A home in the Philippines

❗️THE PHILIPPINES. This home is already saving dogs. Today we have to help it save more❗️

In the Philippines we are not starting today with an empty plot and a plan drawn on paper. This home already exists. The place has been around for years, lives together with the animals and has behind it the stories of dogs that got their chance right here. Animals taken off the streets ended up here, rescued after floods, sick, injured, ones that one day were simply left with no one. It was here that Steve took in one dog after another, fed them, treated them, kept them safe and gave them a place to recover. If you have been with us for a long time, you already know some of these stories. That is why today’s campaign isn’t an idea for something that might start working one day. It is about a place that is working right now and that we want to strengthen together with you for years to come.

For years, one of the people who are with these animals every day has been Steve. He takes in more dogs, organises treatment, food and care for them and does everything to make the grounds they live on as safe as possible. But the Philippines has its own climate. Torrential rain, strong winds, typhoons and conditions that can very quickly destroy what has been repaired and secured over months. For years, a large part of the grounds was protected by a bamboo fence. Steve did everything he could with it, repaired and reinforced it, but bamboo has its limits. And in a place where so many rescued animals live, safety can’t depend on whether the next downpour or strong wind damages something again.

And that’s exactly why a sturdier fence is now being built there. Not to make the place look better. But so that on the next night you can look at the dogs and know that we have done everything to keep them safe. So that Steve can focus on treatment, feeding and the next animals instead of once again repairing safeguards that this climate constantly puts to the test. Because when you rescue a dog from the street, the rescue doesn’t end the moment you pick it up. You also need somewhere to take it. And you need to be able to protect it there.

This place has faces. It has paws. It has names. It has dogs that have already survived thanks to it. This is where the animals we showed you ended up. There they got a bowl, treatment and a little quiet after everything that had happened in their lives before. And perhaps this is where you can best see what such a home really is. It’s not just walls, a roof or a fence. It’s a dog that has somewhere to recover after a flood. It’s an animal taken off the street that can fall asleep in the evening in a place where someone will also be there the next morning. It’s a dog coming back from the clinic, for whom space and time have been prepared. It’s the ability to say “yes” at the next phone call saying that another animal needs help.

We have been working in the Philippines for years. We have supported feeding, treatment, sterilisation and huge groups of animals left with practically no facilities. We helped when on the other side of the message there were a dozen, dozens or hundreds of dogs and someone trying to do everything for them with very little. Three dogs even flew back with us to Poland. Two have long been sleeping in their own homes. Toto, who went through the most, showed us once again how far a single decision not to look away can take you.

But not every dog can fly to Europe. And that’s not the point. The biggest change happens when you can leave something behind on the ground that will also work tomorrow. A person who will answer the phone. A place that will take in the next dog. A fence that will keep it safe even when the weather once again shows its strength. Food that will be waiting in the morning. The possibility of treatment when something bad happens. And a space in which an animal will no longer be just another homeless street dog, but one of those someone has taken responsibility for.

That’s exactly how Steve works. Not since yesterday. Not for a moment. And when we look at this place today, we see the next stage of something that has already proved over the years that it makes sense. Every further section of properly secured grounds gives more peace of mind. Every solution that lasts longer than one season allows all the energy to be shifted from constant patching up to what really matters most here. To the dogs. To those already living at Steve’s, and to those whose photos we will only see in a week, a month or after the next report.

And if you have been with us for a long time, you know well how many times our stories from the Philippines began just like this. One photo. One message. One dog. Then treatment, food, more weeks and a photo of the same animal that was sometimes hard to recognise later. Today we want to do something that won’t change just one such story. We want to strengthen the place where these stories can change one after another.

That’s why we are going back to Steve. To his dogs. To a home that already exists and has for years taken in those that nobody wanted before. We want to help him develop this place, secure it and keep it running, but above all to stay with the animals it exists for. With those already there, and with those whose names we don’t yet know today.

Because Steve will probably write again. Send a photo. Tell us about another dog. And then we want to know that on the other side of that message we have more than just good intentions.

We have a place. We have people. We have you.

And it is from things like these that, for years, stories have been born in the Philippines which, instead of ending by the roadside, get a completely different continuation.