SOS Andalucia was formed by 5 volunteer individuals during the early hours of the Malaga wildfires, Thursday 30th August 2012. The aim and mission was to be a central information point; a bridge and a communication platform between all the victims, volunteers, charitable organisations and local officials. Much effort and extreme generosity has come through this platform; practical help, facilitating updates, meeting points, volunteer database, liaison with the NGOs, media and local town halls to gain help and support for all those affected. Animal rescues, clothes and food donations, transportation, important relevant public announcements – all this and much more was achieved by the many people who participated in these efforts. SOS Andalucia has also supported a number of fundraising initiatives which it believed were relevant to the cause.
A sum of €1,995 was donated by 12 donors directly to the account details given to SOS Andalucia by the Red Cross. Exact explanation as to how any such donations would be spent was published on our sites as per their own statement at the same time publishing these bank details. These account details and the explanation were published alongside other bank accounts provided by the animal shelters. Please refer to our website for any further details. Despite our best efforts, no other NGO was prepared to accept donations for the cause related to the Malaga fires.
A total of €1130.73 was given to one of the SOS Andalucia volunteers via cash donations at Iceland in Fuengirola. The donations given at Iceland were specified by the donors to be used to help animals. These were topped up to a round €1200 euros by a further donation. The collection money was shared equally between Kim’s Animal Refuge and Aristochats, both of which are located in the fire zone.
Following a number of discussions and coming up to 12 week point since this tragedy, the decision has been taken by the remaining founding members to dissolve SOS Andalucia. We feel we have put in touch as many people as possible and now, almost 3 months on, the majority of the communications and notices on the group forums are outside of our initial objectives and mission. Albeit we believe that many of them are valid and some relevant, they can be addressed in other forums and ways and do not require our participation or this platform.
We completely understand that there are many questions and problems that still remain and that emotions are still high over many matters. We sincerely hope to have served both the victims and the volunteers to the best of our knowledge and abilities and that this decision can be understood and respected. This group and it’s relevant Facebook pages and website will cease to exist on the 12 week anniversary of the fire, 22nd November 2012.
Some of our original administration team may choose to continue their efforts separately in connection with the cause and we hope this will be successful and well received. Our kindest wishes to everyone; you and your families and friends who joined us and supported those affected by the fire in the early days of need.
Our sincere thanks.