It’s our Birthday!

In August 2012 Aniela Ghita founded Hope for Romanian Strays.  Aniela’s work in rescuing dogs begun well before this but it was in 2012 when she decided to formalise her work through an official charity.  The name Hope for Romanian Strays describes the role of the charity – we want to bring hope to Romanian strays.  Hope of surviving.  Hope of being pain free. Hope of food. Hope of a bit of love and attention.  Hope of a better life, with a loving family.  Hope they would not otherwise have.

Over the last three years that is what Hope for Romanian Strays has done.  It has brought hope to hundreds of dogs in the Bucov shelter, improving their conditions through providing new kennels to keep them warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It has brought paving and straw to the shelter to keep the dogs out of the cold, cloying mud.  It has brought special puppy enclosures to try to save more of the puppies, most of whom die in the shelter.  It has brought extra food to the starving and weak dogs.  It has brought veterinary care to those injured and sick dogs where before they would have died in pain.  It has helped find homes for hundreds of dogs.  Hope for Romanian Strays has done all of this thanks to the unerring dedication of Aniela and those that support the charity.

Thanks to funds donated by our supporters we have accomplished so much.  Three years ago when the charity was founded we would have never dreamed we could have helped so many dogs.  We would never have imagined we could find homes for so many Romanian strays.  We could only have prayed for having the funds to rescue so many injured, sick and frail dogs (and cats).  Thanks to you our supporters we did it.  But there is still so very much more that we need to do.

Three years ago there were around 700 dogs in the Bucov shelter, now there are over 1400 but the capacity and funds have hardly changed. Without our continuous support the conditions in the shelter would be even more terrible.  We work daily with the shelter to bring support to the strays confined within its walls. Whilst we have built our puppy enclosures we are continuously inundated with more puppies, and kittens, that desperately need help.  Every journey to the vet requires funds, for the animals we take as well as the injured ones we find en route.  We cannot stand by and let a dog die in pain by the road but we often do not have the funds to help him so we have to work on debt.  We need more funds for our daily operations but we also need more funds to make our dream of building a safe place for the sick, the weak and the frail dogs that need special care to survive, care they cannot receive in the shelter.

So with this in mind this year we have one wish for our birthday – we want “presents”! We would like to ask that as well as wishing us a happy birthday you also put actions behind those words and help us raise those urgently needed funds.  There are a number of ways you can give us a birthday gift:

• Make a donation to hopeforstrays@yahoo.com via paypal as your birthday gift
• Help us with some of fundraising activities: either organise your own or support one of ours (see next bullet)
• Donate items to our birthday auction which we will be launching at the end of the month – email pharmaguapa@hotmail.com with items (or if you can help with running the auction!)
• “Donate” your lunch to a stray – donate the cost of your lunch to feeding a dog in the shelter
• Raise funds through organising a birthday “party” (picnic, barbq, dinner, etc.) and asking your guest to donate
• Or the best birthday present of all – give one of our Romanian strays a loving forever home