Cherkasy

Autumn has come. Autumn has come everywhere and spares no one. It is beautiful, yet at the same time it brings cooler weather, changing temperatures, rain, damp, and finally it brings winter. A long winter lies ahead of us. Winters in Poland are not as freezing as in Ukraine, and I want to write to you again about that very Ukraine.
As you know, we have been working for a very long time with the shelter in Cherkasy, where we try to turn up several times a year with food, blankets and medicines. Not much has changed in Ukraine since the war broke out, or perhaps the only thing that has changed is that Ukraine is no longer talked about so loudly. What hasn’t changed, however, is that our activists and stable hands went back there to the war. They went back home. And with many of them we have lost all contact. We don’t even know whether they are alive.

Recently Valery got in touch with us. Valery worked with us for almost 10 years. He set up the first centres with us. He wrote that he is sitting in the trenches right now. Sometimes he contacts his family and he misses us very much. He also wrote that the war is both ending and not ending. And he doesn’t know whether everything will ever return to normal. He sent me a photo of himself with a rifle. And right after it there was a moment of silence, until he sent a photo with a foal in his arms. And he wrote: “look, Ewa, how everything changes. Once, at Centaurus, I held a newborn foal in my arms because the vet had just arrived. And the mother was unwell. Today I hold a machine gun and defend my country”. How simple life is, and at the same time how complicated. And we are setting off again for that Ukraine where Valery is today.

We want to take food to the shelter in Cherkasy, which we will buy locally, because it is still difficult to transport it across the border. And price-wise it will even work out better to buy it there. And we will be able to buy a larger amount, which is why we are organising this fundraiser mainly for food. However, because winter is coming, we are also collecting blankets, sheets, dog beds and anything that can keep them warm. If you are able to send food to our address, please do so. If you are able to donate a few złoty so that we can buy this food on the spot, please do that too.

If you can tell someone about our Cherkasy and about the hundreds of dogs waiting there and the wonderful people who look after them, please don’t wait, because by the time the whole fundraiser gets going and shows results, it may already be very cold and the weather very unfriendly. Please don’t abandon those dogs. True, less and less is heard about the war in Ukraine and less and less help is going there. But these animals have stayed there and nothing at all is said about them any more. And Cherkasy has found a place in our hearts because of the wonderful people there who have taken hundreds of dogs and cats under their wing. And every day we think about them and about what they do, how they live, how they are coping. Please help us fill the van with food, blankets and everything else you think is essential. Come with us to Cherkasy. Let’s be with them now that the world has stopped being interested in these dogs.