Animal Rescue Kusadasi (ARK) celebrates its 5th birthday on 3rd April.
It was founded in 2018 to provide desperately needed support to Kusadasi’s street animals. Since then it has funded veterinary care for thousands of street dogs and cats that desperately needed help. Said Ark’s President, Ann Kennedy, ‘ARK is entirely dependent on donations from the public. It receives no government support, therefore every lira (or pound, dollar or euro!) counts, so that our work can continue and we never have to say no to treating sick animals’.
Exciting changes are underway at ARK, including its website and online communications channels. Said Ann, ‘Our new website is being launched to coincide with our birthday. I’m extremely grateful to one of our new committee members, Shawn Parsons, who has totally re-designed it. It’s much more dynamic and speedy. We’ll be updating the content on an ongoing basis and it will have automated links to Facebook, Instagram and (very soon) to other forms of social media. There’ll also be easier ways for people to make donations, which are our life-blood.’
To date it has been difficult for ARK supporters without Turkish bank accounts to make donations. However, Ann is delighted to report that ‘Giving Works’, an English registered charitable company, has formed a Foundation called ‘The Street Animals in Distress Foundation’. ARK supporters will be able to use this Foundation to make donations which will be transferred to ARK’s Turkish bank account.
Said Ann, ‘This will enable UK supporters to donate more easily to ARK, without incurring exchange and transfer fees. Even better, if the donor is a UK taxpayer and completes a form, ARK will receive an additional 25% gift aid from HMRC. It will also make it easier for ARK to attract corporate donors as they will be able to claim full tax relief on all donations they make.
Supporters in other countries will also be able to make donations in many other currencies, though they won’t attract gift-aid.”
Happy birthday ARK and all the very best for the next five years of caring for Kuşadası’s furry friends!
See ARK’s new website at www.animalrescuekusadasi.com and/or join our Facebook group – Animal Rescue Kusadasi.
Some before and after images
