Being Vegan In Uganda: Meet The Intersectional Activists Caring For All

Can you imagine caring for over 50 women and 150 children all while distributing plant-based meals and improving the lives of over 2,560 students? It’s a balancing act; one that Dash Meizler and his small team from the Podrska Foundation are giving their all.

Meet Intersectional Vegan Activist, Dash Meizler

I met Dash in 2019 while traveling in Kampala, Uganda, with Daniel Turbert from the Sentient Project and Lisa McDonald from Kindness Empire and have been astounded and wowed by his work ever since. For those who are interested in liberation for all people, including nonhuman animals, Dash’s story is an inspiring work that is still in progress. Dash is an animal liberation activist, humanitarian, and founder of the Podrska Foundation.

After studying social sciences, majoring in psychology and minoring in social administration, this now 26-year-old had been doing work in the humanitarian realm since 2013. He went on to start his own foundation in 2018. He chose to consume a vegetarian diet in 2018, and in a short time transitioned to living vegan. This switch of lifestyle and an even deeper commitment to ethics changed the way that Dash and his organization operated in his community. Listen to our Unruly podcast episode here.

Meet the Podrska Foundation

So, what is the Podrska Foundation? They state: “We are a vegan foundation dedicated to an ethics of care for both human and non-human lives in Uganda. Through programs such as child welfare initiatives, teenage counseling, women empowerment, early education for children and women, and plant-based food distribution, we foster impoverished orphans, children, youth, and single-mothers. Each of our programs also encourages participants to make choices informed by compassion for non-human animals. Our volunteers work directly with locals to enable them to achieve the goals and objectives of the foundation.” They also mention that they envision a world governed by “equity, compassion, and justice not only between human beings but also between human and non-human animals.”

This sounds amazing, but what does it all really mean? The Podrska Foundation can not only talk the talk but continues to walk the walk, sprinting when they can.

Supporting Children, Women, and Nonhuman Animals Alike

The Podrska Foundation has three points of focus, starting with children. They support vulnerable children who may struggle to have adequate food, clothing, and shelter. They aim to help them in three areas: education, welfare, and health.

The Child Program is multi-faced, allowing the foundation to reach different kids in unique ways. They work with local and refugee children by focusing on five areas: anti-bullying, anti-drug use, life skills, depression awareness, and contraception awareness. Dash says that bullying can often make it hard for children to stay in school, so conflict resolution is something that he and his team often focus on.

The second large point of focus is the Lady Program. Dash says: “Women, culturally, are perceived as powerless, and this gives them fewer opportunities.” The Podrska Foundation supports around 50 women by creating self-sustaining business opportunities. The women in the Lady Program create uniquely beautiful pants, shirts, dresses, jewelry, hair accessories, bags, and more.

While in Uganda, I had the honor of meeting a handful of loving, humorous, and talented women from the Lady Program. The items that I brought home from them are my most cherished (and stylish!) keepsakes from Africa.

In addition to all of the care for people in the local community, the Podrska Foundation centers nonhuman animal people in their work as well, making animal liberation the third focus of their work. While in Uganda, I got to see their Vegan Feeding Program in action, where plant-based food bags were distributed to folks in need. Dash said that more people were dying during COVID times more from hunger and less from the actual virus, making this program essential to many families while saving animal lives.

Dash also says that the program regularly targets those who may not even have access to one meal a day, and tries to provide the recipients with at least two meals. The Foundation chooses to distribute food with no “blood or animals” in it for a few reasons: the animals themselves, human health, and environmental care. Dash says that people often ask, How come you don’t give out fish? How come you don’t give out chicken? He told me that vegan outreach is purposely done while distributing plant-based foods.

On top of their feeding program, the Podrska Foundation hosts and plans many different vegan activism events in their community. These include things like slaughterhouse footage showings, weekly protests, and vegan outreach and education campaigns in schools. They plan to hold public debates and dialogs in the future while organizing more street activism. Dash and the Podrska Foundation are dreaming of opening a vegan farmed animal sanctuary, which would be the first of its kind in Uganda.

In addition to Dash working to provide as much as he can, The Podrskda Foundation heavily relies on donations to support its projects and programs. He says that getting more reliable funding is a “work in progress” but is so important because the need for support in his community has greatly increased.

When asked why Dash started doing this challenging work, he simply replied, “I just wanted to help people.” 

Get Involved & Support This Work

You can help Dash and the Podrskda Foundation help human and nonhuman animal people by becoming a monthly or one-time donor. Please share his story and encourage others to spread the word about their life-changing foundation!

The cover photo for this article was also taken by Daniel Turbert from The Sentient Project!