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Five municipalities in the Girne region have collectively organised cleaning up of the roadside and central reservation on the 24km route between Gönyeli roundabout and Alsancak roundabout.
With the approval of the Presidency, the environment clean-up and environmental protection project “Think Clean”, for the roadside and central reservation clean-up work has been completed on the 24km route between Gönyeli roundabout and Alsancak roundabout. Girne, Dikmen, Alsancak, Lapta and Esentepe Municipalities contributed to the campaign. Within the scope of the project, each municipality cleaned the grass alongside the road including the central reservation of the road of 4km length and collected garbage. Girne Municipality cleaning branch teams cleaned the part between St Hilarion Crossroad and Onar Village which is the main road entrance to Girne city under the responsibility of highways.
Güngördü: The problem is not cleaning, but pollution
Girne Mayor Nidai Güngördü said that he is happy to cooperate with the Presidential Office and the Girne Region municipalities within the scope of the Think Clean Project. In order to ensure that the route most frequently used by tourists is clean. Güngördü stated that cleaning was done on the main road extending from the Nicosia junction to the Alsancak junction in the framework of the suggestions made by the Municipalities in order to clean the route that the tourists use the most, and said that the Girne Municipality would cooperate with the other Municipalities. Pointing out that they aimed to raise awareness in society, Güngördü added that the original idea is to teach not to pollute and to educate the citizens not to pollute the environment.
By Sarah Garsed and Ralph Kratzer
Silver Rocks restaurant Lapta
The 19th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of The Foreign Residents in the TRNC (TFR) – an association of expats from 27 different nations, living permanently or temporarily in North Cyprus – was held on Saturday, 29th October 2016, like the years before at the Silver Rocks Restaurant in Lapta, and was attended by more than 120 members.
Heinz Nauroth, Chairman of the association, opened the meeting at 11.35 am and welcomed all TFR-members present.
Sarah Garsed was nominated as being the Meeting Secretary and Robin Melhuish as the Meeting Chairman for the day.
First of all the Chairman welcomed the members present and asked for a minute of silence for the deceased members of the TFR in the past year.
After that the quorum of the assembly was determined by the Meeting Chairman.
As this AGM had to elect a new Committee for the next period of office the Meeting Chairman explained the method of voting in the beginning.
At the request of Tommy Rognmo, Committee member of the club, the first resolution for this meeting was accepted, namely not to allow proxy votes for this upcoming election, because it was not written in the constitution. The majority of the AGM-participants followed this resolution by showing of hands.
In his Chairman´s report Heinz Nauroth explained the improvement within the association since he took over responsibility more than 10 years ago. He then thanked the Board members for their work and declared his resignation for health reasons.
The Meeting Chairman thanked Mr. Nauroth and suggested that he become a lifetime Honorable Chairman of the TFR, which was agreed by the AGM unanimously.
The Chairman´s report was followed by the reports of the Deputy Chairman Willy Lindh and the Secretary Ralph Kratzer. The Treasurer Horst Gutowski informed the audience in short about the financial status of the association. Further reports followed by the Committee members Tommy Rognmo about the last year´s work of the Cemetery Subcommittee, Pamela Tschersich and Richard Bradley about social club life and events of last year. Carolyn Patterson, head of the Advisory Health Team, also reported about her work in the past period…..
The auditors´report, delivered by Lynn Hartill and Petra Wendt, was read out by the Meeting Chairman: Both auditors had checked the book-keeping of the Treasurer and had found no problems.
The proposal of an AGM-participant that the future reports of the Board members should be published to the members of TFR in written form before the AGM was agreed by the participants of the meeting.
A resolution of the member Seppo Leino, which reached the Committee before the AGM, was read out by the Meeting Chairman. The suggestion that the period of office of the TFR-Committee should be reduced to one year instead of two years was rejected unanimously.
The second point in this resolution which demanded a more detailed definition in terms of the 2 posts in the Board called „members for special tasks“ was declared as already sorted.
The election of the new Committee followed. Before that the new candidates showed their faces to the audience, as there were Seppo Leino, Toon Hansen and Richard Bradley for the Deputy Chairman position and Jan Gustafsson for the post of the Events Manager. Another candidate for Deputy Chairman, Merlyn Abreo, unfortunately couldn´t attend the meeting for personal reasons.
Due to an application of a member which reached the Committee before the AGM, that the voting should be done as a secret ballot, voting papers were distributed to the attending members, filled out and handed back to the Meeting Chairman.
After counting all votes, the result was read out by Mr. Melhuish as follows:
Out of 123 ballot papers there were
120 votes for Willy Lindh as Chairman
122 votes for Ralph Kratzer as Secretary
122 votes for Horst Gutowski as Treasurer
77 votes for Pamela Tschersich as Events Manager
116 votes for Carolyn Patterson as Social Tasks and Health Advice Manager
95 votes for Tommy Rognmo as Leader of the Cemetery Subcommittee.
As none of the 4 candidates for Deputy Chairman could get a simple majority, a second ballot was necessary to decide between the 2 first ranked candidates. The result was that a majority of the members present voted for Toon Hansen as the new Deputy Chairman.
The members voted at the end of the AGM unanimously for James Patterson and Henri Veekman becoming the new auditors for the following period of office.
After the official end of the meeting most of the participants stayed for lunch and a relaxed chat in the Silver Rocks restaurant.
By Kim Betts……
The Road back to Lapta
It is always nice to pass on good news and none more so than Good News about Roxy. She has been recovering well at the vets and everyone who meets her is taken by her wonderful trusting nature. KAR had put out a plea for a short term home foster carer for Roxy – to help her recover even more. We had several responses and were considering which would be the better option for Roxy and the Fosterer when we received another email about Roxy ………..this is part of that email …….
“Hi Kim
……..she is such a loving, beautiful dog and our two children have fallen in love with her, in fact we all have. She has made a huge impact on us and would love to give her a second chance in life by offering her a permanent home with us.
I understand that she still has problems with her walking and bones and that she will require further vet checkups and whatever else is needed in terms of rehabilitation and being checked over again in 10 days time and the vet has said he will give as much information and details on this tomorrow.
I just want to say a huge thank you for everything you have done for Roxy. It has been so emotional and without your help and the fantastic work you do at KAR and all the work that the vet and his team have provided, Roxy is now almost back to full health and without this she wouldn’t be here today. You really are lifesaver—-s and should be proud of all you have done. I have written this with tears in my eyes as it’s been like watching a miracle happening right in front of our eyes. We are eternally grateful.
Thank you so much, it is really appreciated.
Kind regards,
Emma “
We had always hoped, throughout Roxy’s story that Emma would home her as she had obviously, since first contacting us, been deeply upset by her ordeal. So we were delighted with this email and arrangements were made for Roxy to be collected by Emma.
Roxy has been at home, back in Lapta, for a few days with Emma and she has sent us these photos and update ;
“She is settling in really well in her new home here with us. She is so affectionate and wants to follow us everywhere, she seems so happy her tail never stops wagging! She is definitely getting a lot stronger on her legs and is walking around much better than before, she even tried to run this morning when she was in the garden. I think it will be a long while before she actually can run but she certainly tries and is a very determined little girl”.
It is hard to believe that this is the same dog that we were called out to help – Love is a wonderful thing and Roxy’s pictures alone show that without a doubt.
There have been so many people who have been touched by Roxy’s sad story and KAR wants to thank all of the wonderful people who offered help or have helped Roxy on her Rocky Road to Recovery – THANKYOU
And a great big THANK YOU goes to Emma and her family for offering Roxy a 2nd chance.
By Kim Betts – Kyrenia Animal Rescue…….
Yesterday 20th October I went to see how Roxy was doing – she is still at the vets following her ordeal.
What a surprise I got when she tottered out of her kennel into the garden. Yes she is still painfully thin, Yes she still has marks from the wound, Yes she is still having issues with her back legs but what a change. Her coat is as soft as silk and is beginning to shine, she has put on weight, her tails wags a lot BUT it is in her eyes that you can see the biggest difference – there is not just a spark or glimmer in them NOW they are truly sparkling – Roxy is Happy. The changes in her face can be seen just by these 3 photos ….
Speaking with the vet he is now not sure that she will need to see the orthopedic vet. He says that there has been a marked improvement in her legs during the last week as she has gained strength. He is hopeful that as her strength continues to improve so too will the weaknesses in her legs and that more improvement over the next 10 days will confirm that.
By Kim Betts…….
Kyrenia Animal Rescue……..
We are so pleased to report that Roxy is rallying but she is certainly not out of the woods yet.
Roxy remains at the vets receiving treatment and she is, as you can see from her photo, looking better – albeit still very far from well.
She has put on some weight and her leg wound is healing nicely after being treated with antibiotics.
However it has been noticed that she does appear to have a problem with her walking. After discussions with the vet it is thought that this could be a problem with her knees. She is now going to examined by a vet who is more experienced in orthopaedic conditions in animals and we will all anxiously await his report.
At least she is comfortable, is receiving treatment, and is with kind people who are caring for her – but it is not a foregone conclusion that it will be a positive outcome for Roxy.
Roxy’s road is still a winding one and we do not yet know where it will take her.
Cyprusscene are very conscious of the plight of street animals and we are publishing a series of 3 articles regarding a dog which was found in a terrible condition and near death and the care it has been receiving.
By Kim Betts…….
Kyrenia Animal Rescue …….
In the KAR Office we become used to dealing with all sorts of calls from members of the public – a kitten found, barking dogs, road traffic accidents, calls from worried tourists and the usual calls of complaint (but rarely calls of thanks!). But the most distressing for us to cope with are the cases of neglect and/or cruelty.
We received a call recently from a worried lady, Emma, in Lapta about an abandoned dog in an unused building. We could tell from what she was saying that it was going to be an upsetting case but at the time of her call we had no one in the Lapta area that could go around to see the dog. We advised Emma to contact immediately the Beledeyesi and Police as sometimes they will have a vehicle in the vicinity. During the interim period our Community Warden (Yulian) came back into the Girne area and we asked him to go straight over to Lapta. Meanwhile Lapta police called us to say that they had seen some photos of the dog and believed it was already dead but if not then it would be very soon and they had no one close either. A distraught Emma was with the Police and was so relieved when we explained that help was already on the way – but even she was not sure if the dog was still alive.
The dog had been in the unused building for a couple of days and Emma had already been to a local vet for help but was told just to give the dog food and water – Emma could see that the dog needed more, much more, than just food and water. It was so weak that it was not able to eat and was struggling to even drink. It was quite obvious that despite the distressing circumstances a bond had been struck between Emma and the dog – who she had nicknamed Roxy. We asked Emma to send the photos into the office so that we could set up a case file. It was quite clear, once the photos arrived, that Roxy had not wandered into the building on her own – someone had put her there. She could barely walk initially but this very quickly deteriorated to barely being able to move.
Yulian arrived back at the office with Roxy – we had to carry out an initial assessment before she was taken up to the vet. As you can see she was in a terrible state and we really feared for the outcome. During the assessment we could see (and smell) that she had at least one physical wound, an open wound on her leg which was badly infected, she had eye infections, was seriously dehydrated and emaciated. She was covered in flies and could barely lift her head – but when she did just slightly there was a glimmer of a spark in her eye – maybe there was hope – maybe she could rally!
It doesn’t matter how much time is spent dealing with day to day issues and cases at Kyrenia Animal Rescue nothing prepares us for these sorts of cases. However sad each case is we deal with it in the best way that we can. And however sad, cruel or sickening we always try and find a positive side or it all becomes too depressing for us. Sometimes it is not possible to find that elusive “positiveness” and we all go home very tearful, heavy hearted and with sad bad memories. Maybe the positive aspects of Roxy’s case is the hope that we have all got to her just in the nick of time – also that despite the terrible treatment she had endured she still had enough trust in people, for a tiny sparkle in her eye and a very very slight wag of her tail. Another positive is that there are many caring people in the TRNC, such as Emma, that will go out of their way to help an animal in distress.
Roxy is currently at a local vet where she is receiving treatment and, although she is not out of danger yet, she is responding. We will be updating Roxy’s story when we can – whatever the outcome. But we all have our fingers crossed that Roxy WILL Rally.
