TOLFA Newsletter October 2007
Hello,
I can’t believe that 4 months have passed already since our last newsletter. So many new and exciting things have happened in that time, that it has just flown by. This week, after what seems an eternity of waiting, TOLFA UK received the news that its charity status had been granted and we are now a UK Registered Charity no: 1120789. With our new status, comes so many benefits such as being eligible for ‘Gift Aid’ and being able to register on the useful ‘Just Giving’ website.
After a visit by Dr Abdul Rahmann, Asia consultant for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), in June we were granted as being a WSPA Member Society in recognition of the work that we do.
One of our biggest achievements though, over the previous months is the signing of an agreement with the local Ajmer Municipality that allows us to run 20 dogs a day through our Animal Birth Control and Rabies vaccination programme which will be fully funded by them. To be supported by the Indian government in this way is of huge benefit to our organization and the stray dog population as a whole, so we are obviously thrilled that we have been able to make this progress in such a short period of time.
As always our grassroots work is full steam ahead with more animals than ever coming to our shelter. There have been many events, both educational and fundraising and our Project Raja Volunteer Scheme has got off to a flying start. Thank you to all the wonderful people that have shown their support in so many ways…we hope that it continues and watch this space to see how our tree grows!
Rachel Wright (Founder and Chairperson TOLFA UK / India)
Sophie the dog
Our Animals
We wish that we could tell the story of every animal that comes to our shelter in need of help but it would take a week to read. Each animal that we see has suffered in one way or another, here are the stories of 2 of our patients.
Donkey in axe attack
In India, so many times there is a human / animal conflict and this is an example of just one of those conflicts. In rural Rajasthan, because of lack of water, agricultural land is at a premium. The most critical time for the farmer is just after the seeds have been planted and the crop is starting to grow. Anything that has the potential to ruin that years harvest is seen as a huge threat and the farmer will do ANYTHING to save that crop, that might be his whole years earnings.
Because there are no walls that protect the land, stray animals such as donkeys or cows can wander onto the land and start to graze. This poor donkeys injuries are the result of one farmers actions to protect his crops. When seen to be destroying the farmers livelihood, the farmer has taken the nearest thing to hand to attack the donkey and render it helpless….in this case an axe. This is not the 1st case that we have seen of such an attack and I am sure it won’t be our last.
Thankfully in this case, the axe did not sever the achilles tendon and so the donkey was able to make a full and speedy recovery. It proves the point that rescue and treatment alone will not work and that education has such a major role to play in helping to change peoples attitudes.
Read more about our Education and Compassion Project
Dr Irschad and vet student volunteer Justin treating a donkey with axe wounds
Jasper: The story of a city pup who moves to the country
Bunty and Ramesh were Cityside in the TOLFA Ambulance that blistering afternoon, not far from the huge edifice of Ajmer Railway Station where the road is hideously choked with traffic and noise. Even when they’re on a medical supplies collection, the two compounders and bosom pals, are on red alert to pick up any animal in distress. “Puppy full fear and no fur” Ramesh replied, when I asked him to recall that particular rescue.
So the tiny frightened creature was plucked from the city to the safety of the peaceful rural T.O.L.F.A compound. He was logged into the admissions book on 2 July 2007 and became known as C5, after his kennel number. I crouched beside him and his eyes bulged with fear, as he tried to melt into the kennel walls. I touched his hot bald body, he shook, but didn’t growl - just endured my presence with pathetic resignation. Little by little his confidence grew as the weeks passed, his little wispy tail waved in acknowledgement when I came to see him in the morning. We made forays out together - up to the cattle shed to feed Biscuit the buffalo, or along the swaying maize fields to our tree stump, where he grazed or just sprawled. He’d trip over his white turned out toes and wobbly, knobbly knees. His fur started to grow back, sleek and black after the regular tactic baths, his ribs receded as he fleshed out.
Nicky the vet student from Glasgow christened this most endearing little person, Jasper. So 3 months later, imagine him today, mingling with the resident dog pack and grumbling at Bruce or cavorting with Flapper – his inauspicious beginnings in that inhospitable place are very very far from his little doggy mind. I’m sure he’d smile if he knew he was our cover boy on the new TOLFA leaflet.
Read more about our Rescue and Care Project
Jasper when he first arrived at TOLFA
Handsome Jasper as he looks now
Urs Festival
Every year, at the time of the Urs festival, the city of Ajmer plays host to thousands of pilgrims that come to visit the world renown shrine dedicated to a Sufi saint. During this time, the animals mostly dogs and cows are removed from the area by the local council. In previous years, the dogs were poisoned or tied up on the periphery of the city without food or water. Others were left in the jungle to fend for themselves.
For the third year, TOLFA has worked day and night to catch all the dogs, a week before the festival begins and keep them safe at its shelter. During their 2 week stay, the dogs are sterilised, rabies vaccinated, dewormed and treated for any disease they may have such as mange or pneumonia. This year we caught 236 dogs and we were happy to see some familiar faces from previous years that looked the absolute picture of health. It is a heartening sight when you see a dog that could have suffered such a horrific end looking so well and contented. About 30% of the dogs that were caught had already passed through the programme.
Read more about our Animal Birth Control and Rabies Vaccination Project
Just a few of the dogs we collected during the Urs Festival 2006
Project Raja Volunteer Scheme
We couldn’t have really asked for a better start for our volunteers project. So far, 7 volunteers have come to work at our shelter and each one of them has brought a special quality that will leave an imprint on TOLFA forever. 6 out of the 7 have been veterinary students, from Glasgow and Bristol University and have dived straight into the every day work at the hospital, showing themselves to be not only very capable but an integral part of our team. It’s been a little bit like United Nations with volunteers from the USA, Canada, Scotland, Anglo Swiss and the UK but the staff at the hospital have really enjoyed the company of so many interesting people.
The animals have benefited hugely with all that extra care and TLC. It is hoped that each student has returned with improved animal handling, surgical skills and exposure to different kinds of disease allowing them to be more confident, competant Veterinary Surgeons. Thank you Laura, Justin, Eilidh, Jenny, Nicky and Verity for all your hard work and kindness in what can be very difficult conditions.
Our only non vet volunteer has been Serena, an advertising producer, who has dedicated 3 months to TOLFA and has become an irreplaceable asset to our work. She has thrown herself in head first, looking after all the very sick and undernourished animals, arranged promotional material for the charity to carry its work forward and worked nearly every hour of the day organising our 1st World Rabies Day event as well as talking to everyone about the work that we do and why you want to sponsor us. Amazing!
Read more about the Project Raja Volunteer Scheme and find out what previous volunteers thought of their time at TOLFA
Volunteer Nicky operates with Dr Irschad
Volunteer Jenny draws the Tree of Life for Jagdish
The continuing evolution of our shelter
There has been a dramatic change to the landscape of our shelter over the last 16 weeks. The most major change is that we have a new 60 kennel block, taking our total number to 100, in readiness to start our new programme with the Municipality. Mr Ambrish Kumar, Municipal Commissioner, kindly sanctioned the funding of 50% of the new block which was contructed in under 2 months. It has been a summer of heavy rain, when our cattle shade and kennels temporarily flooded but the the monsoon is very welcome in the desert state of Rajasthan.
Over the summer we were able to complete the work to our water bore with funds raised from friends of one of our longterm volunteers Kym Barratt. With the water table raised, it is hope that the bore can provide water for us all year round, so that we won’t have to rely on tankered water which is both expensive and unreliable. Mr Dushyant, a local teacher and supporter of our charity, motivated all the staff and students at our local KV2 school to raise funds to put a new roof on our small cattle shade which had been irretrievably damaged in storms earlier on in the year. The monsoon also marked the time for planting and in July, we planted 50 trees that were kindly donated by our local forestry department in Pushkar.
Read more about our ever changing hospital
The new kennel block being built
Volunteers Serena and Verity at the official opening of our new kennel block which coincided with our World Rabies Day open day.
Events, Sponsorship and Thank yous
Playing our part for World Rabies Day
On 8th September 2007, hundreds of animal organizations worldwide chorused the slogan, “Make Rabies History”. TOLFA joined in with World Rabies Day on a worldwide mission to educate people about Rabies and how to prevent it’s spread. We held a special open day to educate, entertain and offer free Rabies vaccinations to the first 50 owned dogs that were brought along. We also used the open day to officially open our new kennel block and invited our special guest Mr Dharmendra Guhlot, Chairman of Ajmer Municipality to do the honours.
Our volunteer Serena was there to help organize and oversee the day. The day went extremely well, you can see the pictures and read Serena’s full story here.
Serena and the compounders posing for a photo taken by the local press
Give Meaning
GiveMeaning.com is an online fundraising site. This online community is open to everybody who wishes to join and it allows charities, charitable organizations and individuals a unique way to reach people and raise funds for specific projects. The idea is to write the proposal for a specific project for your chosen charity. If you manage to get 100 people voting that your cause is a worthwhile one over a period of 30 days then your proposal can become a project and start to attract sponsors which can then lead for this dream to become reality.
We would like our project to be a Puppy Vaccination programme which will allow us to vaccinate as many puppies as possible from 7 diseases; 3 of which are Rabies, Distemper and Parvovirus. By trying to eradicate Rabies in the dog population, the programme also benefits the human population in which Rabies is a real threat - India has the highest human death rate from Rabies in the world.
Our proposal is now online so please cast your vote for our Puppy Vaccination Programme now.
1st Charity Ball
In May, TOLFA UK held the first of what is hoped to be its annual Charity Ball. Held at the stunning Haycock Hotel in the picturesque village of Wansford in Cambridgeshire, the event was attended by over 75 guests. The 5 hours were filled with a 3 course dinner, live music and disco, an auction and raffle as well as there being stalls selling indian wares and a tombola. The many kind sponsors included: EPS Ltd, VetUK.co.uk, The Haycock Hotel, Funblast Entertainment, Oakham Ales, Esporta Gym and Mr Pummell.
Read more about our 1st Charity Ball
Our first Charity Ball, May 2007
Open Day
In an open day held at South Moor Veterinary Surgery in Somerset, previous volunteer Paul Kane held a display and talked about his time at the TOLFA shelter and raised money to help our work.
Read more about the South Moor Vets Open Day
Animal Money Tree
Our Animal Money Tree scheme has been supported by Companion Care Veterinary surgeries all over the country. Clients are encouraged to purchase a sticker for £1 in their animal’s name and stick it to our Tree of Life poster. Once the tree is full, the number of stickers are counted and the surgery send a cheque for the amount raised.
New leaflets
A necessary overhaul was required of all of TOLFA’s promotional material such as leaflets and posters and we are thankful for Angela Savidan and Annie Carlton for spending their time putting our graphics and copy into order.
Donations
• Fior Di Loto, a charity for poor gypsy children repeated their generous donation of funding rabies vaccinations for dogs in Pushkar.
• Chai Mimi Clothing Exporters in Pushkar are donating a portion of their profits to our TOLFA shelter
• Women’s 5km Challenge - they’ve done it again, 8 of our willing female supporters recently took part in the annual Women’s Challenge. They all completed the 5km circuit around London’s Hyde Park and Liverpool’s Sefton park. Thank you ladies for all your hard work and support and for everyone who sponsored them. Keep checking the website over the next few weeks to find out how much we raised.
Read about the Women’s Challenge 2007.
Coming up…..
Sponsored Ride to Pushkar 2008
Caitriona O’Leary, visitor and supporter of TOLFA has decided to embark on the adventure of a lifetime as she plans to do an endurance horse ride accross Rajasthan from Udaipur to Pushkar. Each kilometre of sponsorship raised will be donated to TOLFA to assist in the running of the rural development project.
Read more more about her daring undertaking and how you can help.
BVNA Nursing Congress
For the first year TOLFA will be attending the annual BVNA (British Veterinary Nursing Association) congress in October as a means of promoting the Project Raja, Royal Canin and Animal Money Tree schemes.
Our stand is kindly being sponsored by Royal Canin – we would like to thank them for all their support.
We will be emailing our newsletter 3 times a year. If you would like to receive future newsletters, please email the word “subscribe” to newsletter@tolfa.org.uk
