31/12/2024
A message from our founder and CEO, Russell Easby-Smith
2024 was an amazing year for us and in turn the animals of Bocas del Toro.
We had more visiting veterinarians than ever before, volunteering their time to help. We are experiencing more people wanting to come help than ever before, which means big plans for 2025. We have developed a reputation in the international veterinary community as a successful program where volunteers can do real good. We get more inquiries from Veterinarians wanting to come help then we can accommodate. It has taken some time for us to really learn how to best use the resources offered to us, but we did great in 2024 and will do better each coming year. Our reputation gets us the most qualified and experienced veterinarians wanting to help and we are so excited at the positive impact we can make in our low income communities with them.
We saw great successes in fundraising. Any non profit working in a developing nation will always operate on the brink of collapse, but we were able to meet our needs and accomplish our goals better than ever before with the funds available to us.
Every day we hear people tell us how visible and important our efforts have been. Less and less animals roaming the streets homeless. More and more healthy animals seen.
One of the biggest things we have seen is the willingness and desire from the local population to spay and neuter their animals. More and more people are seeing their neighbors pets, their friends pets, and seeing how healthy and happy they are, and want their own pets to be that way. Our spay program is a massive success, and this is in big part because we do it every week, every tuesday, not here and there, its accessible and consistent, so we have seen consistent results.
All of this is accomplished through so many volunteers, donors, fosters and local businesses, We wanted to make a list and thank each one, but it quickly became overwhelming how long it was and concern for leaving a single one out, It is that extensive, dozens upon dozens of people and businesses make this all work. Papá Gato has always been and always be a community effort, to benefit the greater community. We whole heartedly thank every single one of you.
So, for 2025, where now?
Our weekly clinics are seeing lower attendance, this is a good thing, because we have made such a great impact there are less and less animals to come to them. We are exploring ideas about getting more animals from outer islands and more remote communities to our clinics, and perhaps even taking our services to them. 2025 is a year for us to focus on beyond the close communities, and reach further.
We are designating local official community liaisons, volunteers with the authority and tools to help animals from indigenous communities get aide from us. You will read more about this soon.
Plans are already in the works for large remote clinics in Almirante and Changinola, which are massively underserved. Plus most of our visiting veterinarians want to serve and experience remote indigenous villages, so we are planning much more along those lines.
For many years we have wanted to create and enact an in school education program. Youth is always the future, especially for change. We have been working on that and hope to see it implemented in 2025. This is an area that finances has held us back, spay and neuter will always be primary and most cost effective use of donated money, but we think 2025 can and will be the year we can use some funds for the next step, which is education.
We will continue to serve those who cannot speak for themselves, the animals of Bocas del Toro. And we do so because of your support. Please, going into 2025, consider donating, via our GoFundMe, or our Amazon Wishlist, both listed below.
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/papagato
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/1KLD2UNXVCNWH?ref_=wl_share
