Becoming an official NGO or not for profit organisation – Part 2.
 

Part one highlighted the trials and tribulations of obtaining court approval for our application. So after the 2 year  wait for the court hearing, the result, advertised in one local newspaper and one Athens paper meant that we were issued with our number. 850/9-9-2011.

Little did we know the further challenges ahead.

We have to obtain a tax number for Walk with Donkey Sanctuary and a bank account, so that all dealings would be in the organisation’s name.

Obviously an accountant would be needed for this work and that’s when the troubles started.

During the legal process I asked our solicitor if he could recommend a good accountant. Remembering that he does not come from Ierapetra, he replied that he could not as they were all useless. Thinking this was an exaggeration, I assumed we would be alright.

We were  given advice by Vocal and PAWS, but their applications were made in the Agios Nikolaos tax office and by accountants based there. We have to apply to our local town Ierapetra.

Accountant 1.

Firstly we talked to the accountant who prepares our personal tax returns. After studying the papers she advised that we should not proceed with this because if we submitted our tax return late we would be fined! We said that we did not intend to submit our papers late so that was not a problem. After some thought over a period of days she said in the end she did not want to do it

She recommended another firm, so I went to see them.

Accountant 2.

They thought that there was no problem but they would speak to the tax office. So after a period of days waiting I went back – no we can’t do this, was the answer.

 We asked Cretan friends from Ierapetra if they could recommend anyone – No!

We spoke to friends with organizations if they knew anyone, but the problem is that there is still a closed shop situation and we must use someone in Ierapetra.

Accountant 3.

We spoke to the Notary who handled our house purchase and with whom we are friends; she phoned someone who said they could do it and came highly recommended. Another meeting –they said ‘you should have done this before as the tax office could fine you. “Yes I know’ I said, but have been trying to arrange this for months. Leave it with us – you’ve guessed, after a further delay – we can’t do it.

Accountant 4.

Recommended by a German friend. Good meeting, ‘yes I will sort this out no problem.’ Further meetings, no progress, no answers to telephone calls or e-mails – nothing new here.

Thankfully our solicitor told us never to leave an original document with anyone so that we did not have the bother of retrieving them.

I am now working on this process with friends, because I was told that you can actually do this without an accountant. The first thing I discover is that the court document confirming our registration and number is out of date and needs to be renewed. This happening because of all the time spent waiting for the accountants to deal with the matter. A visit to KEP, which is the equivalent of the UK Citizens Advice Bureau proved useful.” OK, no problem to renew this form we shall order a new one and telephone when it is ready - 7 Euros please.” Said the lady in the KEP office.

Before the process started  I had spoken to our Bank to ensure that we would have the correct documents to open an account, their solicitors provided us with a list to make it simple.

If any of these accountants had agreed to do the work we would expect to pay for the services given. Our accounts have also to be audited professionally for which we would expect to pay.

If in these troubled times I see accountants complaining about lack of business, I will not be very sympathetic.

Because of this delay we had to forfeit a 5000 euro grant because we did not have a bank account in the charity name.

We will get there!

There must be people who are regular followers or those who visit our website once or a few times who may wonder about our status in terms of being official and registered. Well we live in Greece, so matters are not as simple as you would expect, and we had been warned by friends who have gone through the same process.

When we first had George (our first donkey in 2005) we had no thoughts that from this humble beginning we would be considering and indeed becoming a registered organization in Greece. But as time passed and more donkeys arrived it became obvious that we needed to progress, to give ourselves the protection of a Non Government Organisation which would also mean that potential supporters were more certain of our status.

So we embarked on the process by finding a solicitor, we were lucky. We found Prodromos Satsanis, who is from North Greece but now works in Ierapetra. He was happy to prepare our paperwork and see it through the court process for €500 which was the court and advertising costs only, so he was working for free.

So the submission, in Greek Katatastiko, was prepared and submitted to the court which is about an hours drive away.

To present the necessary paperwork you must have signatures of 21 people who approve of what you are doing and some want to be part of the 5 person management committee. You must set out your aims and objectives, quite a complex document.

 Then we were given a date for the court hearing, which happily we did not have to attend. During this period while Greece was trying to sort out its problems and over a period of 2 years we had 5 separate dates for the hearing. We could not believe that judges went on strike. Court staff went on strike and lawyers were forced to strike when told to by the courts.

Finally a date arrived without a strike predicted but there was a chance that they would strike at some part of the day.  Prodromos as ever attended but said that the courts were striking that day. They did at 12 noon but our hearing was 20 minutes before that.

So ‘walk with donkeys sanctuary’  number 850/9-9-2011 was formed.

Cause for celebration – you would think so, but  could it be so simple!

PART 2 TO FOLLOW SOON

This winter we have had more rain than we have experienced since we lived here, and the local people also say they have never known a winter like it. 

So we were very happy to see the sun rise over the village yesterday morning and see the blossom on the almond trees. Maybe spring is in the air?

Our first stop in the morning is to visit the horses, they live in a field higher than the village. They have a flat field and a very big shelter. Sections of their field have turned into small lakes! but the horses don't seem to mind the wet, and Echo the white mare often prefers to stand in the rain rather than her shelter

Young Ully, approximately 9 months old is careful how he moves around on the wet ground

And then a short drive down the mountain to the donkey sanctuary. Here it is much warmer and most of the donkeys are outside enjoying the feel of the sun on their backs. However Mackie and Myrto (best friends forever) have asked to take breakfast inside their shelter

We share our tiny house with 3 cats and 3 dogs - we are always falling over somebody, especially the young Shelly Kitten whose game it is to try to trip us up!

Ben, is a birman cat who travelled from the UK with us 7 years ago. The others are all waifs and strays that have begged us to take them in.

The other two cats - puddy and Shelly were dumped in exactly the same spot by our donkey sanctuary about 8 months apart.

All animals have been neutered care of the local organisations 

Timmy dog was the only remaining puppy left close to our sanctuary - the other pups were removed and thrown away somewhere. His mother is Mia

Wiggy we found under a tree crying when she was a couple of months old

Teddy we found under a rubbish bin

We never had any intention of keeping dogs at the sanctuary because we do not have the facilities (kennels) or any funding or help with cost of feeding. But of course it is impossible to refuse ones that arrive on the doorstep!

We now have 7 dogs, 4 live in the village with us, 3 in the house and one on the terrace. They travel every day in the car with us to the horses field and to the sanctuary where they have a great time playing with the other dogs.

The dogs that live at the sanctuary are:' Mia - left at a neighbours shed to have her puppies - all but one of the pups disappeared.

Doozy, a beautiful hunting dog - we actually saw the car that dumped him but were not quick enough to get the number plate.

Lucy - the latest dog to live with us - she was born to another neighbours barrel dog last summer, her 2 siblings are tied up but she is free and now lives with us.

We do not have kennels but the dogs like to live amongst the hay, in the shelter.

Thanks to the  help of other organizations in the area we have been able to neuter all our dogs.