<div>My name is Chiara, and for the past 4 years I have dedicated my life to running Riza Animal Sanctuary in Portugal — a forever home for rescued farmed animals who had nowhere else to go.
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<div>We currently care for 60 animals: sheep, goats, pigs, donkeys, chickens , cats and dogs. Animals who were exploited, abandoned, or born into a system that saw them as products. Here, they are family.
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<div>We bought a new land and we need to move as soon as possible. And we need your help to do it.
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<div>Why we're moving:
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<div>Our current land it has a massive inclination and it becomes dangerous during the rain season. The mud makes it unsafe for the animals , the slippery muddy conditions put them at real risk.
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<div>We tried many things to solve this problem until was clear there was nothing else to do, so we bought new land — almost 3 hectares, six times the space our animals have now. Room to run, graze, and finally live the life they deserve.
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<div>And it's not just the animals already with us. We also have 2 cows, 1 horse, and 1 pig who are currently being hosted elsewhere, waiting for the new land to be ready so they can finally join the sanctuary.
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<div>The problem:
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<div>To make the new land habitable for the animals by the end of June, we need to build:
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<div>~ 8 shelters — wooden structures with proper roofing and insulation
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<div>~ 8 wooden gates
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<div>~ Facilities for our volunteers — a compost toilet and shower
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<div>~ build or buy a storage unit for hay and grains.
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<div>We need at least €10,000 to make this happen.
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<div>We purchased the land through a mortgage — the only way we could afford it was to buy a property with a house on it, since agricultural land doesn't qualify for a mortgage. We are already committed to 25 years of repayments.
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<div>If we don't raise this money in time, we will need to take out another loan. For a small sanctuary running on donations and volunteer work, that risk could be devastating.
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<div>What your donation means:
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<div>Every euro goes directly into building materials and construction. Not admin. Not salaries. Straight into the land.
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<div>€10 buys timber for a shelter wall
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<div>€50 contributes to a full gate
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<div>€200 helps build a complete shelter
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<div>€500 funds an entire structure from ground to roof
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<div>No amount is too small. Every contribution brings 60 animals — and the ones waiting to come home — one step closer to safety.
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<div>Who we are:
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<div>Riza Animal Sanctuary was founded in 2019 and since 2022 it's been entirely run by volunteers. No salaries. No big organisation behind us. Just a group of people who fell in love with a bunch of animals and couldn't walk away.
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<div>We look after 60 animals. Sixty. Sheep, goats, pigs, donkey, chickens , cats and dogs— each one with a name, a personality, and a story
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<div>Like Reed, the lamb we bottle fed through the night for weeks. He slept in our bed. We didn't sleep much. Or Øfi, a overweight pig who spent 4 years alone in an apartment and now runs through grass every morning like he can't quite believe it's real. There's Petunia, an elderly sheep who was exploited her whole life ( 13 years) and now just eats alfalfa kissed by the sun. Luna, a young pig who was heading to slaughter at 7 months old, saved because of her arthritis — the thing that made her "useless" to the industry brought her straight to us. And Merlin, a bottle-fed kid goat with brain damage who is somehow, against all odds, doing just fine and stealing everyone's hearts.
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<div>This is our family. And right now our family needs a home.
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Bem Dita Terapia - Sandra Cruz

Rasa Serbuka

João Rodrigues

Anonymous

Rebecca Kijima

Ligia Coutinho

Maartje van Leeuwen

Daniela Kindler-Kramer

Joana Antunes

Savanah England

Emilia Leese

Joao Araujo

Robin Natale

Margarida Ferreira

Franka Rein

S.E. Fraire Willemoes

Help us build a safe home for 60 rescued animals

Help us build a safe home for 60 rescued animals

Still €4,236 to go. Help us build momentum.