ROLDA USA TESTIMONIAL

Merritt Clifton is the volunteer US trustee, thanks to him we were able to register as a 501-c-3 charity and receive tax-deductible donations from US supporters.

 
Merritt C. is completing the annual documents, controls the financial department and voluntarily does the office work for ROLDA USA. His impressive knowledge in animals field and humane society activism helped our activities in more than one occasion.

Merritt C. visited for the first time our dog rescue facilities in May,2004 and than he came back and re-evaluated the shelters in March 2010,when he actually scored them even higher.ROLDA shelter remains the best in East Europe with 84 points from 100 possible.   

TESTIMONIAL 2009

                                      writen by Merritt Clifton

At this writing, five years have passed since I last had the opportunity to visit animal shelters and other animal rescue projects in Eastern Europe -- after visiting as many shelters and other pro-animal projects as possible in seven nations during the first half of this decade.

Five years is nearly 25% of the post-Communist history of the eastern European humane movement. Much learning and growing appears to have transpired in that time. Many new humane projects have started. Many older projects have expanded or relocated. Some have changed directions.

Almost certainly my direct observations of animal rescue work in eastern Europe are now obsolete, even though I have made every effort to remain currently informed via web sites, e-mail, and newsletters.

Most of the animal rescue organizations I visited have become much more skilled at advertising themselves and at fundraising. Most appear to be economically more stable, with more volunteers and more contributions coming from their own communities. None are past struggling, yet their appeals now tend to promise a better future, rather than an imminent demise. Many more have developed supportive partnerships with western European and American animal charities.

Most significantly, Eastern European animal charities are now tending to promote their positive achievements, rather than emphasizing the atrocities associated with animal control in the Communist era, many of which continued under post-Communist governments.

All of this means that much of the eastern European sheltering community appears to be catching up to where ROLDA was five years ago.

Of all the projects I visited then, ROLDA appeared to have the most positive vision. The ROLDA people were the youngest, yet had also started their work so early that they were among the most experienced. At a time when most eastern European shelters were
merely trying to capture and house as many stray dogs and cats as possible, so that they would not be poisoned, shot, or purged by other cruel means, the ROLDA team sought to go farther, and to demonstrate how animals should be treated.

Rather than trying to personally save every animal, ROLDA emphasized showing the surrounding community how animals should be cared for, in hopes of inspiring emulation.

ROLDA today is more than 20 times larger than it was then. The original ROLDA shelter is being converted to specialize in housing cats. A new shelter built in partnership with Mittal Steel has nearly the same animal holding capacity as some of the largest
canine concentration camps that I saw on previous visited to the region, but was designed with the idea that the facilities should keep dogs happy and healthy, suitable for eventual adoption into homes. An international adoption program is helping to find homes, and -- most importantly -- is demonstrating to the community that Romanian strays' lives have value.

The ROLDA dog and cat sterilization program, while small by U.S. standards, is among the very largest of any in eastern Europe.

All of this is still only the beginning of fulfilling the ROLDA vision. Five years ago, when I visited ROLDA, founder Dana Costin

quietly outlined to me her plan for completely transforming the animal-keeping norms of Romania and beyond. I stood near the back fence at the original ROLDA shelter, listening and looking out over the hills toward Moldova and Ukraine, a relatively short distance
beyond.

Then I looked toward the Danube river, the ancient route of commerce in ideas as well as merchandise. For centuries the bearers of every successful idea passed through Galati, where ROLDA is located, on their way upstream to Bucharest and many of the other great cities of the region.

I heard Dana speak of her dreams, and wondered just how far her vision might extend. Unlike the many other shelter founders I talked with, her dreams had specific substance: they were not just hopes but plans.

The past five years have not been easy for ROLDA. To grow as it has, ROLDA has had to transcend considerable hardship and calamity, and the present global economic crisis is presenting a whole new set of challenges. But, like the dogs and cats ROLDA
serves, Dana looks ahead with ambition and optimism at even the worst of times.

Five years ago Dana was the most avid student of every aspect of animal sheltering and rescuing among the many I met. She is still learning and still experimenting, to find the best ways forward -- and is also now teaching a generation of younger people, some of
whom are founding their own rescue projects in their own communities. Five years from now the paradigm for animals in Romania willalmost certainly have evolved far more for the better than it already has, having already come a very long way. As a journalist, predicting the details of the changes to come is not what I do; I must wait to see what happens, and then report the facts as they
occur.

I expect, though, that ROLDA will continue to be among the leaders, innovators, and instigators.

                                                               writen by Merritt C. in 2009

YOUR TAX-DEDUCTIBLE CONTRIBUTION HELP US SURVIVE !

Attachments:

ROLDA USA Incorporation Certificate	[ROLDA USA 501-c-3 certificate]	165 Kb
Form 990 for 2007/2008	[Financial report 2008]	626 Kb
Form 990 for 2006/2007	[Financial report 2007]	714 Kb
ROLDA USA IRS	[Internal Revenue Service 2006]	180 Kb
Form 990 for 2008/2009	[Financial report 2009]	478 Kb

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