Tree Of Life For Animals

For a few years I had been planning to go to TOLFA since I first met Rachel Wright the Founder and Serena Schellenberg (fundraiser) at a wonderful fundraising auction for TOLFA arranged by Serena in 2008. As a trustee of the Valerie White Memorial Trust - a charity which supports and donates to Animal Charities, I decided it would be great to actually go out to India to see for myself how our money had been put to use.

Celebrating Holi at TOLFA

Continue reading Our Volunteers - Helen

Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery are hosting a contemporary art auction in aid of TOLFA. It’s going to be the event of the year and you’d be a fool to miss it. The pieces of art that have been donated by some of today’s leading contemporary artists are truly remarkable and include works from Alasdair Wallace, Cindy Lass, Charlotte Cory, Phil Shaw and Ian Penney.

For more information, call Serena Schellenberg, TOLFA Trustee on 07976 762626 or email serenaletizia@tolfa.org.uk

The auction will take place at 7.30pm on Tuesday 25th May 2010 at Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery, 2a Conway Street, off Fitzroy Square, W1T 6BA.

See the Contemporary Art Lots that will be up for auction on the night.

We’re a small-but-passionate charity founded in 2005 between Pushkar and Ajmer, in Northern India.

Our task is to run an ever-expanding animal hospital, shelter, rabies vaccination and animal birth control programme…in a beautiful but extremely poor corner of Rajasthan.

What Our Animals Need

In short, your help.

With the smallest of donations:

• £4 can feed 12 of our rescued cows for a day
• £13 can buy 10 collars and leads for exercising our rescued street dogs
• £50 pays nurturing staff member Sharda’s salary for one month – she’s feeding the calf in the photo
• £32 pays for sterilising 20 dogs
• £160 can vaccinate 400 dogs against rabies

Sharda feeding calf

Our staff feed, clean and maintain the hospital. They rescue and release animals that have been treated and neutered. And they assist in our daily clinic for animals of impoverished local villagers. Free advice and treatment are given in every case.

Also vital to our animals is an understanding and compassion from the humans they interact with every day. So, following guidelines laid down by the World Society for the Protection of Animals , we’re undertaking an education programme in schools, villages and street communities. (This is so sorely needed. Children – through ignorance - have been known to throw acid at dogs.)

What We Do For Our Animals

At our hospital you’ll find donkeys, cows, horses, cats, buffalo, camels, monkeys, goats, sheep, birds and – of course - dogs.

We have veterinary facilities for treatment, 100 kennels, a quarantine block, a puppy house, a dog exercise yard, a cattle shade and staff quarters for 5 families

We send a mobile sterilisation/rabies vaccination unit to outlying villages and other cities in Rajasthan, and our now-famous ‘animal ambulance’ responds to calls from the public about animals in need 24 hours a day.

The famous TOLFA goat clinic

Since TOLFA began 5 years ago, 11,500 dogs in the surrounding area have been sterilised and vaccinated against rabies (India has the highest human death rate from rabies anywhere in the world). And every year, 3,000 diseased and injured animals are rescued from the streets.

In the case of ownerless animals it’s our aim, wherever possible, to return recovered animals back to the environment, from which they were rescued. Otherwise they have a permanent home at our hospital. Without the treatment and care that TOLFA offers to any animal in need, most would simply die - often in appalling circumstances and in great pain.

Street dogs in Ajmer

Again if TOLFA wasn’t here, many local people would have no access to veterinary care that could effectively save their lives as well as their animals’.

How Your Help Can Help

Both at TOLFA UK and TOLFA India, we only have tiny overheads - all our trustees are voluntary. Each donation makes a huge difference, not to us, but to those animals out there. If you can spare anything, please Donate Online

For a small fee you could join our volunteer scheme, Project Raja - either as a vet student, vet or nurturing volunteer and gain invaluable experience.

In whatever role, you can make a huge difference - working with our animals and staff and raising funds at the same time.

Please help a dog - and every other animal that needs us - have his day.

Jasper came to us in July 2007 suffering from mange

After just three months, he was the healthiest and happiest he’s ever been. And he’s still with us today. That’s him in the picture below- a living, breathing testament to the work we do.

Jasper after treatment

Well, the Hastings Half Marathon for 2010 is over and I managed to raise a total of £156.50 which will be sent swiftly onto where it’s needed - keeping the rescue vehicle running.

Don’t forget you can still donate to TOLFA up to 3 months after the event with JustGiving.

Kim and friends before the run

Continue reading Half Marathon Fundraiser Over For Another Year

This Sunday you’ll find me running (well more like a slow jog) the 26th Hastings Half Marathon. This 13.1 mile challenge will see me slogging around the sights of Hastings.

Starting off on Sea Road, then up Harley Shute Road (a very short steep hill), before tackling Queensway (another hill), The Ridge and finally downhill for the remaining 7 miles before crossing the finish line. I’m hoping to finish in under 3 hours otherwise I’ll be sharing with traffic as the roads are re-opened.

Continue reading Kim Runs For The Animals

It certainly was an experience travelling to India and working with TOLFA. Just as the guidebooks will tell you: India is a land of vibrant colour, smells and sights, who am I to disagree? My classmate, Nicole, and I stayed at TOLFA for 1 month in October as part of our vet course at Uni, where we learnt a little bit of Hindi, and truly got to experience the real India.

Lindy at the goat clinic

Continue reading Reflections of our Latest Volunteer - Lindy

Our patients can expect to get a little treat every now and then from a volunteer.

Here’s a pup enjoying his first Parle-G biscuit. It seems to be going down well!

Biscuit treat in the afternoon sun

Ziva from Slovenia heard about TOLFA for the first time at the International Veterinary Students’ Association (IVSA) Symposium in Glasgow in January 2009. Here’s her story:

I stopped at TOLFA’s stand and found out who they were and what they did in the animal welfare world. I became interested at once and decided to apply for volunteering. I worked hard to get enough money during the summer to afford the journey; and all of a sudden here it was – September and the departure day. I arrived at Delhi airport at 4 in the morning. Some nice Indian guys helped me to get into the city centre and find the old Delhi railway station.

Our Project Raja volunteer Ziva giving TLC to a pup

Continue reading Our Latest Volunteer- Ziva

When Jo came over to volunteer with us in October 2009, she took heed of our Wish List and arranged to bring over some heatpads.

Our sick pups always need some extra heat - especially in winter time - and an electric heatpad is just the thing for them to snuggle up on. It keeps them cosy and helps them stay warm through the night when they’re not feeling their best.

Black and white puppy

Continue reading Heat Pads Save The Day