26 years, 78 countries, 5 external offices and a team of 500+ employees. And all this was achieved to make people and pets happier. As COLLAR Company’s mission says. We have much to be proud about, but still have some way to go yet. Our social projects take a special place in Company’s life. So how did they go and how we changed the world for better in 2021 you can find in this article.

Canine-assisted therapy is one of our social projects which is held in Chernihiv and Kyiv. Such therapy is one of the rehabilitation methods with specially trained dogs. It has been 10 years since Company started to conduct such classes. Canine-assisted therapy takes place in Chernihiv Rehabilitation Center ‘Vidrodzhennia’ for children with disabilities. It is remarkable that parents arrive from all over Ukraine with their kids to visit this center. That way, in 2021 500 sessions were conducted by our favorite Lilu. A dog trainer and psychologist cooperate and work together to help children with autism and cerebral palsy to interact better with the world. In particular, all sessions are free of charge.

Since 2021 together with our partners, Nestle Purina, we have taken care of children who attend canine-assisted therapy classes at Fairy Tales Canine Therapy Center in Kyiv. Marina Prokopenko, a founder and dog trainer, works on an individual basis with families who have dogs in order to make processes of rehabilitation and socialization more efficient. The sense of touch and contact with the dog are key factors during such therapy. It certainly highlighted, hugging and stroking a pet have benefits and impact on the emotional state of parents and children. Since June Fairy Tales has conducted 48 classes for children with Dawn syndrome and cerebral palsy. As it happened, canine-assisted therapy made children more sociable, disciplined and organized.

As Yurii Sinitsa, a founder of The COLLAR Company, states: “Canine-assisted therapy may seem to be a complex work with challenged kids. But when you are inside the process with such a cool dog as Lilu is, everything goes completely different. Therefore, I’m convinced that Company will always have canine-assisted therapy dogs. And it makes me extremely happy. In fact, our initiatives make the world a better place”.

An immensely important factor is that we continued our cooperation with a charitable foundation, shelters and assisted with pet adoptions in 2021. On a monthly basis we transfer funds to Happy Paw, a charity fund for homeless cats and dogs, so they can buy and deliver 1 500 portions of pet food to the Best Friends Shelter in Makariv. The great news is that 18 000 portions of pet food were donated last year.

Once again, the COLLAR Company tries its best to help every pet from the shelter, who has found a new home. We donate Waudog pet accessories with ID tags for dogs and Supercat wood filler for cats. To sum up 2021, 313 pets were adopted from the largest shelter in Ukraine which is called Sirius and found their families, including 173 dogs and 140 cats. 95 animals from the Best Friends shelter were adopted by new owners, 71 dogs and 24 cats among them. Fair enough, such numbers inspire us, ignite our enthusiasm and get our Company be noticed for the right reasons.

The Sports Complex ‘Chernihiv-Arena’ is an important social project aimed at developing children and youth sports in Chernihiv. In fact, 250 children were able to play football last year in comfortable conditions, after all, this sports complex is one of the best facilities of its type in our country. Anyone can play football at this complex, use the artificial turf, modern locker rooms and parking facilities. Anatolii Dudchik, a director of Chernihiv-Arena, said 9 groups of children of different ages played football in 2021. The youngest group of children (aged 4) deserves special recognition, it includes 26 players at the moment. Another group of children (aged 6) even took part in a football tournament in Kyiv and showed great promise.

With the continued development of our social projects, we will share the future results with you. Follow us to be inspired!