What it takes to became a responsible citizen?

The information campaign is very important for our association especially because the big problem in our community is the lack of education and information in animal welfare and protection field. That’s why we do our best to spread information materials wherever and whenever is possible.

You can see bellow some of the brochures,leaflets that we made and distribute it for free to people but also posters that we put in different stores in our city.

A presentation album with hundreds of photos illustrating images of our activity between 2000-2007

Leaflet containing information about our association, our activity and programmes, as well as an appeal of how people can support us.

Leaftet about Neutering, presenting as the most efficient and humane way for stray dogs overpopulation.

Under the slogan that " Holidays are for them too" we made different adds in local newspapers and TV, trying to touch people and open their heart for animals, hoping that they will offer a home for some of our dogs from the shelter, come to help somehow or give a support ( in different items needed or donation).

Poster for promiting adoptions, presenting some of our lovely dogs with their stories, containg also a short description of our association’s activity.

Leaflets for informing people about the Neutering Campaign.

Posters put in the city at pet shops and different stores for promoting adoptions

HELP FROM THE HEART! FORGET A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOUR NEEDS, ABOUT YOU, AND TRY TO OFFER MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS TO THOSE WHO ARE LESS FORTUNATE!

Try this once: give, without waiting to receive anything, and you will see that’s a great feeling knowing that because of your actions at least one person had a better day !!!

NEW YEAR’S EVE 2007

At the end of this year we decided to make another surprise to the people that we have been visiting for more then a year now, to those who became our friends. Knowing that they were so charmed by the photos that we gave them last Christmas we thought of another surprise that they would surely love : a calendar on 2008 where the main characters are each of them including our dogs, Dolly, Mica and Kiki, who filled their heart with happiness and joy during the year that has just passed.

Besides those calendars we also brought them some small prestents for some of them, finidng out before what they would need.

The photos were taken in different periods of the year,illustrating wonderful moments spent together, events that would otherwise be lost and forgotten.Now they can just take a look on the wall and see their roommate or a friend who’s living other place in this Center.We put together the calendars on the walls from almost each room, and afterwards they opened very anxious the presents in Dolly’s company.

There was also a sad moment when everyone asked about Kiki who, unfortunately wasn’t with us anymore, because he died at the end of this year. He loved to come here, to run on his three-legs in the garden and make people’s laugh,to jump in people’s beds, to be kisses or to receive some left over from the last meal. Now remained only Dolly and Mica. He will always remain in our hearts, for his joy and the happiness that he was spreading all around!

CHRISTMAS 2006

Christmas is indeed a special day for all of us that it is meant to be spent in the family with all the people that we care about and love. Unfortunately, the majority of the people from the Center have no one to be close to them in such a day, nothing that makes them feel the holly spirit. Santa Claus means not only to make gifts to our friends, families and to the one that we love but also to bring joy and happiness to those who who live in Centers like this. Many of them don’t need material things as this are provided by the centers’ staff, but only to have someone around, someone to talk to and to share this days.

We started to manufacture all the 100 box gifts, decorated with color paper and we make photos with our dogs to each person, since November 2006; The present boxes, besides photos, were filled with sweets, fruits, some food, juice – donated by to wonderful people Mr. Carmen Lemnaru and Mr. Liviu Chitiba, – but also other small individual presents.

RO ANIMALS Association ,tried in December 2006 to offer from souls to souls an unforgotten Christmas. Together with our four-legged lovely friends,Dolly, Kiki and Mica, we prepared a nice surprise for the people from the Suseni Center.

Early in the morning of 24th of December we arrived at the Center,with a van full of three Christmas trees, floral arrangements, Christmas decoration and 100 gift box. And, with our little four-legged friends dressed with Sants’ clothes.

First,we decorated all rooms, visiting also each people, and then we started to decorate the Christmas trees in three different places. Almost every one took part at this action, more less the persons with severe disabilities.

After we finished decorating the trees we were expecting the Santa Clause’s arriving, as the Santa Clause’s elfs, in our case the dogs, were already tired of such a busy day; It was evening already and after a short time when we looked around the trees we saw the presents….waiting to be gifted.

We gathered all together around the trees and started to give the gifts to each of the people present there.They were just happy of surprised about everything including about what they found in the box.

They loved so much seeing themselves in the photos, so happy and keep the photos beside their bed showing it to any person who come to visit.

Even the staff recognized that no one ever made some such a pleasant surprise and were so charmed about the entire day.

We left the Center late evening in the Christmas Eve with a pleasant feeling that we made a change, because of us some of this people felt the happiness of Christmas day ,for the first time in the last years. When every person spends this time together with their families, we choosed to gave a hope for a better life to the people from Suseni, Gorj county.

 “SOUL TO SOUL “

animal therapy programme

We had the thought of starting this kind of problems on our minds for a long time but we knew it will not be so easy. We just wanted to improve somehow the life of people who have no hope for tomorrow, who were left down, abandoned by their families or , because of their health and mental condition, had no possibility to take care of themselves all alone. There had been made reasearches in this domain and it was demonstrated that, in many situations, an animal is more efficient than the medical treatment.

Also through this programme we want to show that animals,dogs in special, are really important in the evolution of the man’s behavoiur and condition, that animals can really change our day and have a very important role. What really counts is to open our minds, let them near us and believe in their capacity of making what we call "miracles".

First, we gathered the necessary information needed, choose our most sociable and lovely dogs and afterwards we went to find out the Centers where we could start this kind of programme. It wasn’t an easy task especially taking into account the attitude of people towards animals, especially to bring them inside centers like this. We tried to convince directors about the benefits of this kind of programmes, but they were very reticent and had no trust, taking it as a game. But,we have a very optimistic attitude, especially that we really belive in our programme, so even if we were refused, this was not a reason for walking away. Finally,we found a public Center where the director was open – minded and said that he will be very delighted to start this programme.

This pillot programme, as far as we know in Romania, was started in October 2006 at the Center for Old People and Persons with Disabilities from Suseni, Gorj county.

Every week-end the Association representatives together with one or two dogs , de-wormed, de-flead, vaccinated, are visiting this Center. There are a lot of sick persons, with disabilities, without a loving family or friends. This Center is their “home” now, they have food, clothes, but this is not enough, because their soul is sad. Though, we are trying to bring them a smile and make the Sunday more lightness.

We found in this Center animal lovers, who became friends with our dogs MIKA, DOLLY,KIKI and also with us.We spend some time with each of them and listen their story of life. They tell us about the animals that they had at home and little stories about them, but they also put us different questions about our dogs and talk to them also. They feel appreciated and so grateful !

They  pet our dogs and love to keep them into their arms. It is really emotional to see so sad faces when we enter the room, but transforming in shinny and smiling faces when they see us and our dogs.

We are trying, when we have financial possibilities, to offer them some sweets and fruits; we decorate their rooms with flowers, and make small gifts. There are persons who know that we are coming and keep some food for our dogs and feed them when we come.

Our dogs are very sociable and love to stay with the people, as if feeling how much they need to have attention and to have someone around them. The worst enemy of this people is the loneliness and the lack of affection, but our dogs , through their behaviour, bring those people a smile on their face and lighten their day.

When outside is a nice weather, we take out in the the courtyard with the wheelchair those persons who are paralised.; we are talking, playing on accordion and playing with the dogs.They laugh when our dogs make small tricks or ask us to push them faster to catch our dogs, when they run ahead.

Those people became our friends now. They ask the Center staff about us, they ask them when we will come next and what are doing our dogs. They became very close to us, they tell us often how much they love us and how much they want us around!

In 2006, we organized Christmas together with our Santa Clause’s dogs, we decorated their rooms with Christmas tree, floral arrangements and we offered them box gifts with sweets, juice, oranges, and photos with them and our dogs. We had their participation too, they helped us the way they could. They were happy for taking part in organizing Christmas day, as usually the staff is doing this, and and they still keep the gift photos beside their bed, showing it to any person who come to visit.

As you can see, there were also press articles about event."The old people from Suseni center received presents from Santa dogs."

In 2007, on New Year‘s Eve we offered them different small gifts and also we made some calendars having like principal characters our dogs and all persons from the Center, and we put it on the walls from each room.

This programme is the first and the only, as far as we know, from Gorj county but also from Romania, and after all this period we realized that everyone was satisfied even the medical personal. We just hope that another institutions too will follow this example and the directors will think about peoples’ benefit, will open their mind and will not care anymore about their old mentality.

“OPEN YOUR HEART” - school education programme

In the belief that the CHILD FROM TODAY MAY BECOME THE RESPONSIBLE ADULT FROM TOMORROW we decided to start an education programme here at the primary schools from Tg-Jiu. We are all aware that the most important thing in a community, in order to change mentalities and ideas,is the education.

 The faith of an animal depends on humans, on the people’s education and attitude. Taking into account the fact that in Romania all this are very precarious and the big majority of animals have a sad destiny because of this, we intend to start an educational programme to give emphasis and to make people understand that animals make part of our lives, that we must learn to accept them as sentient beings, with their own feeling and needs and give them the respect and kindness they deserve. Animals can have a positive effect on our health and behaviour, can have a lot of benefits if we are enough open-minded to let them close to us. We are trying to teach them how to help to create a more responsible and humane community.

 "The grateness of a nation and its moral progress can be measures by the way in which animals are treated"          Mahatma Ghandi

We started this programme in February 2007 at several schools from Tg-Jiu after signing an official protocol of cooperation.

For developing of this programme the Association used informative materials , brochures, leaflets, video-presentation, trying to inform pupils and become more responsible, concerning animal protection. Through the real images that we presented, pupils were informed about our brochure “Open your heart!” and the principal items: importance of dogs neutering- the only humane and efficient method for reducing the stray dogs-, what means de-warming, de-fleas, vaccination against rabies, cruelty cases and how we can solve its, about the law into force for animal’s protection and punishments for illegalities.

We used different methods for children to understand the problems that we presented, like: schemes, analogies, verbal explanations beside the other materials.

We have explain this terms because are new for their age and by the other side are very important for the future because this child from today will become, the responsible adult from tomorrow. In this way we hope that will be more less cruelty cases, abuses and the people will become more responsible.

We discussed different problems trying to have an interactive course, the pupils were active and interested, they told us about their pets and their responsibilities; they were make posters, draws having different themes concerning the animals and also the most important about stray dogs problem and solutions for stop increasing their number.

After the four hours spent together,we gave children a form to fill in at home, with questions discussed in each hour the children They realized hundreds of drawings, about adoption, neutering, anti-cruelty etc.

They realized hundreds of drawings, about adoption, neutering, anti-cruelty etc.We had also nice surprises from part of the pupils, because few posters realized by them, were been put to the walls of their schools offering a good example to their teacher and to another persons.

After a period of 4 hours spent at each class during 2 weeks, there came the day of offering them prizes for their participation, for their drawings and answers. We offered them diplomas, badges, supports for their keys, all personalized with photos of our dogs association.

They were very anxious to see what prizes they received, waiting in their place,

The pupils told about this programmme to another mates and friends from the other schools and also to their parents and grand-parents , discussing in this way some problems and maybe they will change the mentality about cruelty cases, abandons, neutering.

Childrens at the end of the programme, holding the brochure

When we visited them for re-warding their work and behavior we received help by one of our hundreds of dogs ,named DOLLY, de-warm ,de-fleas and vaccinated ; was a huge surprise for the pupils, they were make photos and they found out DOLLY’ s story.

Local press wrote about our programme :

This kind of programme is the first in our Gorj county, we had good results in 2007, and we hope that in 2008 will be much better with a lot of achievements. Hoping that together we will build a community more responsible and humane!

"OPEN YOUR HEART" - our school education programme - strongly believing that THE CHILD FROM TODAY MAY BECOME THE RESPONSIBLE ADULT FROM TOMORROW and that the education is the key for opening minds, changing mentalities and solving many of the existing problems of a community we decided to start an education program in the schools from Tg-Jiu. Prepairing it from October 2006, but started officially in February 2007 at the primary classes from Tg-Jiu schools the programme was very well received by the children who were charmed by our four-legged partner named Dolly.

"SOUL TO SOUL "- our animal therapy programme- as we all felt at one moment in our life and as show the researches made in this domain in the past years, animals can be real medicines when we are sad, depressed, lonely or have health problems. Being aware of this, we decided ,together with our lovely dogs to bring a smile and improve a little bit the life of people who had been forgotten, who have no hope for tomorrow.We started this programme in October 2006 at a Center for old people and persons with dizablities from Gorj county and was a nice surprise to notice sad faces transforming in smilling faces after seeing our lovely furry friends, Kiki, Mica and Dolly.

BE A RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN
- our on-going campaigns for informing people,
through brochures, posters, TV and newspapers’ adds, about our association, its activities and programmes, about the importance of neutering,about adoption, about animals’s cruelty but also about the actual legislation etc