Hi, my name is Jaga. I am a translator, passionate equestrian and part time farmer. My family of four lives on a small farm in central Portugal, where my partner currently keeps 50 goats. Four horses, a donkey, and a couple of dogs and cats complete the picture.

On 15 August 2025 our farm was hit by one of the severe wildfires that have been consuming wide parts of the centre and north of Portugal since the beginning of August. The fire was so intense and the weather conditions so difficult that all it took was a change of the wind for all vegetation to be gone in less than an hour.

My family is safe and – nearly miraculously – the house, the goathouse and the animals were spared. Everything else burnt: all the pastures, the vegetable garden and the bee orchard which my partner has recently planted with such loving care. Nature will heal eventually and our land will be green again. With hard work and dedication, we will rebuild the fencing, plant new trees and start a new garden.

However, for now, the land cannot sustain our animals. We expect the pastures to revive with the autumn rain, but it will take until early next year for the pastures to recover enough so that the animals can feed on them. Thus, we will need straw and hay to feed them over the next few months. With the whole area so severely affected and the wildfires also ravaging Spain – on which Portugal relies so much for its straw and hay supplies – it will be extremely difficult and expensive to source feed for the animals.

So, with a heavy heart I ask for your help… If you could buy us a symbolic cup of coffee, it will warm our hearts and, collectively, help immensely with the cost of straw and hay for our flock of goats and our horses and donkey, and help us start rebuilding the fencing so that the horses and donkey can continue to live a peaceful life, roaming the farm as freely as possible.

Thank you.