School kids raise funds for street dogs

Manya Ganapathy, a student of Mallya Aditi International School and Mira Krish of San Francisco Friends School are kindergarten friends and now partners for a cause.

The 13-year-olds share a common love for animals. They have started ‘PAUSE4PAWS’, an initiative to sterilise and vaccinate street dogs in Bengaluru.

The impetus for this came from a realisation that street dogs in India are treated badly. The duo took it upon themselves to help the pooches in whatever way they can and thus started
the initiative in August last year. Putting their skills in craft to use, they have made cookies, goodies and toys for dogs and people and are planning to sell them to raise funds for the cause.

“We wanted to do something within our capacity to create awareness about animal abuse. This seemed like a good idea,” says Manya.

She adds, “We have done this once before when we made bookmarks, greeting cards and other items. At that time, we raised Rs 25,000.”

However, Mira, who lives in the US, had to go back and they couldn’t continue the initiative.

She has come back for her vacations and the two friends are looking to pick up where they once left off.

“This Sunday, we are organising another fund raiser and plan to give all the money to CUPA, so they can use it for sterilisation and vaccination process. We are a team of six; some other friends are also helping us with the event,” says Mira.

The girls, while spreading awareness about sterilisation and vaccination of stray animals as well as the abuse they face, will also talk about the need to adopt some of these friendly doggies from the streets.

“We want people to understand that street dogs are not harmful,” says Mira.