Newsletter December 2007

AWARE (Animal Welfare Assoc.; Rescue & Education) - Member Society of WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals) since 2002

The petition aims to secure ten million signatures in support of achieving
a United Nations Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.
Please visit this link and sign today!
www.animalsmatter.org/

If you were wondering why you hadn’t heard from AWARE for a while –
wonder no more! After another busy year at the forefront of animal welfare in Guatemala we are looking forward to the developments that lie ahead. So much has happened it’s hard to know where to begin, with spay/neuter clinics in various locations throughout the country; the visit of RAM (Remote Area Medical) from USA; 2 WSPA conferences in Bogotá, Colombia; World Animal Week; World Rabies Day; Dra Elsa signing up as a permanent part-time member of staff; Dra Elsa’s training visit to the McKee Project in Costa Rica; a fundraising luncheon at Peru Café in Antigua; a fundraising art auction in San Francisco, California; extensions to the Cathouse; puppies flying off to dream homes in USA, including several placements of 3-legged and paraplegic animals; the involvement of AWARE in an advisory capacity with a World Health Organization/University of San Carlos rabies control and spay/neuter project; and last but by no means least the planned construction of the AWARE Education Centre by Builders Beyond Borders, scheduled to begin in February 2008. None of which would be possible without the growing number of volunteers, donors, supporters and veterinarians from all over the globe who invest time and money in AWARE. The Revue magazine, Clinica El Arca in Antigua, Nestlé-Purina in Guatemala City, and the World Society for the Protection of Animals have continued to provide AWARE with the solid foundation of support that every NGO needs. Thank you, one and all!

Conina

The door opened just long enough for Conina and her Boxer friend to make a break. They were out and running! What leaping joy in the heart! To run on the open road! Only it was the Pan American Highway, and seconds later the Boxer was dead and Conina was lying in the weeds with multiple fractures. Xenii saw it all from a few cars back, and pulled over. After a spell at Clinica El Arca and recuperation at Hound Heights Conina – a beautiful 1-year-old German Shepherd with that nobility of spirit that spits on adversity and disdains from on high all other dogs – could stand, though when she tried to walk one back leg twisted itself round the other, and she fell. How often did we see her fall, and how hard it was not having the time to give her the attention and physio she needed. Sure, she was lazy, but we knew there was hope. Time passed. She resigned herself to walking with the aid of a sling. She resigned herself to ignoring those inferior breeds. She resigned herself to faeces in her tail. If there are saints in this world, one of them is Minoo Rahbar. Thanks to Minoo, Conina received those sleek and shiny wheels and gave up the sling, strolling sedately along the path when it was her turn to get out for a walk. Thanks again to Minoo, Conina is now living in Florida with her own bowl and bed, going for twice-weekly hydrotherapy sessions and regular physiotherapy, as part of a family of physically challenged animals supervised by another saint, June Ebert. Life provides doors, and the means to find them.

Statistics

THANK YOU NESTLÉ PURINA GUATEMALA!
Your generous donations of food for the animals enables us to fund our spay/neuter and education programmes.

WORLD RABIES DAY - 8th September

With the help of veterinarians from Canada Dr John Booth & Dr Hannah MacNaughton, and volunteers from Guatemala Dra. Claudia Giron, Pamela Orozco & Gelvin Reyes

WORLD ANIMAL WEEK 4-10 October
This year AWARE held combination spay/neuter and vaccination clinics, operating a total of 50 animals in Sumpango, Antigua, and Sta. Caterina Pinula.

Dra Elsa Roque Duque DVM
Thanks to funds provided by Terry and John, owners of Revue magazine, Dra Elsa Roque Duque has been commissioned for 3 days per week working for AWARE – two days at Hound Heights and one conducting off-site spay/neuter clinics. At last the animals of the Sumpango shelter are getting care on a regular basis. Donations enabled Dra Elsa to travel to Costa Rica for specialist training in castration technique at the McKee Project – knowledge which she will now pass on to all interested Guatemalan veterinarians.

LIV (pronounced Leaf)
What ’s in a name? Liv was named by Swedish volunteers Frida and Hannah, and her name means Life in Swedish. Liv was 3 tiny months old when she arrived at the Shelter, and dying. Thanks to Frida she recovered, and grew. We wondered if the pen, and her group, could contain her and her energy - and she was always sweet. Linda Green thought “Hmmm,” and mentioned her in the Que Pasa En Antigua magazine interview. Connection made, thanks to excellence of magazine. Now Liv is training as a therapy dog with schoolchildren in Arkansas, and along with the reader one is within one’s rights to wonder - “What is this thing called Life? How are these connections made?" Visit www.pawsparagould.org to see the amazing work that Susan and her animals do.

San Francisco Art Auction

On Saturday May 26th, after weeks of hard work, AWARE fund-raisers Margaret Bradley and Sue Redding staged an art show, reception, and Silent Auction of donated pieces of animal-related art at a select location in San Francisco, California, raising a considerable sum that has allowed AWARE to continue providing low-cost spay/neuter operations in Guatemala. A big thank you to Sue and Margaret, and to all the participants and donors.

Benefit Luncheon at Peru Cafe
A very relaxed event in the congenial surroundings of Antigua's Peru Cafe (4a Avenida norte #7), where some 50 people sampled a variety of delicious Peruvian dishes while listening to beguiling Peruvian music. Thank you to Peru Cafe owners and staff for a very pleasant fund-raising experience.

THE REVUE
Very special thanks go to Terrry and John Kovich-Biskovich and the staff of the Revue magazine for their continued support both material and moral. They have now set up a permanent Garage Sale of donated items for the benefit of AWARE at the Revue office on 4th Calle in Antigua, and continue to give us generous and highly effective advertising space in the Revue magazine. THANK YOU, REVUE!
For donations and purchase: Caterina Ibarra, REVUE Office, 4a Calle oriente #23, Antigua. Tel: 7832 4691

THANK YOU, ONE and ALL!
Special thanks to Desiree Iturbide & Lio Bonazza, professional Webmasters - www.epicentroantigua.com
Linda Green, AWARE Adoption Co-ordinator; Ximena Murillo, AWARE Volunteer Co-ordinator; Clinica El Arca for all their help and for the proceeds of their T-shirt sale; Eduardo Roesch for the stoves that will heat the AWARE Clinic and keep the feed store dry; and to all those wonderful people who donate funds and materials to enable AWARE to continue the good work.
Volunteer Veterinarians: Dr Steve Blauvelt, Drs Susan Monger, Evelyn Orenbuch, and Shelly, from USA; Dr John Booth & Dr Hannah MacNaughton from Canada. A special Thank You to Dr Jim Bader and his wife Merri from Michigan, both for their tremendous veterinary help, their donations, their moral support, and for taking animals to the States for adoption.
Volunteers: Julia Leenders & Kristin, Holland & Norway; Julia Kandzia & Maryam Roehlich, Germany; Barbara Bigder & David, Canada; Minoo Rahbar, USA; Tess Werling, Sweden; Camilla, Sweden; Jemma Jackson, UK; Cathy Piolino, USA;
Mike Kraft, USA; Gabriella Rolli & Jan Kunz, Switzerland; Peter Straatsma, Holland; Ben Prentice & Emily Archbold, Australia; Petra Kaandorp, Holland; and Dee Clarke from Antigua, Oscar Morales, Pamela Orozco & Gelvin Reyes from Guatemala City, and of course Saint Margaret Bean of Antigua.

Wish List

• metal food bowls
• litter trays for cats
• hessian sacks for bedding
• 3cc and 1cc syringes
• sterile gloves sizes 6, 6½, 7
• surgical scalpel blades
• pre-fab metal storeroom
• room dividers (for surgery area)
• x-ray machine
• signs for the Highway!
AWARE always needs financial support for the purchase of medicines and medical supplies. Also donations of newspaper, blankets, and items for our fund-raising garage sales (including books). Please call Xenii on (502)7833-1639 or Caterina Ibarra at the Revue office on 7832 4691.

Thank you all - your kindness and generosity have eased the suffering of domestic animals in Guatemala!



 

YULI



June 1995 - February 2007
we miss you