Support Our RescueRATs

In the face of increasingly frequent and severe natural disasters, our RescueRATs offer an innovative approach to enhance search and rescue operations.

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Search and Rescue

As you may know, APOPO’s research team have been busy with finding new applications for our HeroRATs and, some time ago, we started training our rats to find people in debris sites, so that they may assist in real-life rescues of people in collapsed buildings – RescueRATs as a concept was born! As with all scientific ventures, testing hypotheses and then developing an idea can take many years, but we are proud to say that, with your help, we have already accomplished a lot. So far, we have successfully built an entire replica debris site near our headquarters in Tanzania, and we are at the stage of training the rats to successfully find victims in complex debris sites and return to rescuers with great success.

We are appealing for your support to take us to the next stage of development: sending our HeroRATs and the team to complete search trials in mock debris sites in Turkey in collaboration with the Search and Rescue organization, GEA. These trials will be used to test the rats’ ability to locate and indicate a mock victim and return to the basepoint upon cue in this location. The local GEA staff will also be oriented to our rats as well as our training and health and welfare practices.

GEA is an all-volunteer search and rescue, ecology, and humanitarian aid group established in 1994 in Turkey, which is well known for some of the world’s most devastating earthquakes, due to its position on a complex fault system. APOPO intends to send six rats, two researchers, and three trainers, who will be stationed in Turkey at one of GEA’s training locations. Trainers will conduct routine search training at debris sites and maintain the proper health and welfare of the rats.

The rats will then be deployed in search efforts alongside GEA in response to an earthquake to move onto the most critical part of this program – seeing them save lives in real time.

We hope you can consider supporting this impressive venture and we aim to get the team to Turkey in the second half of 2024, so we will keep you updated on the trip when it launches!


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Support our Search and Rescue program
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$10
Would cover the cost of food & drink supplies for one RescueRAT's journey
$30
Would cover the cost of a travel vaccine for a RescueRAT
$50
Would cover the cost of building a custom travel cage for a RescueRAT
$75
Would cover the costs of international travel supplies for a RescueRAT
$200
Would pay for a RescueRAT travel permit
$475
Would cover the cost for one RescueRAT to get to Türkiye
OR
 

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Search and Rescue Program

 

We hope you are willing to help APOPO’s innovative RescueRATs program. Any amount you can donate will help with program development and eventually deployment, which will save lives. Thank you. ❤️