Building Capacity in Portugal
CFAF has been working in partnership with Animais de Rua (AdR) for some time, providing them with capacity development, bespoke training and organisational support and advice to help them build on their already substantial success.
Animais de Rua (which means ‘animals of the street’) began in 2005 when a group of friends in Porto, Portugal saw a colony of feral cats living in precarious conditions and decided that they needed to do something to help them. However, back in 2005 projects to manage feral cats were very rare in Portugal and little support was available. Rather than get discouraged, they searched for information about TNR projects and how they were being used elsewhere to successfully manage feral cat colonies.
They contacted local vets and raised funds and were able to catch, neuter, treat and release the entire colony of 45 cats. After seeing how the lives and welfare of these cats had been so improved by what they had done they decided that they could not simply stop there, and so looked for other colonies that they could also help. Today, 8 years later, Animais de Rua has sterilized and treated over 13,000 animals across Portugal.
From these early beginnings AdR has become one of Portugal’s the most recognised and respected national animal welfare organisatons and has groups not only in Porto but in Lisbon and the Algarve. TNR is still at the core of what they do but they have become much more than that. They lobby for change and work with national and local authorities, veterinarians, communities and NGOs to address cat and dog cruelty and welfare problems throughout Portugal. They run successful fostering and adoption programmes as well as school education programmes and public awareness campaigns.
CFAF works closely with AdR, supporting them across many aspects of their work. From supplying practical training for staff and volunteers on TNR to providing comprehensive organisational and capacity development support in areas including fundraising, the growth of their educational programmes, policy development and expanding their adoption programmes.
You can read more about CFAF's work with AdR on our blog >>
