MEGA PROJECT BLOG 2
🐾THE STRAY CARE PROJECT🐾
ฅฅLet’s Care for Tiny Paws……Give Flight to tiny Soulsʚɞ
Have you ever started with no particular direction in mind and find that said direction along the way? Well, that's what happened to us. Let me take you back into the flashback of our September.
The previous month was terrific. It was a major step forward for the “Stray Care Project” team because it was the first time we all began on this road of making a difference. Our mission; to offer a loving and caring environment for animals, to prevent animal abuse, and to build a community in which people love animals and treat them with care and respect.
My earlier blogs, “FURRY RESIDENCE” and “MEGA PROJECT BLOG 1,” detailed our goals and presented our narrative of how and why we decided to embark on this project. It also reflected our enthusiasm and commitment to this endeavour. This blog will document our achievements and development to date. Hold onto your seatbelts for this unexpected bumpy ride.
When we started this project, we hoped for big impacts like rescuing animals, saving lives, volunteering, in short, taking on more than we could handle. We all attempted to express our vision individually throughout our group meeting about how to accomplish this big idea. Explaining it was like dissecting a frog. You understand it better but the frog dies in the process. That is what happened to our idea, it faded as it journeyed from the hypothetical to practical phase. It seemed like a good idea. that changed when we got out of that planning phase. Implementing ideas without that rose coloured glasses of ours, taught us how unrealistic, hopeful, yet fluffy our ideas were. (Bear with me, I never claimed to be good with analogies.) Yes, I used the word“fluffy”, because that was all it was. Our plans were sound in theory, but with limited resources in a pandemic situation, they were impractical. So we embarked on an adventure with no clear destination in mind. Our greatest aim was to have an impact on at least one life.
PROGRESS
So far, here is what we have done;
^Finalized our logo.
^Set up a Facebook page.
^Contacted related NGOs (GoodDogs Foundation, The Rescuer Vet).
^International Virtual Conference on Rabies Awareness and Its Control.
^Set up 12 water and feeding spots.
^Conducted training sessions
^Raised awareness among children
CHALLENGES
During our implementation phase, we encountered several challenges;
Finance
Finance was and continues to be one of our problems. We were all either student, freshly hired, or seeking jobs. As a result, it was difficult to generate enough revenue. So we went with concepts like using worthless plastic bottles for food and water spots. Everything else was either on a digital platform or required a little amount of revenue, something we could voluntarily offer.
Pandemic
We couldn’t go out to get our training and had to settle with Zoom meetings. We decided to arrange webinars instead of seminars, online awareness events instead of physically being there. Managing a remote team has also been a concern, but we managed that through. One additional issue that developed was to work on our goal of mass feeding. As we were all from different locations, it was challenging for us to be in the same place at the same time; we’re currently working on that dilemma and are open to suggestions.
Lack of experience
This was a new experience for us. None of us was that adapt to sacrifice our time for a project this big. And going for it without understanding the pain points would have been as useful as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. We tackled this problem by training sessions with veterinary professionals and surfing through articles.
Engagement
We were dealing with our audience like we would handle a fish that is still alive and may jump back into the water. We couldn’t just believe that If we say the words, people will get it. Bonding over laptop screens was not in the cards. It wouldn’t garner enough responses, so we sought out to solve this by the Facebook page and one-on-one sessions with our audience, since focusing on one person was better than addressing a mass of people and have no impact.
And so, we found it to be better able to find satisfaction in virtual connections. In our implementation phase, we found ourselves experimenting with ideas like switching from mass audience addressing to one person at a time. It worked, when just last night a 12-year-old lectured us about the importance of animal care and freedom in our follow-up interview. It was such an unexpected surprise and we all were squealing and laughing so hard with happiness. It was a proud moment for our team. The second technique we tried was to share videos. Some of the reactions we received were overwhelmingly complimentary. It gave us a warm and fuzzy feeling when two people contacted us and told us how we encouraged them to set up their water places. Five of them told us that our interaction remained with them long enough for them to feed stray dogs and cats that they would not have fed otherwise.
Impact
This is the overall impact of our effort up to this point;
^We managed to influence 5 people to feed stray animals.
^Got 3 people to put on their own feeding or water spots.
^Impacted 2 people to aid wounded animals in need.
^Got a child to lecture us on animal importance and care.
^Received positive responses from our one-on-one sessions.
^Still getting stories from our targeted audience.
^2 members successfully provided a bird and a cat medical aid.
We are still working on reaching out to more people to raise awareness about the problem and dispel myths and misconceptions regarding stray animals. We had aimed to save at least one animal and influence at least one perception. To see that we were able to achieve more than we imagined has been a roller coaster of a ride.
FUTURE
We want to expand our small effort into a full-fledged animal sanctuary. This will be a platform for anyone who wants to volunteer to give animals a loving and caring environment. We have worked with three experts who will assist and fund us as we take our idea to the next level. We want to contact more people and organizations to solicit assistance from our community. This will be expanded based on the feedback we get.
TAKEAWAY
If our plans work out, we might be able to help some lost and homeless feline souls. Our training has helped owners to be able to take care of their pets. This is still a plan in progress. We might need assistance next or fundings. This epidemic is not only tough for us but also for animals. One of the most fulfilling things you can do is help animals in need. When it comes to animals, even the simplest gesture may have a big impact. You can still help even if you can’t volunteer or foster a child. Leaving those empty boxes outside where you encounter stray animals may have a significant impact. They could find shelter there in the end. You may also leave some water out in your gardens or on your porch for stray animals, dogs, and birds. They don’t require opulent items; rather, they require compassion. You need to remember;
>They, too, are sentient beings and are sensitive to suffering!
>They also require water and food!
>They’re looking for someplace safe to take refuge.
>If not love, then at the very least kindness and compassion is all they need.
Don’t overlook these helpless creatures, or they’ll perish from hunger, disease, and abuse at the hands of humans. United, we can do anything and this project is an example of what a handful of dedicated individuals can do. Let’s join hands to make this world a safe place for animals and let this world see how we can coexist with them. Let’s give a lifeline to strays!
