Volunteering

at Refugiul Maidanezilor

Your time as a gift

Being a volunteer means giving some of your time, of your wealth, of your strength, of your goodness, of your knoweledge to the less fortunate, to those who cannot defend themselves.

Any animal lover can volunteer - we actually also welcome those who have not yet befriended cats or puppies - there's a start for everything. They will learn from them tolerance, friendship, the joy of being among their peers. They will get to know the puppies and their stories; even if many of those stories are sad, with our help their life now will be better, as all puppies deserve.

Everyone will find something to do; "The shelter that saves souls" is really a big family where everyone works and, at the same time, they charge their batteries for the battles we fight every day.

We'll teach you everything we know and you will be richer and more at peace. To be a volunteer, to use your free time to make a difference, to take an action that will build into the life experience of a soul, cannot be compared to anything. It's just a deep joy, a joy you can't name.

What other volunteers say

The shelter that saves souls! A few years ago, the gates of Mona Semeniuc's shelter opened for me. A warm place, where strays find their salvation. Driven away by people, hit by cars, chased and humiliated, they find a place to receive a bit of food, water, comfort, love and care.

Every month, I find time to pay them a visit. They are very dear to me! Some find homes and leave, others stay. If more were to find adopters, the vacancies could be filled quickly with other souls in need. Somehow, every little animal sneaks into your soul. You end up feeling, a bit, as if they were yours. Because yes, the street orphans are ours, everyone's. What impresses me every time is their need to be loved. You go into the pens to clean or feed them and they beg, desperately, a bit of attention.

The shelter is beautiful, clean, full of trees and flowers. As a volunteer, you go through all kinds of feelings. There are days when their joy infects you, then there are days when you are sad that a pet has not yet found a family, days when you cry that one has fallen ill or that another has left this life. You charge yourself with positive energy from the puppies and you receive life lessons from the old ones. It is a beautiful world but full of questions and frustrations. That you can't do more, that no matter how many sacrifices you make, you can't save everyone, that for some your help comes too late.

And people like Mona Semeniuc, who put their lives in their service, will always have a special place in my soul.

Gabriela Grecu, volunteer

Mona's shelter is for me a place full of emotion, full of love and beautiful people. Your heart melts when you look at old people, who are just like old people. You take them in your arms and your soul is filled with tenderness. Your eyes laugh and your face lights up when you look at babies with 4 paws. You want the day to have 25 hours, to have time to caress all the citizens of the shelter, puppies and kittens. The soul of the shelter is Mona. You wonder where so much power comes from. Now in the shelter, between puppies, with treatments, with caresses. Now run to the office urgently. There I met wonderful people, Mona's volunteers. You smile when you see them, because they are like a big family, where you feel at home. Everyone knows what to do. Each is ready to help the other at every moment. No matter how tired you are there, you leave positively charged. Work, jokes, laughter, and sometimes sadness, emotions. Because it doesn't always turn out the way we'd like. Let the puppy be immortal. And cats. Whoever passes at least once through the Shelter that saves souls, remains with a strong imprint, which urges him to return again and again with Mona, volunteers, and with them, the beauty and goodness of the whole world.

Amalia Ghenciu, volunteer

When the road of life took me to the gate of the Shelter that saves souls, I told myself that nothing is accidental, I had to be there. I leave out all worries, all thoughts and I rejoice like a "paw" child. I meet beautiful and good people, shelter volunteers, whose hands caress and hug and have a soul full of love! If you want to meet them, come to the shelter. You will definitely come back!

Mona Ivan, doctor, volunteer

It is said that people who love animals do not love people.
Nothing more false.
When I first went to the shelter, I was overwhelmed by the reality there. I usually find out the story of a single puppy who was abandoned or thrown away, or beaten and left on the street, but here, in the middle of barking full of the stories of all the dogs, I was simply stuck.
The whole time I stayed and worked there, the most important lesson I received, the peak, has to do with people and not with puppies. In addition to the common goal that brings us together, that of caring for animals, the main goal is the connection that is created between all the people who have ever passed and who have left better, due to the warmth of those who hold this shelter.

Istvan Teglas, actor, volunteer

I arrived at the shelter that saves souls after the posts I saw, repeatedly, on the page of the wonderful Mrs. Nuami Dinescu. It was hard for me to convince myself to come, because the suffering of animals kills me for days. I have been a mother of furry children for as long as they have known me, and any of their troubles hurt me more than any of mine. But I arrived and I understood that every moving straw, every comfort and good word soothes a little the days of the puppies who received the right to a quieter life than before being in the shelter.
Coming here, I weaved tears of sadness and helplessness, for the most horrified of them, with the joy of discovering amazing women, capable of infinite love and altruism. We have seen how every puppy or kitten, from chick to old man, counts and receives, in addition to food and shelter, love. The one without which the life of any soul would have no meaning or purpose.
If I had children, I would shelter them to offer comfort to the puppies and, at the same time, to receive some of the most beautiful life lessons about: love, sacrifice, relief, joy, hope and determination. If at least 10% of the people of the planet were like Mrs. Mona Semeniuc and like the fabulous souls she gathered around her, in her image and likeness, we would live on a Corner of Heaven, not on Earth. I am grateful to God for allowing me to meet people who will not let me lose hope that there is goodness in the world.
Even if I haven't known you for a long time, ladies and gentlemen, I love you with all my heart and I bow to the goodness, love and beauty of the soul that shines through all your pores!

Gabriela Niculescu, journalist, volunteer

Souls in shelters, fields, streets… small, big, furry, crooked, smiling or just in one ear, chickens and many old women unwanted by anyone…
You can find everything and everything in Mrs. Mona Semeniuc's Maid Shelter.
It was the autumn of 2016 when, waiting to claim from Bragadiru a poor man captured from the block, I noticed a beautiful lady in the face and soul, carrying in her arms a 3 kg mother, with her baby…
That's how I met her, that's how I found out that there are places where nobody's people are loved!
Just by going to the shelter and becoming a permanent volunteer, I found out that they can transform you with their eyes, paws outstretched towards you, their way of "talking" to you, with wet noses and shy touches…
When one remembers the ancestral wolf, whose genes he still wears, and starts announcing with that unmistakable cry…
Something unique stirs your insides…
One, then three, ten, three hundred voices in unison…
It's as if time freezes and the light changes…
That's all you know: all for one and one for all!

Laura Ilie, nurse, volunteer

I accidentally found out about Mona Semeniuc and the Shelter that saves souls from Nuami Dinescu who told me one day about her passion to go on weekends to help souls bitten by puppies who were not lucky enough to have an OM of their own. So on a rainy winter Sunday, at her invitation, I accompanied her to Mona Semeniuc's shelter. What I found there was not a shock to me (I have the experience of volunteering at the shelter in Odăi Street) but what impressed me the most was the love it has for furs. First of all, I want to tell you that Mona is "the mother of old, sick and poor puppies", although I have also seen puppies with younger mothers or dogs who still have a chance to be adopted, most of them are seniors who can hardly hope for a court and a good man in their lives. I can't say much about the sacrifice that Mrs. Mona makes every day for years to take care of hundreds and hundreds of beings beaten by fate, I tried to put myself in her place to see what it is like, I think few people have this power to assume such a responsibility. And so that I don't get bored, I invite you to visit the "Shelter that saves souls" one day to know the sad story of the furs without a master but who finally found a "WONDERFUL MAN".

Victor Niculae, lawyer, volunteer

When you feel that you can no longer, that it is too much, it is enough to run to the Shelter that saves souls, of Mona's mother.
It is the place where hundreds of nobody's souls, tormented and forsaken souls that no one cares about anymore, but at the same time the most beautiful souls dressed in fur, have found peace: some have found their Man, others they are still waiting in the shelter and they receive you with all the joy they emanate from the tip of the mustache to the tip of the tails, others have found peace on a star, caressed to the end by the best hands and taking a drop with them out of love for those who step on the threshold of the shelter…
And then you go back to yours and you can…

Oana Veronica Ștefan, IT Engineer, volunteer

Answers to

Frequently asked questions

Who can volunteer?

Anyone. You can become a volunteer regardless of your job, financial means, status - it's all about feeling that you want to help, to "sacrifice" a few hours to give them attention, care, and love.

Minors can only participate accompanied by a parent or legal guardian.

What is the volunteer work schedule?

We don't impose any fixed schedule and we are grateful for every hour you can spare.

The tasks are assigned by mutual agreement, depending on the time available, the skill and preferences of each volunteer.

What does a volunteer have to do?

The “shelter that saves souls” is like the home of a large family, so there are a lot of things to do; from cleaning to administering medicines, from washing the pens to repairing a cage; from sweeping the yard to woodcutting; from clearing trees to clearing the sewer.

Play and dog petting breaks are mandatory 🙂

Can you provide a volunteering certificate?

Of course, the Association can issue a certificate, after performing 80 hours of volunteering, at any time during a single calendar year.