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Visit by GACI In December 2009,
two ladies who help run GACI, Elisa and
Lilly, came to meet GIN at Wraysbury.
GACI is a greyhound homing group
based in Modena, North Italy, finding
homes for greyhounds from Ireland and
galgos from Spain, which GIN finances.
In 2009, GIN organised the delivery of
68 galgos to GACI, for homes in Italy
and Slovenia. GIN paid veterinary and
sterilisation costs of £9400 for these
galgos and contributed a further £2100
towards the transport bills for getting the galgos to Modena.
The meeting was needed to help both sides understand how the two
organisations worked and to see if we could work together more closely in
future. We discussed liaison problems with some of the Spanish refuges and
transport difficulties when moving galgos from Spain. Several areas of
interest were identified-GACI would like to import greyhounds from an English
trainer, and GIN would be pleased to get involved if this were practicable-
GACI produces a marvellous calendar, which might be adapted in 2010 for GIN
to sell in UK.
Elisa is a graphic designer by profession and
produces GACIs magazine. This was much
admired and we will investigate whether some of
this design and printing expertise could help
GIN. Lilly speaks excellent English, Elisa slightly
worse, but their linguistic skills were far better
than the GIN management team, whose only
Italian is a few operatic phrases. The meeting
lasted productively to lunch time, when we were
joined by Monica Monti, GINs London-based
Italian volunteer, who helped balance the
nationalities more evenly.
It is always nice to meet face-to-face with people who have worked with GIN
for several years. Both sides enjoyed the discussions and the increased
knowledge of what the two organisations do, will lead to even more galgos being
happily homed. Geoffrey
Geoffrey with Elisa and Lilly
from GACI at GIN HQ
Elisa welcoming another
galgo from Albacete