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Many seniors in Romania live on the edge of collapse, depressed, in poverty, often being forced to choose between buying medicines or paying utility bills. For most people, pet ownership is a source of happiness, purpose, and daily friendship.
#FriendsForever: a project to keep elderly people and their pets together
13 Donors
$2242 Raised
16.01%
$14000 Goal
ROLDA believes poverty should never break the bond between a person and their pet companion. Through our Friends Forever campaign and wider community programmes, we provide a lifeline to low-income and elderly pet owners, helping them keep their companions safe, healthy, and by their side.
Nearly 40% of people aged 65 and over in Romania are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, compared to an EU average of just 19%. Many elderly people survive on the equivalent of only €70 a month, often without reliable access to electricity or clean water. In this context, their pets offer priceless emotional support, but veterinary care, or even basic transport to clinics, is entirely out of reach. ROLDA’s support programmes are a vital lifeline, ensuring that seniors are not forced to abandon their beloved companions simply because they are poor.
Started in January 2023, Friends Forever campaign continues to support seniors who have a monthly income under 2,000 lei (approx 400 euro), by paying pet-related costs to ensure their needs are met. Presently, we are focusing primarily on paying the unexpected vet bills (emergency veterinary treatment and medicines), ensuring pets don’t suffer or die needlessly.
By supporting vulnerable people and their pets, ROLDA prevents abandonment, reduces the stray population, and strengthens the human–animal bond at the heart of compassionate communities.
Our work is already transforming lives
- Over 1,000 vulnerable seniors have received help with food, veterinary care, and medicines.
- Through #FriendsForever, seniors like Ms Iordan — living on €300 a month while caring for 11 cats — have received sterilisation, medical support, and ongoing supplies, keeping pets healthy and families together.
- Shelter dogs visiting the local retirement homes have lifted loneliness, showing how animal companionship enriches human well-being.
- Each intervention not only saves pets from being abandoned but also reduces the pressure on overcrowded shelters and helps curb Romania’s stray crisis at its roots.
The impact of your gift
- $50 — could provide 4 food parcels
- $150 — would cover vet care and medicines for 5 animals from low-income families.
- $250 — pays an average veterinary bill for diagnosis (often includes blood analyses, XRay, specialist consultation) to determine the best treatment moving forward.
Transparency corner
Please check the annual activity reports
Activity report 2025
Total amount spent:
37.720 lei (aprox. 7,426 euro)
Activity report 2024
Many seniors in Romania live on the edge of collapse, depressed, in poverty, often being forced to choose between buying medicines or paying utility bills. For most people, pet ownership is a source of happiness, purpose, and daily friendship. Older pet owners often say life was quieter and emptier before their pet came along—even if caring for their animal meant adapting to a few new routines. ROLDA’s FriendsForever campaign continues to offer support to seniors with income under 2.000 lei (aprox 400 euro), for paying pet-related costs, to keep their pets safe.
Total amount spent:
47.136 lei (aprox. 9,426 euro)
Activity report 2023
Many seniors in Romania live on the edge of collapse, depressed, in poverty,often being forced to choose between buying medicines or paying utility bills.Having a pet, for many, is the best thing that has happened to them. Older pet owners often shared how empty and desolate their lives felt withouttheir furry companions, even though they acknowledged the occasionalchallenges of owning an active pet.
Total amount spent:
33.855 lei (aprox. 6,765 euro)
Wall of fame
- Leah $200
- Sharon $250
- Sherrie $500
- Jade $50
- Laura $30
- Elaine $20
- DANIELE $42
- Elisabeth $20
- simon $1000
- Elizabeth $50
- Morgann $30
- Tanya $30
- Jaroslava $20
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Capital cost
ROLDA sponsor the Animal-Assisted Rehabilitation and Nature Therapy Program
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0 Donors
$0 Raised
0%
$0 Goal
The program offers free, nature-based therapy and social inclusion for children with neurodevelopmental needs.
emergency, animal related
Emergency: Donate to Middle east crisis appeal
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7 Donors
$313 Raised
0.7%
$45.000 Goal
When war forces families to flee their homes, pets are often the ones left to fend for themselves. Strays wander abandoned, dangerous streets with no one left to feed them. Hungry, frightened, and alone.
emergency, animal related
Help us save dogs from the Puppy Mills
Donate
2 Donors
$20 Raised
0.2%
$10.000 Goal
While ROLDA continue to lobby for government and law enforcement in Romania & Worldwide, we are committed to do more to eliminate puppy mills structures where animals are abused and exploited.
Capital cost
Shelter 1: Transform the small shelter
Donate
2 Donors
$250 Raised
5%
$5.000 Goal
Our first built (small) shelter is now twenty years old and despite being nominated multiple times for the best shelter in Romania, its age is beginning to show and is in need of some TLC. ROLDA holds to the highest standards of comfort and care and control disease management is a top priority for us, in both our shelteras but we need help maintaining those standards and providing the best possible facilities for our dogs.
Social campaign
Free sterilisation for pets from low-income families
Donate
2 Donors
$146 Raised
0.11%
$130.000 Goal
Whilst Romanian law currently prohibits the sterilisation of stray dogs (and their returning to the wild), ROLDA are operating sterilisation campaigns in poor communities, targeting the pets of low- income families who could not afford private veterinary care. These campaigns tackle abandonment– one of the primary contributing factors to the national homeless dog crisis – in two key ways.
