Pune , Maharashtra Registered NGO Upasna Foundation’s roots go back to the school days of Vaishali Gaikwad. She has been a student of St. Mira’s School which believes & works for the cause of birds & animals. Vaishali’s parents & grandparents too, even though from a middle class background, had inculcated rich values of feeding the poor, needy, including birds & animals. She would feed the strays as a child. At the age of 13 itself, Vaishali rescued the first dog & then began the journey for rescues. Vaishali had to take up a job at a young age but that still did not stop her from finding time to feed the cows, hen, crows ,dogs, cats & other street animals.

 

She married Sachin, to realize later that he too loved working for the cause of strays. Together they started working for this noble cause, not minding the challenges thrown in their way by lot of people. In 2007, they started a small shelter for strays. Their first dog was lovingly named as Gawrang, since he had many colours.

To keep the shelter running, as a source of income Vaishali & Sachin started PG accommodations. This sincere couple got many accidental cases, injured strays & they took very good care of these rescued strays. Around 1000 dogs & cats were given for adoption too.

A couple of times Vaishali & Sachin had to change their place of shelter as the neighbours harassed them to move out. With the number of strays growing each year, they realized the need to formally register & ‘Upasna Foundation’ was thus established. Today they house around 150 stray rescued dogs, cats. In addition to this, they also feed roadside birds & animals like crows, cows, goats who have been starving due to the lockdown.

With the pandemic, they have completely lost their source of income i.e. PG accommodations. The per month cost of running the shelter is around Rs. 65,000/- including cost of feeding, medical care for strays & operational costs of the shelter. To add to the misery, the society residents have made it very difficult for Vaishali & Sachin to continue staying at Chairholi, near Alandi as it is a residential area. Owing to this major concern, just before lockdown, Vaishali & Sachin sold off their belongings to purchase a small plot in the outskirts where they could move their 150 babies, away from the trouble caused by people. They paid half the amount by selling off things and were to pay the remaining half when the pandemic happened and they lost their source of income. Whatever little belongings that remained, they sold the same too as they did not have any source of income, to feed the strays in their custody. Now they have no savings as all their assets have been liquidated. They desperately need around 13 Lakhs to pay off the balance for the land that they have purchased. Living in the current place is a nightmare for them & their fur babies & they need to shift to the new place at the earliest. The landlord is also following up consistently for remainder of the payment.

Knowing the noble cause that Vaishali & Sachin have been working for all these years, we all need to help this genuine couple. They have given up everything in life & have devoted their lives for the strays. Now, they need help to move to their new shelter & also to feed these 150+ rescued fur babies. We need to stand by them in their time of need. Every bit of contribution will go a long way to help Vaishali & Sachin to continue their commendable work for the rescued strays. Come, please let us join hands to help them!

 

Any kind of help will be highly appreciated. It can be in form of adoption, volunteering as well as donation.

The amount donated by you will be used for following purposes:

1) Paying fees to doctors for treatment and medicines : Rs. 1,20,000

2) Construction for New shelters: Rs 3,50,000.00

3) Providing food and clothes: Rs 5,30,000

 

Humble Request to all Residents of Pune

Please refer any hospitals or restaurants in and around Pune who can donate the leftover rice and/ or chapatis etc. We are specifically looking for only rice and similar leftovers since its not advisable to give spicy, sweet or salty food to the dogs. Please send a pm or contact on 9921352285 in case if you know anyone or any organization/ restaurants/ hospitals who can help in doing this. Picking up the leftovers will be handled by the people running this shelter.

So please come forward and join hands in helping these voiceless loving animals. Also kindly do help share this message with as many as you can. That also will be your service for this noble cause.

Thank you. 🙏