Thanks to the invaluable financial support of our donors, 3Love Inc. recently implemented three new rooms at the Colitas con canas shelter in Urubamba, Peru, which specializes in the care of elderly and special needs dogs. The new infrastructure consists of a room for the dogs, as well as a kitchen and a bathroom for the exclusive use of the volunteers who come from different parts of the world to take care of their four-legged friends.
After two months of construction and implementation, the inauguration ceremony of the new infrastructure was held on Tuesday, March 11, with the presence of Janeth Martinez, International Project Director of 3Love Inc; Renzo Semorile, Assistant Project Director of 3Love Inc; Emily Ellis, Co-Founder of Colitas con canas; the architect Jose Muñoz, who supervised and executed the project from start to finish; among other guests.
Below, we share the statements of Janeth Martínez, José Muñoz and Emily Ellis on the culmination of this important project.
Janeth Martinez, International Project Director of 3Love Inc.: “This project encapsulates everything that 3Love stands for”
Janeth, what does this project represent for 3Love Inc.?
This project is the cornerstone of 3Love. It represents a living testimony of our mission and vision for the care and attention of animals. In the same way, it is also part of our mission to educate vulnerable populations, who in many cases are outside the big cities and are in rural areas, who may be invisible to society, but through this project we make them visible.
What will be the benefits of these works for the dogs and the volunteers?
Thanks to these works, Colitas con canas will be able to receive more volunteers and they will have more facilities to do their work. At the same time, the dogs will have a room specially equipped for them, where they will be able to recover physically, but also emotionally. Many of these dogs come from a situation of abandonment and animal abuse. But thanks to the care they receive at Colitas con canas, being treated with love and dignity, the dogs are able to trust again, since they are cared for in an environment full of care and affection.
José Muñoz, Architect in charge of the project: “I want to advocate for animal welfare”
Architect José Muñoz was in charge of supervising and executing the implementation project of the new infrastructure, with the valuable help of Daniel Zamata, Gadiel Zamata and William Ramos.
What was for you the most significant part of the experience of implementing this project?
The work we did at the Colitas con canas shelter was a very important, enriching and beautiful experience for me. First, because I had never had the opportunity to build a shelter for animals. In all my long experience I had always dedicated myself to building homes for people, but never for animals. Secondly, I had never had such direct contact with animals. That’s very important, because the truth is, I’m sad to say, until a few years ago I was indifferent to animals. That was because when we were children, my parents never brought us a dog or a cat and we grew up with this indifference towards animals. After a few years, things changed when my children had pets. It was at that time that I came to love and know the true value of animals. It was a late love. That helped me a lot. And not only the love for dogs, I remember that in 2010 I participated in several demonstrations in Bogota against bullfighting. Now, having that direct contact with the animals of Colitas con canas, I see that that love that was hidden revived and now I feel that I love animals, I want to advocate for the welfare of animals, people and nature, which are the three pillars of the 3Love organization.
What memories do you take away from this project?
Many memories, such as recognizing the affection that the people and especially the volunteers have for the animals. That dedication so integral and so complete, getting up at 6 o’clock in the morning to take care of their animals, to be almost 24 hours a day working for the animals. Recognizing that is very important to me.
Emily Ellis, Co-Founder of Colitas con canas: “We are very excited about all the great things we are going to be able to do together”
We know that this project is something you have wanted to do for some time. Now that the project is complete, what is the impact on you and what do you think the impact on the dogs and volunteers will be?
We recently had the amazing experience of receiving help from 3Love to build our new volunteer quarters, kitchen and bathroom. We now have a new bedroom for the dogs, so they can sleep inside at night, we have a small kitchen and a bathroom for the volunteers, and a room where we’ll be moving the volunteers into. This is going to allow us to have more help on site, more volunteers, more attention to the dogs, also allowing me to focus more on community work, where we are going to be working on our new educational program, that will be coupled with our spay and neuter program, which also 3Love is helping fund. We are very excited for this new calendar year to come and all of the great things that we’re going to be able to do together, now that we have this partnership. So, I am very grateful and so are all the dogs and they are absolutely going to love having the volunteers more on site with them, more involved with them. And we are really hoping to make a bigger impact on the community now that we´re working together. So, thank you, from the bottom of my heart and from the bottom of all of these little paws, for all of the support and help that we’ve received and here’s to the amazing year to come. Thank you so much to the team from 3Love and to everybody who’s helped support this project. I know that we are going to be able to achieve so much more together.
