Hello! We are a mini shelter for homeless injured animals and we need help!
We were an animal rescuers group from Belarus. We were 5 volunteers. We rented a land plot with a house for our animals. We helped injured animals and homeless kittens. In August 2020, political repressions began in Belarus of those who took part in peaceful protests against the Belarusian dictator Lukashenka. Many volunteers and animal rights activists were forced to flee the country.
In the winter of 2022, one of our volunteers was arrested for participating in the protests. He is in prison for protesting. Three volunteers were prosecuted for the protests and forced to emigrate to neighboring Ukraine. One volunteer stayed in Belarus with our animals in the shelter and with the pets of the emigrating volunteers.
We planned to rent a land plot for our shelter in Ukraine near Kyiv and relocate our pets from Belarus. But on February 24, the war began. Fellow volunteers in Ukraine fled to the European Union. They are refugees, don't have a permanent home now and they can't financially support our shelter.
We kept our animals ourselves, without crowdfunding. But due to political events and sanctions against Belarus, the country has a difficult economic situation, enterprises, banks and other financial structures are blocked. The flow of refugees from the Lukashenka regime is intense. Now one volunteer has to take care of the shelter herself. But because of the sanctions, she lost her job.
There were debts for renting land and houses, for gas and electricity, debts to a veterinary surgeon. Our animals are trapped in poverty. If we don't pay the rent for the land and the pet house, gas, water and electricity, the owner of the rented property will throw our animals on the street. This is his ultimatum.
Our pets will not be able to stay outside. There are no state shelters in Belarus. Instead of them - points of euthanasia. Local authorities will take them to such a point and euthanize them.
The situation is such that in Belarus it is forbidden to receive assistance with fiat money from abroad now. The recipient of such money is suspected of financing political opposition to the dictator Lukashenka and ends up in prison. The only way to get financial help still available is through cryptocurrencies due to their anonymity
