21.12.07

Once again it’s time to get ready for a peaceful Christmas with family and perhaps some friends, too. That is also what I’m planning on doing as soon as I’ve sent you these greetings.

This autumn and the end of the year have probably been very busy time for each of us. I have noticed that in many way, too. PAFi’s activities have expanded all the time and because of that I could do all kinds of things relating to PAFi 24 hours a day. My own resources have been so carefully in use for a long time that I can’t possibly do any more on my own. That’s why I’m planning on coming up with some suggestions on how we could secure that PAFi’s activies keep on expanding in future and we’ll reach the goals we have set for our work.

At some point after the New Years’ I’ll publish PAFi’s Annual Report and the strategy for the next year.

I want to thank everyone especially for taking the sponsor dog activity as an important matter of heart. I’m also thankful that our different campaigns and eg. the protection fund to help maltreated animals have always received support. The latest campaign, the Christmas campaign, has exceeded our expectations! On our Christmas campaign we have collected funds for buying eg. dog house elements, the caravan, small warehouse building, useful tools and for covering the transportation costs of these things, so far people have donated almost 6.000 euros. Private people as well as companies have participated in the Christmas campaign.

Our cooperation partner, the petstore chain Faunatar has also participated in the Christmas campaign very visibly. This year’s Christmas gift for the store owners will be given for the Tg-Jiu shelter which means that 100 euros per Faunatar store is donated for the Christmas campaign.

Next year we are facing great challenges since Pro Animals Romania needs to start the building of the new shelter. The situation with the current shelter is very unstable all the time. As I have already told Carmena owns a piece of land next to a dump pit on the edge of the town. That was the place they were going to build the new shelter.

During the last few years a lot has happened and the piece of land in question has already been surrounded with houses and business buildings. The people living and working in the area have collected signatures for a petition against building the shelter near the area.

Carmena, Patricia and I have tried to think of alternatives and seriously considered that Carmena tries to buy land somewhere in the country. There the shelter could be built in peace and different ways could be thought to develop the countryside. The vet is usually out of reach for the people living outside the centre and they could also use some education in taking care of the animals. If the new shelter with its new clinic would bring more jobs for the people in the countryside I feel that getting support from EU could be possible. However we have to collect enough our own capital to be invested on the project.

The previously mentioned would mean that we could really take responsibility communally and it would be a huge step towards what PAFi has tried hard to make happen. That is that the commune has a chance to solve its own problems and is responsible for its own wellbeing.

Carmena and Patricia, of course, wish to thank all their friends in Finland through me and are very glad that they have met some of those friends during these years in Tg-Jiu as well as in other places, eg. in Berlin early in November in a conference regarding animal protection.

Last Sunday I received probably one of the most memorable Christmas presents in my life. I was returning home from promotional days in Helsinki and was driving along the Lahti motorway. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep during the drive. Luckily I had a guardian angel with me and it woke me up as my car hit the railings. Miraculously I managed to stay unharmed but the car suffered quite a bit of damage.

I wish Peaceful Christmas for all PAFi friends. Let’s take care of each other, shall we?

- Kiia -