Hi
To give you some background on SARA, Syrian Association (Society) for Rescuing Animals, It was founded 10 years ago prior to the civil war by Annie Orfali. Annie and her dedicated team have continued to work throughout the civil war and the ensuing humanitarian crisis to rescue, treat and re-home abandoned and abused street dogs and cats in Damascus and the surrounding area. As her fame has spread within the country people from all across Syria have started to bring abandoned and injured dogs and cats to her, meaning the numbers she now provides care for have swelled enormously. From small beginnings she and her team are currently looking after 3,000 abandoned and abused dogs and 850 cats and the number increases daily. Many of these animals have endured horrific injuries on the streets. She works with a local veterinary surgeon to treat these animals and re-homes as many as she can. She raises donations, the majority from Europe to continue her work to provide desperately needed surgeries and veterinary care for her dogs and cats but is facing increasing hardship due to the hyperinflation currently gripping Syria and is in desperate need of funds to be able to continue her work to alleviate the suffering of the street dogs and cats of Syria. She began a trap neuter release campaign approximately two years ago with the help of her veterinary surgeon, as she is fully aware of the vital importance of sterilization. She has suffered many setbacks, not least of which her original veterinary surgeon died of covid last year. She now works in partnership with another vet but has recently unfortunately had to stop her TNR campaign due to lack of funds. She is desperate to restart this as she is fully aware of the futility of treating an ever increasing population.
As well as caring for abandoned dogs and cats she provides humanitarian relief for poor families who have lost everything in the war. She feeds and houses those made homeless by the conflict and these people have been trained by her to assist in the shelter with the day-to-day husbandry of the inmates. They also help her to provide nursing care for the sick and injured animals and assist her to trap cats for neutering and in going out to collect injured or abused strays. .Her staff include those made homeless by the conflict and she provides food and shelter for 18 local families who work with her at the shelter to provide 24 hour for the dogs. In this small way she is also doing her best to try where she can to alleviate the appalling suffering of the people of Syria as well as its animals.
To see more of her work, visit her Facebook page:

https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Animal-Shelter/SARA-Syrian-Association-for-Rescuing-Animals-114073182663736/

SARA - Syrian Association for Rescuing Animals

SARA - Syrian Association for Rescuing Animals. 20,711 likes · 356 talking about this. Non-profit organization - animal shelter

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As if the challenges she faces on a daily basis as a result of the civil war, sanctions on Syria and the resulting poverty in the country and rising global prices are not enough, she now faces a new challenge. Recently the land next to Annie's shelter, which, like the land her current shelter is on, belongs to the government, has been sold and a private school is now being built next to the shelter which has children staying there overnight. They have been pressuring her to move because they complaining about barking dogs being brought in through the gates keeping the children awake. They have also raised concerns with the entrance being too close to the school entrance they are worried about dogs escaping and possibly being a danger to the children or stray dogs waiting for food causing problems. The entrance to the shelter is opposite the school. The owner of the private school has complained regarding the proximity of the shelter to the school. We were beginning a plan to help her raise money by contacting all her supporters in order to help her buy a small farm with water in a country area away from all people and above all to ensure that Annie owns the land herself. Recently there has been an important development in that the government have asked Annie to be responsible for a trap, neuter, release program to finally get the dog population under control. They want her to create a professionally built shelter with brick and steel runs, unlike her current patchwork of housing in the current shelter. They want a veterinary clinic to be onsite for neutering and for treating injured and sick strays. She already has vets who volunteer to help with medical and surgical care at the current shelter and she has her own kennel staff she has trained herself. She is also finding building volunteers to help her build. The government has given her three years to build the project into a professional shelter, European style. They are also going to introduce an animal protection law so that those caught poisoning and shooting animals will be jailed. This is a huge step forward in attitudes and is an exciting opportunity but she is obviously desperate to raise as much money as possible so she can both transport the animals as well as building their new shelter. She is reaching out to all her supporters across the world and is trying to spread the word to interest new donors in this very exciting new step forward.