and what we want to achieve. In addition, the different teaching approach in pedagogy has presented some practical issues – as one class usually consists of 40-50 students with one teacher and no assistant, it is rote teaching rather than interactive. Critical thinking for children is a rare and unfamiliar concept even for teachers. As a result, teachers were initially reluctant to use our pedagogical methods in classrooms but later came to the realisation that a more participative and discussion lead way of teaching is not only possible but actually helps students more. The final external challenge came with the need to be accepted by the Government in order to infiltrate schools. However, with persistence and evidence that Caring for Life Education can indirectly reduce violence, improve citizenship and benefit not only the youth but their families and society, our program is becoming more widely accepted by the public authorities.

Internally, the main challenges have been with finding the appropriate staff. Humane education is new and so is working for NGOs. It is therefore hard for us to recruit staff who understand the concept of HE and it is very often the case that the family does not support it as a ‘profession’. The evaluation process in itself has posed a challenge due to the large amount of data collected and processed. However, with efficient experts and volunteers, we have managed to limit the vast amount of data and use only what is specifically helpful to the evaluation we need to carry out. Finally, as with any NGO, the limited resources are an issue which is always on the table. Especially when the organisation carries out humane education rather than direct animal or environmental protection.

4. How can humane educators in North America support humane education in other countries?

Offering expertise and knowledge across the world is a valuable help to all Humane Education organisations. While lesson plans, monitoring tools and any other materials always need to be adapted to fit social and cultural contexts, the sharing of knowledge and expertise is still an asset we all need. Volunteering to train other teachers through workshops is also a valuable asset and this can be done in through summer or winter camps and will always include the travelling perk for the trainer!