By: Juan Carlos Sevilla

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – These were the exact words coming from the great Mahatma Gandhi that shows human compassion towards animals. As part of ComCo’s effort to help those affected by the recent Taal Volcanic Eruption, Citizen ComCo chose “The Happy Alpha Project” to be its beneficiary.

Taal Volcano’s recent disaster has displaced not only the residents of nearby cities, but also the animals who were left because of the forced evacuation imposed by the local government. These animals were uncared and exposed to toxic volcanic excretes for days. It did not take long enough for people to notice the need for rescue to these animals that people started to express their concerns over social media.

It all started with a call for help for the animals, who were displaced and left uncared, via a post in Facebook by Paty Tabas, a former Business Manager for a realty company,offering her farm lot in Tanay, Rizal. The post went viral and received a lot of messages of gratitude and help. From there, she began to receive messages from different animal welfare and rescue groups offering their rescues to her animal shelter, until then she named the initiative “The Happy Alpha Project” – which according to Paty Tabas “In this world, the Alphas exist, it’s a term used for dominance and depicts leadership. As humans we can exhibit our dominance and leadership by helping the animals in need.

We believe that we are used as instruments to rehome and rehabilitate these rescued animals and having said that, our goal is to transform them into Happy Alphas, in and out of the shelter”.

ComCo Southeast Asia, as an institution that supports different advocacies through its Citizen ComCo arm, extended help to “The Happy Alpha Project”. It did not take long enough for the Citizen ComCo the need for help of “The Happy Alpha Project” as it was taking a strong initiative to help not just the people in need in Batangas but also the animals longing for help. Citizen ComCo supported “The Happy Alpha Project” with cat and dog food, and monetary donation for the other needs of the rescued animals.

“When the Taal earthquake happened, we felt we have to do something to help. While this is a sad phase for our country, we are, in a way, happy to see a lot of people and institutions are reaching out to our affected brothers and sisters. There is less though for our beloved pets and animals, so we’ve decided to channel our efforts to them. Good thing, we learned about The Happy Alpha project, hence this opportunity for Citizen ComCo to help,” said ComCo SEA Regional Integration and Chief Executive Director Ferdinand Bondoy.

If you want to help, The Happy Alpha Project is still open for donations for the full recovery of the rescued animals. You may contact Citizen ComCo at commandcenter@comco-hq.com or through https://www.facebook.com/thehappyalphaproject/ and https://forms.gle/uAyve5EG3ofYDocz5.

Currently, the foundation of “The Happy Alpha Project” in Tanay, Rizal is housing more than 60 animals that includes Dogs, Cats, Ducks, and Goats and will be welcoming 300 more in the coming weeks. That being said, they are still raising funds to build more kennels to accommodate more animals that needed help.

Donations in-kind can be sent to their office in Quezon City (address is provided below), while cash donations can be sent via the following channels and accounts:

 

For In-kind donations:

6 Pele st. Filinvest 2, Brgy. Batasan Hills Quezon City

 

For cash donations:

BDO – Maria Patricia T. Tabas – 0023-4030-5434

BPI – Maria Kristina T. Tabas – 16-8909-1268

GCASH – 0977-820 -7078

Paypal – thehappyalpha@gmail.com