Arun Bikash Dey, Chattogram

For more than five years, a bunch of young volunteers in the port city have been hard at work, all for the welfare of strays. Wherever there’s an animal in need -- on the streets, at residential areas, or even in jungles -- the team gets ready for a rescue mission.

With founder Sumi Biswas, they work under the organisation “Animal Care of Chattogram”, which doesn’t just stop at providing food, but offers treatment and shelter at a centre until the animals are fully healed.

When Sumi was still a schoolkid, she used to save tiffin-money and feed strays as well as take care of sick and injured animals. Seemingly forever, she harboured a dream of establishing a platform that could take better care of the animals.

In 2015, she founded the organisation and was on her way to help more animals, but funds soon became a cause for concern.

Fortunately, her father stepped up and provided a piece of land at Halishahar’s Anandabazar area, so that Sumi and her group of young volunteers could set up their shelter centre.

The shelter was crucial. “We used to rescue strays and take them to the veterinary surgeon or veterinary hospital,” Sumi said. “Some of the injured animals needed post-operative care. We couldn’t just leave them on the road.”

“We built a tin-roofed centre there in 2016. Since then, we have rescued and treated a total of 151 animals,” she said. “Last year, we relocated to a new facility in Bandartila area, after a volunteer provided a piece of land.”

“The injured animals -- mostly victims of motor vehicle accidents -- are provided with shelter, food, and treatment at the centre. Currently, we have 11 dogs here,” she said.

Today, the organisation has 32 volunteers dedicated to its mission.

One of them, Saadman Ittehad, serves as the chief operating officer. Talking to this correspondent, he recounted how they fed several hundred animals during the countrywide lockdown, when their food sources ran dry with the closing of hotels and restaurants.

Chief technical officer Jobaid Azim said, “There was an initial struggle with the centre, as neighbours annoyed by the barks of dogs used to lodge complaints regularly.”

“But we reached out and informed them about the animals’ predicament, and soon they were on-board too,” he said.

But for all their good intentions, the organisation is still facing a shortage of funds. “So far, we have been running mostly on volunteers’ contributions. It would be so much easier if affluent people of the city, the government, and organisations like the city corporation stood by us,” Sumi said.