The Animal Welfare Trust Ekamra (AWTE) in Bhubaneswar needs your help and so do 50 of its inhabitants, which include dogs, cats, and birds who have been abandoned, orphaned, disease-ridden or victims of accidents. While their present facility serves them well, they are looking for a place of their own (or at least one that they can rent on a long-term basis). To speed things up, Purabi Patra, the Founder of AWTE, started a crowdfunding campaign on India's largest crowdfunding platform, Milaap.
Patra, who is originally from Rourkela, used to teach marketing management in universities affiliated to Osmania University, Hyderabad and Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Rourkela but left it all eight years ago to run AWTE full-time and become an animal activist. After the success of smaller projects like Bondh, where AWTE strived to arrange water bowls for stray animals, the 34-year-old started a campaign to buy land for AWTE. But things didn't go her way, so she settled for renting land on a long-term basis for which she needs 10,00,000.
And what does she plan to do with all that land? Patra hopes to construct shades, kennels and a whole lot more for all her rescues. "We want to be able to rehabilitate more abandoned animals and so the decision to move to a bigger place," explains Patra, who has been into animal activism for the past eight years. Currently, AWTE runs purely on consistent donations and has a steady number of volunteers helping out at their shelter.
AWTE also conducts adoption camps and awareness programmes to sensitise the community around them about their cause. Last December, they conducted an All Odisha Animal Lovers Meet, which saw the enthusiastic participation of 80 people. Not only was it a networking event, but sessions on the enforcement of animal laws by a legal expert and a first aid session for animals by a vet were also conducted. "Last year, it was conducted in Bhubaneswar. We want to continue the tradition, but do it in different cities of Odisha," Patra expresses. They also bat for the adoption of Indie dogs and cats and in this regard, they post adorable pictures and videos of kittens, puppies, dogs and cats on their Facebook page.
All this because Patra strongly feels that building shelters alone is not the solution. "The objective of a shelter should be to reduce the need for animal rescue," she opines. And the way to do this is to sensitise generations right from school level, so that they grow up to be more sympathetic and compassionate, especially towards animals. This will eventually lead to a decrease in the number of animal cruelty incidents. They intend to spread awareness in schools and colleges. "We want more people in Bhubaneswar to be aware and join hands with us to end animal cruelty," she implores.
To contribute to their fundraiser, click on milaap.org/fundraisers/
