I Found Waldo in Australia

Sasha Gusain has lofty goals for helping animal rescues in Australia.

Original article by S. Veigel 08/27/2018

Photos provided by Sasha Gusain.

Australia is 2.97 million square miles (2,485 miles/4,000 kilometers across) left by itself in the ocean when Pangea broke apart and the continents spread out around the globe. Along with this land mass creatures you won’t find anywhere else in the world were also isolated. You can explore the Great Barrier Reef in the east, come ashore to enjoy the modern cities with a rich cultural heritage and drive out into a vast desert of red soil and low brush called the Outback. The Outback where, among many things, you might be surprised to find huge crocks covered in dried mud hibernating as they wait for the rains to bring back the river. Large tandem trucks and their rugged drivers sometimes travel 4,349 miles (7,000 kilometers) down paved coastal roads and up through dirt roads that can bog a truck down in the rainy season, past brush fires springing up at random, to bring goods to remote areas of this island continent.

In August of 2018 I was happy to receive an email from Sasha Gusain of Sydney Australia. She thought I might be interested in an article she wrote on her blog page titled “Your guide to adopting a shelter dog” posted on her website waldosfriends.org. As a Guest Article submitted to my website it would have been a great idea. It was a good article. But it’s not really ethical or helpful in the world of the internet to just link to other peoples’ articles. I also noticed that she was a startup that began in 2017 and that she was selling t-shirts. For one thing it’s a pretty common fundraising method. For another thing I can’t just become a switchboard referring my readers to products. But as I was trying to find a nice way to decline the offer something got my curiosity going.

The idea behind Sasha’s effort to sell t-shirts and tote bags was to create a charity that could help animal rescues nationwide in Australia. That’s a pretty lofty goal. Having seen charities come and go I wondered what she brought to the table. And with each email inquiry I began to think maybe Australia (and others) should buy one of her products.

Sasha Gusain tells me she had 15 years in tech with e-commerce experience and worked for a design software company in Sydney called Canva. After fostering two sick three month old cats for a vet friend she adopted one she named Salsa and then went looking for a dog who could get along with the cat. Eventually she adopted a cattle dog mix from a shelter in Queensland she named Waldo but not before she had explored many of Australia’s rescue shelters and started to realize how hard it was to keep no-kill efforts going.

So as I tried to learn something about Australia I had to ask a question I wasn’t sure Sasha could answer. “How would you characterize rescues in Australia?” I wrote. I was thinking that the people in the Land Down Under just might have a unique perspective and challenges I was trying to get a feel for. On the other hand I thought I might just be asking a dumb question but Sasha didn’t disappoint.

In response to my query Sasha wrote back, “Animal rescue in Australia is no different from any other country with a thriving breeding industry – people buy animals they can’t train, don’t neuter and then abandon (in Sydney, we see a lot of animals abandoned because people move to rented homes where landlords don’t allow pets). It’s a sad state of affairs. Many rescues also come from farm working dogs and horses who are not neutered.” Included in this email Sasha writes, “To answer your question about someone like me (with a professional background in ecommerce) starting a project to support animal rescue: I feel this is a common thread for a lot of professionals who are giving up their day jobs to work in the sustainability and animal rights fields.”

There are many people with a passion for helping animal rescues. God bless them. But what brings me to unexpectedly write about Sasha and Waldo’s Friends is the marriage of passion and know how. So, before you say, “Oh, it’s a startup selling T-Shirts” let me step back a moment and let Sasha tell you what she’s doing.

“… over Oct to Dec 2017, I couldn’t get the animal rescue folks out of my mind. By December I realized I could use my digital marketing and ecommerce skills to drive fundraising for shelters. And over the Christmas – New Year break I got talking with a couple of designers and a merchandise producer to develop a small inventory to sell for fundraising. I must add that environmentally ethical production is important to me, so I took some time to understand how I could produce my t-shirts and tote bags with like-minded manufacturers. This took me about three months, and by April 2018, I was able to start work on the website with product shots and designs.” “I am developing a rescue shelter search engine – much like yours – in order to direct people towards each shelter’s action page. In the near future, I plan to partner with different shelters to produce ethically sourced goods that we can sell to raise more funds. I would very much like to help more rescues – and would like to direct efforts especially for no-kill shelters that have emergency response services, as these are crucial and often low on funds. I also plan to work more with regional shelters – across the world – as they’re often overlooked because of their distance.” “…I have committed to paying 10% of each retail (not just profit) price to a shelter that’s rebuilding its home here in Sydney. All funds raised will go toward this effort for Sydney Dogs and Cats Home  and I’ve already established a relationship with their fundraising lead.”

The items sold at Waldosfriends.org are fair trade with generic prints. They don’t just represent a particular rescue. Personally I think you should buy the t-Shirts and fund raising products from the particular rescue you support and I also think you should buy Waldos’ Friends products. Because Waldos’ Friends represents the very heart and spirit of all animal rescue efforts. You can wear a Waldos’ Friends t-shirt and use it as a conversation starter for your particular rescue.

As for the startup aspect? Though a new website can make people hesitant I believe that Sasha not only has the passion, she’s out getting business done and people are joining her in the effort. The website has a nice feel and I wouldn’t sell her short. As a matter of fact, thinking about how this got my curiosity up in the beginning, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years she hadn’t turned Waldos’ Friends into a national movement.

If people catch on that she’s there and buy a fundraising product a national effort could happen. And I know she will use the lion share of incoming finances to actually help those rescues.

How Did That Work Out?

A Post Article Follow Up – June 2019

Since I wrote this article just this past October 2018 Sasha has not disappointed me. Already her website started producing quality listings for Australian animal rescues and I learned that there was a Dingo Rescue. I found that interesting. And that’s not all. I’ve been following her website progress and Sasha and I became casual pen pals by which I learned that her and her husband Prashant were very active people doing a good deal of travel. A good sign they were highly motivated. Just last week (end of June 2019) I received some place holder designs Sasha wanted to share with me. This is a new addition to her website that involves helping to coordinate fosters for rescues in Australia. As Sasha describes it, “a web platform that helps connect animal rescue shelters with pre-vetted/qualified foster carers”.

To put together a foster coordinating section of her already expanding website Sasha is working in Sydney and has teamed up with a designer named Jodi English in Melbourne, a programmer named Luke Rollans in Perth and a copywriter named Mimi Tiu in Manila.

I knew there was something special about your spirit Sasha. Your parents should be proud of you. You’re a long way from just selling T-Shirts and I’m now you’re biggest fan. Just remember, I’m predicting an Australian national effort. No pressure.