Hundreds of Ukrainian animals helped by the success of the East Lothian conference

Monday April 22, 2024

Zhenya Dove, Ukrainian activist, will speak at an international conference on compassion in Midlothian.

Written by Marie Sharp, Local Democracy Reporter

Thousands of stray and homeless animals in Ukraine have been helped after an activist speech at a Scottish conference prompted a charity boss to donate £25,000.

Human education charity Fostering Compassion, based in Ormiston, East Lothian, held its two-day conference last October, attended by campaigner Zhenya Dove.

The list of speakers also included Mike Arms, president of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in Santa Fe, California, who was inspired by Zhenya’s speech to present the donation to help animals in the war-affected country.

Now the charity wants to help young people and children who have moved to East Lothian by organizing a workshop with them to provide support.

Zhenya, originally from Ukraine and based in Edinburgh, revealed the work carried out so far with the help of Mike’s generous donation at the conference.

She said more than 2,000 units of medicines, flea and tick treatments and vaccines have been provided to shelters, with 193 animals neutered and renovations carried out at a cat shelter in the Kharkov region that was in urgent need of work.

At the House of Hope shelter in Gusyna Polyana, the floors have been replaced, the walls covered and a new home has been built for the 115 cats.

Shelters in the Mykolaiv region have received stoves, firewood and insulated bags for small dogs and cats, and in the Kherson region two tons of coal have been delivered to the shelters.

Zhenya told the charity about the work carried out with the funding: “It has made a huge difference to the lives of countless animals.”

The Compassion Always conference, celebrating the tenth anniversary of Fostering Compassion, brought together an international guest list.

Established in 2013 by Tranent woman Lesley Winton BEM, Fostering Compassion runs workshops at the Ormiston base and in schools to help children and young people tap into their empathy and emotions by talking about the experiences of rescue animals and relating them to how they feel.

The work has proven extremely successful in helping children identified as struggling with behavioral or emotional problems.

Lesley, who received the British Empire Medal for Services to Animal Welfare, said the donation was announced by Mr Arms at the end of the conference, which surprised Zhenyaby.

She said: “We were all delighted that the conference led to such a wonderful donation which has made such a difference to animals in Ukraine.”

Fostering Compassion would like to offer a workshop to children and young people from Ukraine living in East Lothian and are looking for families to get involved and get in touch.

Anyone wanting to get involved can contact the charity via their website www.fosteringcompassion.org or email [email protected]

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