Letter from ROLDA founder 2014

Dear friends and supporters,

We’ve been together another year to rescue, provide help, build up, cry, fear and enjoy some amazing moments. All these moments represent the puzzle that completes the real, whole picture of what rescue missions mean, what saving lives mean! We passed through all these moments TOGETHER and this is for me and my team, by far, the most important achievement.

12 years ago, we started to build a small shelter for abused dogs in Romania. Looking back, I can’t believe how fast our charity grew and what amazing things we did: thousands of dogs sterilized, and treated; hundreds adopted safely in Romania and across Europe; private modern shelters being built to set up high standards of animal housing for a community in need of good examples.

Planning the rescue center expansion and the general strategy comes naturally because we at ROLDA know exactly what are the immediate goals. Rescue activity is a very emotional job and especially, for this reason, it needs strong leaders that use their heads and knowledge to follow the right path and to healthy progress. One of the biggest “dangers” for a large shelter is to become a concentration camp. We have a clear strategy to keep the situation under control, to keep our feelings under control and to prevent our shelters to get overcrowded.

You can read point by point more details about the rescue center’s strategy. It is a unique project which can be transformed with your help into a very interesting challenge for the local community we hope to convince them to visit us, volunteer, and adopt. My first words of gratitude go to our amazing, loyal supporters and donors. Without them, we wouldn’t be able to report any saved animals, any investments, or any happy-ending stories.

Our donors are the fuel and our actions, the engine of a well-functioning mechanism that helps every year community of 250,000 inhabitants and approx. 20,000 dogs. Another big “danger” for a charity is the lack of funding. Considering how rapidly we expanded and increased our activity, getting cash flow is a constant big worry for us. Luckily, our amazing supporters respond to emergency appeals and our local corporate partner, ArcelorMittal never stopped a moment, in the past 7 years, to generously sustain us financially.

End of this year, ArcelorMittal’s director offered us a letter of recommendation to encourage others to support our hard work in Romania.

Without the help from our corporate partner, we couldn’t build the second shelter, we couldn’t have saved almost 6,000 dogs over these years, and we wouldn’t be able to learn so fast, more about wild dog’s behavior. The first social veterinary clinic from the Galati area is built also because of our corporate partner’s support.

Nowhere in Europe, has no other corporation sustained financially a charity like AMG did and continues to do! Thank you, AMG. My words of deep gratitude go to each and all representatives of ROLDA international branches. This year, our efforts focused to increase our presence around the World. I am extremely proud to report that ROLDA is the first Romanian animal charity registered in Australia. Thanks to our amazing friend Avalon, we reached a faraway nation very preoccupied with animal welfare.

ROLDA USA celebrated 8 years of existence and produced the biggest income. Big thanks go to the co-founder Merritt and Beth, to Shannon for all the PR work, and to Bruce for becoming our new Trustee. Big thanks go to Cathy for her support and Arthur & American Dog Rescue foundation for PR. Big thanks go to all our extraordinary US donors!

Because of ROLDA Norway and our groups in Holland and UK, more dogs found their forever home in the last year. Big thanks go to our friends Hege, Ingrid, Merethe, Clair, Alissa, Joke, and Hanneke as well as all our donors, volunteers and adopters! ROLDA Sweden exists because of our friends Heidi, Sandra, and Lisa but it goes bigger every day and the latest successful adoptions are just the beginning.

For Austria and Germany, we have our friend Lisa, a German speaker who makes big efforts to be noticed in a “market” that seems saturated by numerous individuals and small charities’ requests. The situation is different in Switzerland. In the summer of 2014, our charity opened a new branch in Switzerland, under the name: Association ROLDA Suisse.

Led by my friend Lolita and her hard-working team, this branch grew impressively. The Swiss press offered media coverage, an important number of dogs were adopted safely, our handmade items in Romania were sold in various public places, markets, and events…and we even created our own events e.g. the adopters meeting which was a perfect opportunity for all our dogs to meet in one place, in Switzerland, their new country! We also organized two art expositions thanks to the artist Muriel, her talent, and her big heart!

Big thanks go to Lolita, Muriel, Michele, Anne, Suzanne, Mikael, Carol, and all the sponsors and volunteers! Big thanks also to Oscar and Marina!

There are many other people part of this well-functioning mechanism that generated I 2014 these impressive results:
700 dogs feed and looked after, 24/day, 7 days/week

In addition:792 dogs were sterilized from which trap/neutered/released 235 dogs were sterilized and returned and
● 167 dogs were sterilized in the village;
● 396 new dogs rescued from suffering on the streets from being brutally killed, or ending up dying in public filthy shelters;
● 135 dogs were adopted in Romania and across Europe.

This year we welcomed volunteers from Switzerland, Germany, and Norway. We were also honored to meet the representatives of the Embassy of Norway and Switzerland and be visited by H.E. the Ambassador of Holland.

Many great volunteers helped us from their homes, from behind their computers. We have a growing network of people that help us translate texts from English in other languages, and help us promote our dogs from this website to find sponsors and adopters for each of them.

The last part of this thanks you letter is reserved for the great people I work with in Romania, the vets that we collaborate with for years, the team – my colleagues that are correctly, professionally, and responsibly looking after 700 dogs, every day, 365 days/ year!

My big thanks go to the ArcelorMittal staff from Romania, my colleagues: Flori, Marian, Ghita, Delu, Costica, Vasile, Denis, and all the other collaborators from local supermarkets and external services.

I wish you MERRY CHRISTMAS and hopefully, the next year will be a better one for all of you and for all the animals on Earth that often suffer, so unfairly!

Respect and hope,
Dana – Founder ROLDA