Hope you and your family are well and safe. In these trying times around the world, our hearts go out to people fighting to stay healthy, struggling to get by and facing so much insecurity in the near future.
In India, as in many countries with considerable stray animal populations, this crisis has indirectly manifested itself as a deadly killer of helpless and confused animals. Tens of thousands of street animals have lost their only source of food – the people who are forced to stay inside their homes in the ongoing lockdown.
Our partner organization in Chennai, Blue Cross of India, Chennai has stepped up big time during this pandemic.
Please, please give generously!
Help us save these innocent souls. It is heart wrenching to see the scenes of hungry stray animals and abandonment of pets by misinformed people in the sweltering, unforgiving streets.
At the same time, the best of humanity comes out every day in the form of good-samaritans, angels and organizations like BCI toiling day and night to prepare meals, deliver across all zones while observing safety measures and obtaining the required paperwork to be out despite the lockdown.
Let’s dig deep in our pockets and help our fellow animals and the people making it all possible!
On a given day, it is costing Blue Cross of India an average of $500 for the food, transport charges and protective gear for volunteers
(not taking into account the budget for creating a disinfectant chamber on-premise and loss of regular income and freeze of corporate donations)
Procuring vast amounts of food has been a huge challenge and BCI has been moving mountains to make it happen!
CHAL has sent two emergency grants to date within the last month and a third one is in the works to assist with the extended lockdown period. But we alone are unable to fund the vast amounts needed and desperately seek your assistance.
Donors in the US can give tax-deductible donations on our website.
Please mark (add a note to) your donation as COVID-19 for Blue Cross of India
Donors in India can give directly to the ketto fundraiser started by Blue Cross of India
Here’s the report from Blue Cross of India on their work and typical daily routine during this period:
Blue Cross of India – for 56 years the voice for the voiceless – a household name in Chennai, amongst the oldest and arguably the largest and most well known animal welfare organisation in the country stepped in to reverse the tide the very next day of the lockdown. Our day now starts the previous day – with processed food in short supply, our kitchen now runs continuously to cook as many batches of meals as possible, load up and leave early to feed the street animals. The sweltering heat does not help either. Short of manpower, and running to full capacity, we are now seeking help from leading hotels in Chennai to help us increase cooking capacity to feed more and more everyday.
In The Trenches: The bravehearts of our out-door team drive to and walk the streets of Chennai not only feeding but also distributing food to community feeders. Our own team of feeders that include volunteers like Neelagandan (featured in this news article) go into non-residential areas like the marina, industrial estates and gated office complexes while other teams fan out to distribute to a network of community feeders (what we now call ‘the last mile’) who have been enlisted primarily from our volunteer pool and expanded to different corners of Chennai through community engagement. All this in a matter of a few days since the lockdown came into effect.
We are now “all hands on deck” with every available resource going into dealing with this emergency. All this while still continuing to rescue seriously distressed animals, providing medical care for hundreds of in-patient animals and keeping the over 2000 animals in our three locations fed and cared for.. The use of our cash reserves and resources towards the un-budgeted street feeding program combined with reduced personnel has severely impacted us. On top of this the lockdown necessitated the complete stoppage of ‘Out Patient’ consultation and the ABC programmes that were providing a steady stream of donations.
The combined result of all these has quickly eroded up the limited reserves in BCI and severely impacted our working capital for running the shelter in the medium to long term.
Short answer – because of how efficiently your money would be put to work for basic sustenance of street animals.
Long answer –
- Because we are creative and frugal in how we are feeding the street animals, not depending on easy solutions like processed food that are more expensive and scarce.
- Because much of our work is done by a group of professionals who donate their time and effort on a purely voluntary basis to ensure donations are not eroded by administrative expenses.
- Because the Blue Cross of India is the only animal welfare organisation which has been audited by GuideStar and awarded the GuideStar Platinum level certification for transparency.
- And last but not least, Ketto has recognised this and waived the entire fee for this fundraiser so every rupee will reach where it counts for the most.
- Buy needed grains and ingredients for cooking more meals in our kitchen and in hotels that have opened their kitchens for this noble cause. (Presently 200 kgs of grains and ingredients are being cooked into meals for over 1500 animals everyday)
- Buy animal feed for the over 1200 animals in our shelter.
- Place orders for at least 10 tons processed animal food so we can further expand feeding activities without cooking capacity limitations.
- Place orders for feed for abandoned cattle and horses that now scavenge on the deserted streets
- Buy Fuel and Supplies for running our ambulances and our contact-less food delivery vehicles and to ‘last mile’ feeders in Chennai
- Buy medical supplies for our rescued animals
- Care for, foster and eventually re-home scores of pets abandoned due to baseless fear mongering during the pandemic.
- Buy and Install a disinfection walk-through chamber at the Blue Cross to sustain through this situation without a shutdown
- Last but not the least buy masks, gloves, hand sanitisers for our outdoor staff and volunteers who brave all odds to rescue and feed animals in distress
