“Dog is man’s best friend,” goes the colloquialism attributed to Frederick II, King of Prussia.
Rabies is friend to neither.
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
To Malawi today we go to school with artist Louis Masai, who just painted three happy vaccinated dogs with colorfully patterned ears during eight days with the goal of raising the discussion about the vicious disease that has hurt this country.
With Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique as neighbors, landlocked Malawi has about 17 million people and its capital Blantyre has one of the highest rates of child rabies anywhere in Africa. Along with Mission Rabies, a voluntary veterinary team, the artist has been working to make it the lowest.
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
Masai tells us that since May of 2015, the volunteers have vaccinated more than 35,000 dogs in Blantyre, vastly lowering the threat to children, and his new paintings are meant as a point of reference for the educational component of the Mission Rabies campaign.
“Using acrylics and brushes, I painted three murals of local dogs that I had met and whom the vets were treating,” he tells us of the new works inside the walls of local schools.
“It’s not unusual to have 5,000 to 8,000 children in a school, so it’s an incredibly busy and awesome place to host an education program,” he says. “The concept is that with the murals in situ, the teachers and students can discuss the information passed on to them by Mission Rabies and their team.”
Sometimes people can be man’s best friend as well.
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
Louis Masai for Mission Rabies. Blantyre, Malawi. May 2016. (photo © Louis Masai)
Learn more about Mission Rabies here: http://www.missionrabies.com/projects/malawi/
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Our hearts and minds are heavy and quiet this weekend as we contemplate the two decades and lost lives and liberties since September 11, 2001. It's impossi...
It's part of the fascinating world that you inhabit when you follow street art - you have no idea what you will discover in any city at any time because of it's LIVE daily evolutionary perso...
Our Weekly Interview with the Street $469? I can't pay that much for a sports coat! I just need it for an interview anyway, I'm not going to wear it hardly. (Bast, KRSNA) (photo Jaime R...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. DETOKS & GENOM, "NOT BIGGER, NOT BETTER …BUT MORE"2. RERO @ Espace D'art Montresso in Marr...
Street Artist Faring Purth is back on BSA again after a little while, this time on a commissioned piece in Old North St. Louis, Missouri. Typically known for its historic 19th-century brick homes and...