Thirty Eighth of 40 Donations

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The Thirty Eighth of my 40 donations goes to Animals Lebanon. This charity was picked by Nelly Attar as she won the sweepstake by providing the closest estimate as to how far I could cycle in 40 hours.

Animals Lebanon improves the welfare of animals through comprehensive national animal protection and welfare legislation. To support this campaign they provide nationwide public assistance for companion animals while rescuing and improving the conditions of captive endangered wildlife.

https://www.animalslebanon.org/who-we-are/what-we-achieve

The good work Animals Lebanon do has been made even more critical and challenging due to the economic situation in Lebanon, where many people are now struggling to make ends meet on a day-to-day basis.

I chose to make my donation is US Dollars and so used XE.com to provide the spot rate as per the below. I rounded up to $55 and processed the payment online.

https://www.xe.com/

Dear Craig,

Thank you very much for your recent donation to Animals Lebanon!

Your generous support gives us hope and makes it possible to help
animals most in need. We are doing this work during the most difficult
situation in our 13 years. There are still daily protests and
roadblocks, the currency is declining, fuel is running out, more
electricity cuts, no government for nine months, and more than half of
the population has slipped into poverty.

The explosion and economic crisis mean more people are unable to care
for their pets. Even the cheapest food and basic vet care are nearly
impossible for many. We have given out nearly 9,000 kilos of food in the
last nine months, and continue to help hundreds of families with urgent
vet care for their pets. Only nine of the animals rescued from the
explosion still need a home. Every other cat and dog was able to be
returned to their owner or found a great new home. Hopefully one more
trip and all will finally be adopted.

Since the beginning of this year, we have rescued
–    Hope, a puppy whose ears and tail were cut off
–    Sunny, a cat who was shot in the face
–    Max, an emaciated dog who was used in dog fighting with a large
wound around his neck
–    Benny, a cat who is suffering from a massive wound on his back
because of a shotgun

Thanks to the incredible animal-loving community, we were able to fly 17
of our cats to the US on March 29. Thanks to Tabby’s place
(@tabbysplace), Lambertvilleanimalwelfare (@lambertvilleanimalwelfare),
and Monmouth County SPCA (@mcspca), these cats can now start fresh with
their painful past as distant memories. Each cat cost around $470 so
your donations made all the difference in changing their lives.

Due to the difficult economic situation that Lebanon is facing, many of
our loyal and valuable fosters are leaving the country, which means that
countless of our cats are returning to the shelter where they will take
up space and resources that could be used instead for incoming rescues.
Few cats that were adopted years ago are also being returned as their
owners can no longer afford to keep them or have to leave the country
without the option of taking them along.

It’s also kitten season! Since the first week of April, we have cared
for over 20 kittens that were either dumped on the street, found among
garbage, sick, injured, or stuck in a car engine. A few kittens are at
some lovely fosters who are administering their medication if required
or simply offering them a loving and temporary foster home until a more
permanent one can be found.

You are truly making a difference for the animals that we are rescuing
and rehabilitating, we cannot overstate how much your compassion means
to us and to those innocent animals you are helping to protect.

For the animals,
Jasmine Farhat
Donations
E: jasmine@animalslebanon.org

You can watch the prize being awarded to Nelly and her making her choices here:

You can read about me cycling for 40 hours here:

Twenty Sixth of 40 Donations

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The 25th of my 40 donations goes to Stronghold Rescue and Relief who protect and care for families in conflict zones around the world. Read some of the stores and watch the video below, it’s really something.

Stronghold Rescue and Relief send small teams of highly-skilled former special operations members into conflict zones to conduct and organize humanitarian rescue and relief operations.

Stronghold Rescue and Relief teams serve local families by providing emergency medical aid and delivering situation-specific humanitarian relief.

When appropriate, Stronghold Rescue and Relief‘s highly-experienced operatives advise and accompany local authorities during high-risk, life-saving rescue operations.

Over time, Stronghold Rescue and Relief organise and employ teams of locals to conduct their own rescue and relief operations with minimal outside help. Stronghold Rescue and Relief call this “Charity With Dignity.”

https://strongholdrescue.org/

I looked into making a donation and found that they prefer longer term support for cash flow and planning reasons. They actively encourage monthly subscription on their website including by giving a t-shirt to all monthly subscribers. Therefore, I signed up to provide $15 a month and I will do this for four months.

https://strongholdrescue.org/support

According to XE.com today $15 equates to £10.86 so over the course of four months I will end up paying almost 10% / £4 over £40 but I guess that will pay for the t-shirt!

https://www.xe.com/
$15 x 4 months = $60 / 1.38040 = £43.47
Khallas

I came across Stronghold Rescue and Relief on a YouTube channel called MrBallen by a dude called John Allen, a former Navy SEAL who now tells strange, dark & mysterious stories…

The story of how Stronghold Rescue and Relief became established is incredible and is summarised nicely in MrBallen’s below video:

You can find MrBallen’s YouTube channel here; if you like his content, subscribe.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallen/videos

Instagram: @johnballen416

Twitter: @johnballen416

2nd YouTube channel: MrBallen Shorts

TikTok: @MrBallen

LinkedIn: John Allen (MrBallen)

Eighteenth of 40 donations

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The eighteenth of my 40 donations goes to Bahrain Rescues who rescue, treat and rehome animals that need help in Bahrain.

You can see more of their activities via the following link:

https://www.instagram.com/bahrain_rescues/?hl=en

Due to an exchange rate error I missed £1.19 off my seventeenth donation so I have added it to this eighteenth donation, making the total (£40 + £1.19) £41.19. At today’s spot rate on XE.com that equates to 21.236 Bahraini Dinars.

Bahrain has a electronic cash-replacement payment system in place called Benefitpay that seems to work almost everywhere and in any situation!

Thanks to God I have a great friend who made this transaction possible and very memorable. Shukran Habibi.