Gareth, from England, spent a month at LIFE this summer 2025. He fabulously gave us his carpentry skills and most admirably of all passed on needed carpentry skills to some of our local Roma workforce.
During his stay Gareth put up with exhausting heat, pesky flies and slept surrounded by barking dogs in our small volunteers caravan or when the heat became insufferable camped uncomfortably in our tack tunnel at the Haven . But stalwart trooper that he is, everyday he was up early at work replacing bad gates with good ones and making fencing more secure and then. Gareth’s masterpiece was designing and building a super luxury dog house for 5 dogs funded by an amazing friend of our Haven dogs. Throughout all of his time he taught as well, his constant willing and increasingly able helper being dear old deaf Dyado who more and more took pride in what he found he could do with a little expert guidance.
As Gareth himself said : Give a man a fish....'
Dyado is now taking what he's learned into all the mending jobs he does at LIFE. Just recently after Bernie bullock broke a bridge over a drainage ditch and Lucy requested a replacement, in less than 40 minutes a neat little replacement was there and Dyado ushering me over it to reach my caravan...
Thank you very much Gareth for volunteering at LIFE your wonderful personality, carpentry skills and leaving LIFE with the gift of a local man with improved basic carpentry skills who's now passing them onto his sons who also work at LIFE…
LIFE welcomes energetic and self-motivated volunteers to work on site in Bulgaria. Jobs and hours vary by the season but can include:
Helping administer medical treatment to dogs, cats and horses
Giving loving attention, including walks and grooming, to rescued dogs
Exercising horses, (if the volunteer has the required skills)
Assisting with Outreach Work in local communities
Serving as a general support to Lucy in her daily duties
If you feel you would like to volunteer please Contact us for further details.