Roof for Paws

Started under the mentorship of students from the highly esteemed Harvard University in the year 2018, Roof for paws is a non-profit organisation that thrives to work towards providing a healthier environment for the strays to grow up in. Our motto is to put a Roof over any and every stray animal that we come across, either by the method of adoption or by physically building up new shelters in the localities. By this, we want to ensure that every animal gets the care they deserve so that they aren’t mere “Stray Animals”.

In January 2018 I was a part of the winter session of the Youth Lead the Change Conference hosted by Harvard in The Heritage Experiential Learning School. Over the five-day course, we were to work in a group of our choice to understand a global issue and develop a social change project to address it. We were all given the liberty to choose our own topics, form our own groups, and start an initiative to impact the society. Different people had a variety of ideas on how to make their contribution to the society. Considering my love for animals and passion to help them I was driven to be a part of the team who felt the same. To my fortune, I found this same love and extreme passion to help the animals in 4 other people, and together we formed “Roof for Paws”.

An enthusiastic team of 5 high schoolers, ready to help the animals and provide them with a safer and healthier environment to be nourished in.We started off with the basic motto of getting the strays off the streets and into animal centers, into adopted homes, and under the sheds, we aimed to build. We initially aimed at creating awareness through workshops, calling on volunteers, raising funds through different fundraisers such as talent hunts and donation drives, conducting animal feeding projects, providing the strays with blankets to list a few ideas. Our work started by creating different social media accounts to introduce our ideas and plans to everyone. We made a website, a Facebook page, and an Instagram account to do the same.

As we started working on building our first shed we faced different challenges like shortage of proper funds and finalising the structure of the shelter. We had to come up with a structure that would support them when it was raining, give them warmth in winters and keep them off the heat in summers. Finally, we decided on sloping aluminium rooftop with a steel cage to be covered with blankets during the winter. The sloping top would prevent the water from entering the shed while the blankets were to provide warmth during winters. This is how Roof for Paws successfully built its first shed. Though a small shed this was the perfect beginning to an impactful journey.

We have till now provided several stray animals with loving homes in which they will get the love, care, and nourishment they deserve. We hold various feeding challenges and project to inspire others to do the same. This multiplies our reach in improving living conditions for the stray animals.

We also occasionally help other organisations in raising funds for the treatment of injured and diseased animals.

Some of our upcoming projects include a large scale volunteer-based Feeding Drive and collar distribution for the stray animals. Our vision in providing the animals with collars is: A lot of animals are run over by cars at foggy nights and early mornings as they aren’t visible to the car drivers, to prevent this we want to provide them with reflective collars which will make them evident hence reduce such accidents due to lack of visibility.

We at Roof for Paws work with a vision and a motto: To make an impact on the lives of the creatures who can’t speak up for themselves and help them grow up nourished and loved. In this unmeasurable planet, we do our little bit in making it a better place for other creatures and thus finding meaning in our existence. Do your bit, help someone who can’t help themselves, join us, make this planet a happier one!