Again we got help from Wereldasielen in The Netherlands!

Giving the animals the best possible care is sometimes very expensive.

This year we had to face huge extra costs: the surgery on Jack's front leg and on Monty's hind leg, the traveling up and down to the orthopedic vet in Kavala several times, the Milteforan for Noah's leishmaniasis and the castration of several dogs and 52 cats. Only this already cost over 3,000 euro.

Although we received some donations towards these costs, we still had some outstanding bills to be paid and no money…

We didn't know what to do, and again we asked the Dutch organisation Wereldasielen for help.

To our big surprise they were willing to help us with a really generous donation that doesn't only covers the bills to be paid, but also leaves some money for future expenses.

Words cannot express how happy we are with this and we are very very thankful that Wereldasielen is once again helping us.

Wereldasielen is doing great work all over the world by supporting projects of private individuals and charities like us, depending on donations and with only volunteers. Therefore we also want to thank all the people that donate money to Wereldasielen!

THANK YOU!!

ACT was "born" 5 years ago...

Today it is 5 years ago that I took care of the first stray dog with 4 puppies.

I contacted Klaus in Germany of whom I knew that he had homed dogs from Thassos before, and asked him if he could help finding good families for the dogs.
And look at them now: Mother dog Granny/Donna is an old lady, but lives happily in Holland, 3 of her puppies live in Germany and one on Thassos.

Of course ACT didn't exist yet, but that was in fact the time that the idea for a charity was born.

Not much later I met Jackie and her husband Alex, and together with them, Lynne, Nikos and my husband Joop, I started to set up an official animal charity called ACT Animal Care Thassos (or in Greek: Drasi gia ta zoa Thasou).

When I look back I am proud of what we have achieved in 5 years. It wasn't easy to start a charity. A lot of paperwork had to be done until we finally on June 17 2014 were registered as an official Greek charity.

From a small group of 6 people, ACT has grown to a mature organisation and is now also known on the island. More and more people contact us for help or advice. Sometimes the work is very stressful or frustrating and I must admit that I didn't realise at the beginning how time consuming it can be. But it is all worth it and I would do it again if I had to. Surely when I think of the 134 dogs we homed in the past 5 years, and the 309 cats and 39 dogs that were sterilised.

I think this is the perfect time to honor and thank the people behind the scenes.
On Thassos we have a great team of active volunteers doing all the major jobs (feeding, caring, fostering, bazaars, handicrafts, collection boxes, transports, administration etc): Jackie, Joop, Grant, Val, Peter, Gerry, Jürgen, Gisela, Gitty, Arno, Petra, Sibylle, Sophia and not to forget vet Nikos.
In Germany Klaus and Claudia are still helping us with fostering and homing dogs.
And then of course there are lots of others (on Thassos or abroad) that help ACT with donations (in money or materials), translations, flight partners, occasional fostering, and much more. I am not going to name them, they are too many and I don’t want to forget anyone. But be sure that you all are very much appreciated, without all of you it wouldn't be possible!

I can only hope that ACT will keep growing in the next 5 years with even more volunteers and supporters so we can help even more animals.

THANK YOU!!

Tanja