You see them every single day – in the main square, in the parks or random streets, at any hour whether is a night or a day. However, most of the time you can see them near restaurants where there is a chance that someone throws them a bit of food from their lunch. We got used to them so much that almost nobody cares anymore. Yes, I am pointing at abandoned dogs and cats not just in Kazanlak, but all around Bulgaria.

But this is just one part of the problem – the visible part – but another one involves animals in the shelter. We may give some food to the dog that is staring at us with its innocent glance in the street. But it seems that we forgot about the ones in a shelter. We think that once they are there, someone takes care of them; they have some food and a roof, they don’t need to wander on the streets. But is it really true? Dog shelters also need resources, always more and more. Therefore we came up with the initiative KUCHE-USMIHNI held on the 20^th of October. With the help of Natalie Bonkina, we collected food, treats, toys and blankets for dogs in the dog shelter. Thanks to this initiative we managed to collect more than 128 kilograms of dog food and hopefully, we succeeded to make dogs smile.

But it was not the only initiative that occupied us this month, as on the 1^st of October we organized a well-known event Bez Pari where, thanks to the people of Kazanlak, we collected a huge amount of clothes and shoes for the family in need.

Last, but not least, we focused on people with disabilities in the Center for disabled people in Dunavtsi in a workshop about making jewellery. As we have been told, these people need to have social interaction with someone else, outside of employees working there and meeting them every day.

Adriána Čigášová