Text: Verónica G. Kaufman (@vero_g_kaufman)
Photos: archivo Voluntarios Itinerantes
In 2016, following an accident at home and six months medical leave, Elisabeth had an idea: a new way to help the animals at the shelter. I had the pleasure of chatting with Elisabeth, founding member and volunteer with Voluntarios Itinerantes (VI) for over seven years. She is the one who creates our profiles for VI on the Wallapop app. She told me about her life philosophy and how she tries to be conscious of it in all her actions, including helping animals living in shelters. Today I want to tell you about what she does, how she does it, and how we can help her continue collaborating with Animals Sense Sostre.
Elisabeth, how did you come up with the idea of selling items on Wallapop to collaborate with animals living in shelters?
I had an accident at home in 2016 and, from then on, I had to be very selective with the type of activities I was able to do as a volunteer. So I began with tasks like organizing the storage unit where the Animals Sense Sostre shelter kept items they received as donations. I discovered that there were many collars, leashes, harnesses and toys that couldn’t be used at the shelter due to safety issues, such as retractable leashes. I made a proposal to VI to sell these items on Wallapop and use the money to help cover expenses at Animals Sense Sostre.
What profiles do we have on Wallapop currently?
Currently we have two active accounts on Wallapop with 190 items for sale on each one. The accounts mainly cover the L’Eixample and Plaza Universitat neighborhoods in Barcelona. We ship items all over Spain and, recently, Italy and Portugal. All proceeds go to the shelter and/or our association and we explain this in our profile. No one is making money from these sales.
How would you rate your experience with this activity?
It’s very time-consuming, but we’ve had a lot of success. In five years, we’ve been able to raise roughly €10,000 through Wallapop sales. Now we even have people who know about us and donate items to be sold. For example: cameras, refrigerators, heaters, furniture, shoes, etc. Our profiles receive excellent reviews and we’re very pleased with the results.
I understand that, in addition to Wallapop sales, you organize flea markets…
That’s right. Two years ago we started participating in one of the most emblematic flea markets in Barcelona, located in the Raval neighborhood (Flea Market). Voluntarios Itinerantes has a stand at this market every two months with new and secondhand items for sale.
I know it’s a lot of work to collect items and prepare them to be sold. How can we help you?
What we need most to continue this activity is people who like using Wallapop and would be willing to dedicate a little time every day to create profiles to cover other parts of the city as well as people who have some extra room in their home to store the items for sale. This way we could expand our sales territory to Badalona or L’Hospitalet, for example. Sometimes we lose a sale due to the distance from the person interested in purchasing the item. The farther you have to travel, the more complicated it is to settle on a delivery time.
We also need volunteers to participate in the flea markets and food drives at supermarkets. Many times, we are short on volunteers to cover each shift. As you can see, there are many ways to collaborate with us in addition to walking dogs at the shelter.
Thank you so much, Elisabeth!
Now you know: every time you use Wallapop, think of the animals at the shelter 😊
Remember:
You can join us
Wallapop Profile L’Eixample 👇
http://p.wallapop.com/p/13855358?_pid=wi&_uid=13855358
Wallapop Profile Plaza Universitat 👇
http://p.wallapop.com/p/313278095?_pid=wi&_uid=13855358