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Announcement
Over the past few months, we have been trying to negotiate with the landlord to extend the lease for our shelter in Abu Sir, but unfortunately the negotiations have ended unsuccessful. We either have to leave and vacate the shelter by the end of next September or buy the land, which is in no way we can afford. We searched for new places and found the prices quite shocking. In addition, all the land we found is empty, meaning we have to rebuild everything from scratch, including dog rooms, cat units, isolation areas, clinic, hospital room, operation room, kitchen, storage areas and bathrooms. We will also miss the pool and shaded areas that were donated by some of our supporters.
Everything has to be built from the ground up, and we are so disappointed that we are leaving after we have invested huge amounts of money over the last 9 years in this shelter, but this is the reality we are facing now. We are hoping to find somewhere else to move to, but time is flying, so far the places we have found that might be a little affordable are unaffordable for us, and other areas are not suitable because they do not have the essential facilities we need to restart the new place.
In addition, we have received another shocking news from the owners of the TNR Sterilization Centre, where we carry out operations for stray dogs and we receive emergencies that come at night, asking for the termination of lease due to certain circumstances with the locals and their partners who own the place. And we have to leave by March. We’re really looking forward to finding one place where we can accommodate both the shelter and the sterilization center, but we’re not sure if we’ll work.
The bigger question is: If we find a new place, how can we afford to rebuild everything we had in the old shelter? We sincerely hope that our supporters inside and outside Egypt will support us during this very difficult time, as ESMA is already facing financial difficulties with suppliers, medical companies and clinics. We don’t want to stop the rescues we are doing, the association is doing a lot of work in sterilizing and neutering in several places, leading to the government stopping poisoning and considering sterilizing and vaccinating against prices as a solution to street animals problem.
We don’t want to stop supporting some of the stray animals we take care of in different places, and we certainly don’t want stop rescuing animals that need a home. We were hoping we’d be able to fix the problems we were having, but unfortunately we’ve reached the end of the road for our animal shelter. We will keep you posted on any new places we may find and developments, and hopefully our supporters will not let us down.
– Mona Khalil (ESMA founder)
