Exactly a year ago, UAnimals established a volunteer community. The team created a Telegram bot to encourage people to make an effort for the welfare of animals. Now, the community includes over 2300 volunteers from all over Ukraine.
After the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam explosion, many people offered their help to UAnimals by providing food, cages, boats, or labor. “We decided that we had to do something with this wave of people ready to help. That’s how the idea of creating a volunteer community came about,” says Inga Sakada, the head of special projects and direct assistance departments. So, on June 20, 2023, a chat bot that brought volunteers together was launched.
“The first task was to place bowls of water near homes for stray animals. People did this and sent us photos. Although it was a small act, we felt genuine warmth from those pictures,” recalls Inga.
To become a UAnimals volunteer, you need to register through the Telegram bot. It offers tasks that you can voluntarily join. UAnimals also sends you the opportunities based on your skill set, as sometimes drivers, translators, or designers are needed.
For the most part UAnimals volunteers help in shelters by cleaning and walking dogs. People with cars distribute pet food in the frontline areas. In June, community volunteers began participating in evacuation missions. Vasyl Dumenko worked with UAnimals rescuer Serhiy Medvedko in the Sumy region, while the couple Andriy Zhdanov and Maria Holovina evacuated animals from the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.
For the past year, our volunteers have managed to:
– complete over 100 tasks.
– conduct two cleanup marches in seven national parks of Ukraine, removing 47.5 tons of trash.
– plant 43,000 trees in 10 regions of Ukraine.
– distribute over 8 tons of animal feed.
– take 6,500 high-quality photos of animals in shelters to facilitate their adoption.
– take over 250 shelter dogs for a walk during various events.
We thank every one of you for your efforts in helping animals.
You can support us in all our doings by joining the Animal Rescue Club, which helps us consistently work towards the wellbeing of all animals.
