Guide Dogs Sponsors

Below is a communication the Malta Guide Dog Foundation kindly asked us to make our members aware of:

May I introduce myself, My name is Ron. Colombo and I am the Chairperson of the Malta Guide Dogs Foundation.

The Malta Guide Dogs Foundation is a fully registered NGO with the Voluntary Organizations Commission. Our object is to produce and provide trained guide dogs for the Maltese Blind and partially sighted community. A guide dog gives the blind person complete independence both at work and play, something unheard of in Malta, until we started our work.

We have been in existence for 4 years and during this time we have made considerable progress. Briefly, There are now four guide dogs in service with Maltese blind and partially sighted persons, two of whom have full time jobs.  A fifth trained guide dog, sponsored by the Dorloc Trust, will be arriving late this year.

We are involved with an awareness campaign and already, with very few exceptions, our guide dogs are allowed in shops, supermarkets, restaurants, and public transport.

We are in the second year of a partially funded course in mobility and orientation  for guide dog trainers, which will enable us to give our clients local training and follow up, both of which are essential. We are also planning to extend this to a Mobility and Orientation service for the blind community in general, a vital step in their rehabilitation process which is sadly lacking in Malta.

Clearly, all the above activity is very expensive, for example, a trained guide dog, which we give to our clients free of charge, costs a minimum of €12,000. We are even responsible for vet expenses and sometimes, in needy cases, we even plan to make a contribution towards the dog's food. At the moment, we are acutely short of funds and sponsorship is essential if we are to continue to make, and hopefully, increase our progress.

I think you will agree that this is a "going concern" and there will be lots to show how sponsors' money is being spent. Finally, quite apart from the "social conscience aspect, for this type of sponsorship, guide dogs are very visible and your logo, on the dogs' harnesses should give your organisation some useful publicity.

I look forward to hearing from any organization interested in sponsoring us. Apart from our email address, my contact details are: Landline 2133 9014 and Mobile 9924 6573.

Ron. Colombo.