Empowering the AKUT K9 Unit: Enhancing Operational Excellence Across Turkey
Dogs have a very powerful sense of smell and hearing and can be crucial to locate people in a wide variety of situations. With this in mind, the Turkish NGO AKUT, dedicated to search and rescue operations, is developing the AKUT K9 (canine) Unit to train search and rescue dogs to locate missing individuals during disasters and in hard-to-reach areas. Dogs undergo intense training in agility, obedience, and scent detection in order to work side-by-side with rescuers teams to locate survivors in situations where technology isn’t enough and time is a critical factor. To leverage these lifesaving capabilities, this project supported by the Royal Canin Foundation aims to increase the number of active and trained canine units ready for rescue missions by 50%.
WHAT DOES THE PROJECT SOLVE?
The project aims to reinforce and expand the operational capabilities of the AKUT K9 Unit across Türkiye. To reach this goal, the plan includes upgrading the K9 training system with online video modules, organizing annual in-person visits to 30 teams, building a dedicated rubble training site, and raising public awareness about the vital role of search and rescue dogs — with the aim of inspiring more volunteers to train search dogs.
Founded in 1996, AKUT was officially designated as a "Public Benefit Association" following its response to the Marmara earthquake in 1999. It is the first Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) team in Türkiye recognized by INSARAG is a member of the International Rescue Dog Organization (IRO), and is acknowledged by several global organizations.
As a completely voluntary, non-governmental organization, AKUT is dedicated to search, assistance, and rescue operations. AKUT operates during nature-related accidents, natural disasters and other emergencies. It operates with trained, disciplined personnel and high-standard equipment, sharing knowledge with society without political affiliations.
Since 1999, AKUT has responded to numerous international disasters, including earthquakes in Athens, Haiti, India, Iran, Pakistan, Japan, Nepal, and floods in Libya in 2023.
By 2024, AKUT has conducted over 5,000 rescue operations, saving 5,000 people and 1,900 animals.
This program aims to enhance and expand the operational skills of the AKUT K9 (canine) Unit across Turkey, by :
Rebuilding and enhancing the K9 training system with online training videos.
Conducting annual in-person visits to 30 teams.
Constructing a training rubble site.
Increasing public awareness about serach and rescue dogs to attract more volunteers for training search dogs.
The goal of this project is to support AKUT in increasing the number of canine teams ready for rescue missions and improving their training quality to enhance emergency response effectiveness.
The project aims to expand branches with active canine units by 50%, double the number of operational canine teams, and recruit more puppies for training as search and rescue dogs.
OTHER PROJECTS
8 results
8 results