THE volunteer team behind Care of Didim Animals (CoDA) have outlined their plans and hopes of continuing to work for the benefit of stray animals across the district.

In an interview this week, members Angela and Brian told Voices how the CoDA team works, what they do and how the team came together.

CoDA was originally a small group that had came together to walk the dogs at the Didim shelter.

As they walked the shelter dogs, they encountered animals that needed help and “we couldn’t just walk past them. We needed money to help these animals and we set up a Facebook page to reach people. Thus, the team was formed,” they said.

The team’s members, that also include volunteers who come and go during the summer alongside the permanent residents, remains at a constant 12 to 14. “CoDA is made up of volunteers of different nationalities from across the world,” they added.

In further questioning from our reporter, they were able to provide more details about the organisation –

What is the scope of your work?

With the money collected at the beginning, it was only to support the shelter and provide much-needed veterinary treatments, medicines, and tests that the shelter could not provide. Of course, we were also collecting money for those who needed urgent treatment.

With the growth of CoDA, the scope of your work has also expanded. What are your current works?

While we were working at the shelter in Didim, we also tried to catch up with the stray animals in Akbük and we saw there is a fine distinction between the street and the shelter.

Although the municipality somehow takes care of the shelter animals, street animals have to beg and steal in order to be fed. Our work has expanded to include stray animals.

We now dedicate most of our time to supporting street feeders/caregivers and, of course, animals. In addition to stray animals in Akbuk, we raise money to support CoDA stray animals, we help 2 complexes and Akbuk Cat Garden.

We also help a few people in Didim Municipality, some on a regular basis, and some when we have a good fundraiser.

In Akbük every month we buy 20 bags dog food and 15 bags of cat food. And in Didim, for Edi who feeds the Altinkum beach animals, Coral Ege Road area and Jan we buy a total of 6 bags of dog food and 8 bags of cat food monthly. This month because our Queens jubilee party was so successful, we have also, so far, helped 6 other street feeders.

How do the volunteers work?

Volunteers provide support in different ways. For example, we have a team that organizes our events. We have wonderful ladies who cook. We have supporters who donate regularly. We have people who bring stuff from home for raffle auction sales.

In addition, we produce Turkish and English CoDA Dog and Cat Calendars for Turkish and English holidays to cover printing costs, sponsored by local businesses. These sponsors then sell them as well.

We have a team of CoDA Walkers. CoDA walkers prepare a twice-weekly health report on dogs to forward to veterinarians. They take care of the cleaning of the cages. Because the health, welfare, and living conditions of animals are paramount.

They have no voice, we are their voice and we can shout.

And we are supported by local shops/businesses in Akbuk and Didim when we ask for a donation raffle prize.

When animals that are very vulnerable and cannot live on the street arrive, the shelter veterinarian contacts us. Our team also works in these cases. For example, together with other groups, we assisted shelter staff in medically bathing all dogs in the shelter with terrible skin complaints.

Have you encountered a problem regarding stray animals recently, how did you deal with it?

Unfortunately, we often receive messages asking for help for animals that have been persecuted recently. Despite animal protection law 5199, some people harm animals because they do not want stray animals to be kept near their homes.

We want people to be more sensitive so we can all live in harmony together. To solve this issue, we contacted the shelter manager and took action to set up cat food stations in suitable places where cats are concentrated. We have installed these feeding stations for dogs before. We think it will work because it is a more regular method.

What is your future work, do you have a plan?

This month the municipality bought new cat cages and we were asked if we could help with cat litter, cat litter, and food/water containers. We are working on this. In addition, it is in our plan to work on the neutering of cats.

How can people get support from you, and how can they reach you?

We receive messages from the public almost every day about stray animals in need of help. Fortunately, we are good with dog catchers and we can call or text them directly. They can visit our CoDA Facebook page to reach us.

Also, If people fancy joining us walking, or have any questions give us a call on WhatsApp +90 536 247 3612.