Nandi News - November 2024
Welcome to the November edition
Now is the time of year when we start thinking about our next AGM and elections.
Having been in place since ´22, I am now stepping down from the President role for family reasons but will still be involved with Nandi.
It really is an amazing charity doing such great work.
Please promote our search….
About The Nandi Charity Shop
Sandra, in charge of Animal Help, has continued to receive an increased amount of requests for financial help with vet bills. The new, online system is certainly working and giving us plenty of data so we are about to carry out a review to ensure that we are using our resources to maximum effect.
The October figures are not in yet but all indications are that Nandi spent another 10 k euros on vet bills. In the month of September 2024, Nandi received a total of 123 applications, 87 from owners and 36 from partners/cat colonies. Nandi´s vet fees spend in September 2024 was nearly 10k euros.
We continue to spend over 3k euros on cat food to feed the street cats every month and our regular, monthly donations of nearly 5k euros go to our partner sanctuaries.
Additional emergency funds for animal help are requested almost every month.
Focus on a partner sanctuary
Mr No Ears (Abrigo para Gatos Sr. Sem Orelhas)
Pat Banks Writes:
There is a very special cat sanctuary here in the Algarve that takes in and cares for cats that nobody wants, the diseased, disabled, elderly and traumatised. Named after the Algarve’s most famous street cat, Mr No Ears, the sanctuary provides the cats with care and love. For some, their time with the sanctuary might be short, but sanctuary owner Sandra Gasalho and her group of helpers help make their last days as comfortable as possible.
Mr No Ears has been in existence for nearly 15 years and has been helped financially by a Portuguese non-profit formed in 2019 to raise funds for the sanctuary. Known as Associação Abrigo para Gatos Sr. Sem Orelhas, the non-profit organisation pays vets bills, replaces equipment, finances development and maintenance costs, and external projects such as the trap, neuter and release program cat colonies, one alongside the sanctuary in Loule, one in Boliqueime and one in Silves.
The sanctuary currently houses 147 cats. Most of them have their food sponsored monthly by compassionate caring people from all over the world.
Within the sanctuary grounds the cats are free roaming. Semi feral and feral cats live in the wilder areas, taking shelter in little wooden cat houses dotted around.
The more social cats live in the gardens and patio areas.
An enclosed cattery houses the ‘at risk’ cats suffering from feline HIV and indoors there’s a quarantine area, an ‘adoption programme’ room and a kitten room.
The biggest expense are the kittens, which total as many as 30 a year.
The kittens are fed, sterilized, vaccinated, blood tested and given parasite treatment to give each one the best possible start in life and a good chance to be adopted.
As well as sponsors, regular online fundraisers are held to cover vet bills which are substantial.
Nandi provides the sanctuary with a monthly donation. Carol Lee, treasurer of Associação Abrigo para Gatos Sr Orelhas told Nandi:
“We have no debts, although this is getting harder to maintain! We only spend what we receive and somehow, we always manage to scrape together enough to cover our expenses.
We only spend what we receive and somehow, we always manage to scrape together enough to cover our expenses. When we have a need we make an appeal for help via social media and more often than not, something miraculous happens and the funds are found.
We are always looking for more sponsors to provide the care we want to give to the cats, and we are also very grateful to Nandi for its donations”.
Update!
By coincidence as writing this article, we had an urgent call from Mr No Ears regarding a dreadful situation as explained left.
Nandi was able to give them 500 euros by return to help them continue their work.
Charity Walks for Nandi - come and join us!
Maria, our wonderful cat feeder in Vila do Bispo, gives us details of the next Nandi fund raising walk:
"Dear hiking friends, on Friday, November 15th from 10 a.m. we will hike from Praia do Carvalho via Benagil to Praia da Marinha. This stretch of coast is beautiful and offers wonderful views.
Hiking poles are helpful for this tour and good fitness and sure-footedness are necessary. It always goes slightly uphill and downhill again, but the inclines are easily manageable.
The paths change from wider to narrower and vice versa and can be a bit rocky in sections. We take a coffee break on the way back a little before the end of the tour.
As always, you can find further information about the route on our hiking homepage. Who's going to join us?"
For more information and to book your place on the next walk you can:
WhatsAppp Maria on +49 17638956448
Or visit the website https://sites.google.com/view/charity-walks.
Welcome to our new volunteers!
Malika:
Malika:
Malika:
is French but has lived in the Uk and then in Portugal for many years. She has proven to be a great asset in the furniture shop with her language skills of French, English and Portuguese.
Malika has been a French teacher and an auxiliary nurse amongst other jobs but her passion is for interior design- skills we make use of in the furniture shop. Good to have you with us, Malika!
Katia:
Malika:
Malika:
works in the clothes shop and was a model at our recent fashion show. She is half Portuguese and Mozambican and her husband is English so she´s truly international!
Her passion is for art and she has had various exhibitions of her work. She brings her artistic flair to the clothes shop.
Thank you for joining us, Katia!
Paulo:
Malika:
Paulo:
was born in Brazil with Portuguese parents but has lived in Canada since he was 15. However, he now spends at least 9-10 months of the year here in Portugal with his wife, Fernanda, also a long term resident of Canada.
Paulo works in the furniture shop on a Tuesday and in October he joined us on a Nandi walk with Fernanda and their little black dog, Peppa. Welcome to Nandi, Paulo!
The cat feeding continues…
It may be early morning, mid day or early evening but whatever the time of day many of the cat colonies of the Algarve are sure of one thing … they will get a breakfast, lunch or dinner today…and fresh water.
Did you know that Nandi feeds and provides vet care for over 500 street cats day in, day out here in the western Algarve? A Nandi animal help co-ordinator annually checks the number of cats in each colony and Nandi pays for an amount of food per cat.
The co-ordinator then purchases the food - both dry and wet available - from one of the approved Nandi suppliers, paying through a Nandi voucher system.
Cat feeding coordinators choose the supplier that most suits them and then arranges for the food to be delivered or collected and then arranges with their teams - some large, some very small, for the food to be given to the cats on a daily basis.
In addition, the cat feeders look out for the health of the cats in their cat colonies and are able to contact Nandi for assistance with vet fees when funds permit. So let´s have a big shout out to all of those independent cat feeders from Sagres, Vila do Bispo, Aljezur, Salema and Lagos and many places in between.
You are doing a fab job and the cats say ´thank you´.
Rescuing our abandoned animals…
These super cute kittens should be called Miracle 1 and Miracle 2.
They were brought to our volunteer, Sandra, as dumped newborns, along with three siblings. Without their mother, their chances of survival were very, very slim.
But Sandra took on the task of caring for them and bottle feeding them day and night. Sadly three died. But these two thrived and have been rehomed.
Thank you Sandra. Your title as the "cat lady" has been given for a very good reason.
In the meantime, Sandra has taken in four week-old puppies found in a lixo bin and is bottle feeding them.
There were five but one sadly died before being rescued.
No well earned sleep for our wonderful volunteer!
December 2024 Newsletter
Please click the link below to see our latest newsletter.
Or click on the X (top right) to close this pop-up.