It’s already been a month since the state of alarm was declared in Spain, and as with any economic
activity or association, Voluntarios Itinerantees has been greatly affected. The image of 30
volunteers taking a photo, going on long walks and cleaning in teams has disappeared in the blink of
an eye and we still don’t know when things will go back to normal, and what the normal will look
like. From the beginning, we have respected the closure of the shelters to the public in order the
guarantee the health of their employees and avoid an increase in contagion, although we hope to be
allowed to start going again in small groups soon.
As we are faced with this devastating situation, we have two options: stop all activity and wait for
the confinement to be lifted or look for other alternatives to help and get ready to organize even
more activities when we are able.
Logically, we choose the second option. We’re a young association, full of people eager to help who
never cease to surprise us by the new initiatives they come up with.
Keeping in mind that the shelters are at their limit, we have written a manifest to present to the
Spanish government in which we ask for subsidies in proportion to the loss that the shelters have
suffered recently: fewer volunteers, fewer adoptions, fewer donations, etc. Over 180 associations
from all over Spain have joined the manifest and we will soon present it and continue to follow up
on its progress. We are aware that associations have little time to dedicate to this kind of activity, so
we wanted to help them by creating a platform and giving them a voice.
On the economic side, we are an association that receives its funding from member dues and every
year, most of our budget goes toward helping less fortunate animals. Given the complicated
situation that the shelters are experiencing, we’ve opened a helpline so that those shelters we
collaborate with do not have to go without food. We’ve donated over 1,000 kilos of food to the
following associations:
- Sos Gats Creixell.
- Refugio de Arda.
- Asociació Proccan.
- Progat Bonastre.
- Asociación Segundas Oportunidades.
We’ve also bought veterinary medical products to treat leishmaniosis for the dogs at Life4Pitbulls.
For Animals Sense Sostre, the shelter where we carry out our weekly activities, we’ve created a
fundraising campaign for them that has now reached over 2,500 euros! A big success from a very
motivated group.
Finally, regarding new projects, we are developing materials to teach courses in schools, to raise
awareness about the problem of abandonment, the importance of responsible adoptions and the
real implication that having a pet entails. Plus, we’re creating a work evaluation guide to conduct in
the shelters in order to do our work as efficiently as possible.
If we’ve learned one thing from this obligatory pause, it’s that our help can and should go beyond
Sunday visits to the shelters. There is a lot of work that we can continue doing from a distance and
we’re not doing to stop.
We’re all dying to get back to walking, cuddling dogs, cleaning and organizing, but while we can’t do
that…we’ll keep working!
