About Us

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About Us

It took a doughty, animal loving Englishwoman called Crystal Rogers to forever change the world of Jaipur’s street animals.

About Us

It took a doughty, animal loving Englishwoman called Crystal Rogers to forever change the world of Jaipur’s street animals.

HELP IN SUFFERING is a registered Charitable Trust working as a veterinary hospital for all suffering street animals

We give medical treatment to dogs, cats, equines, camels, monkey, birds and more from our hospital compound located in Jaipur Rajasthan. Established in 1980, the Trust treats many thousands of street animals every year.
The hospital and shelter was founded by Miss Crystal Rogers aided by Mr. G.K. Tiwari and (late) Dr. T. Ramchandani.

The first shelter was located on land provided by H.H. Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, but a chance meeting with Mme. Janine Vogler, of Animaux Secours in France proved to be the key moment in the charity’s growth. Mme. Vogler raised the money to enable Miss Rogers to build a new shelter on an abandoned piece of land at Durgapura. Trees were planted and that once barren plot is today a verdant, eco-friendly space that houses and tends to thousands of ill and suffering animals.

We provide free, quality, emergency, medical and surgical care for street and domesticated animals that are ill or victims of traumatic injuries, abuse, starvation and/or abandonment by their owners. We can proudly claim many firsts, including our Animal Birth Control (ABC) & Rabies Control Programme, which has made the city largely rabies free; and our Camel welfare work in Jaipur and Bassi (rural Jaipur) to serve sick, injured and old camels, and other animals.

Our organization is run by a team of extremely dedicated staff whose compassion for animals is what drives them to strive harder — we have 55 staff members, including 7 veterinary surgeons, 19 veterinary assistants, 16 animal welfare caretakers, and managers and support staff. We have 7 rescue ambulances and 2 mobile clinic vehicles. All our animal welfare projects are conducted under the guidance of qualified vets and we have sound administrative procedures in place to ensure documentation, accounting and overall management. Our campus provides a serene, green and natural habitat for animals to support quick healing.

We are associated with Animaux Secours, France; Les Amis Suisses du Refuge de l’Espoir, Switzerland; Help in Suffering, UK; and Working for Animals, Australia. We are also affiliated with the Animal Welfare Board of India, Chennai and the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO).

Our Patrons

Janine Vogler

Patron for Life

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Christine Townend

Patron

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HIS Advisory Committee

General Surat Singh Sandhu

Chair, HIS Advisory Committee

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Managing Trustee

Timmie Kumar

Managing Trustee

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Meet Our Trustees

Dharmendar Kanwar

Trustee

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Shashwat Purohit

Trustee

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Simrat Sandhu

Trustee

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Meet Our Team

Help in Suffering was registered as a trust on 28 March 1980 (registration number: 93) as per the Indian Registration Act, 1908 and on 29 December 2010 (registration number: 195) as per the Rajasthan Public Trust Act, 1959. We are also registered under the Sections 12A (a) and 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as a charitable trust; FCRA to receive foreign funding for charitable work; “DARPAN” NITI Aayog; and for undertaking CSR activities (registration number: CSR00000841).

Janine Vogler
Patron for Life

Madame Janine Vogler of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France has been at the forefront of animal welfare for several decades in her role as President (1964–2020) and now as Patron of Animaux Secours, an NGO devoted to the protection of animals. Her association with Help in Suffering began in 1993 when she visited the shelter. Moved by the charisma and energy of our founder Crystal Rogers — a frail, old lady battling to “help suffering animals and all living things” in a crumbling barn — Madame Vogler donated all the money left from her travels in Rajasthan. She went back to France to fundraise for our first building and has remained one of our principal donors ever since.

Christine Townend
Patron

Australian animal rights activist, artist and author Christine Townend established Animal Liberation in 1976 and Animals Australia in 1980. A chance encounter with Janine Vogler brought her to Jaipur and Help in Suffering, which she took on as Managing Trustee in 1990 until 2007. Along with founding two other animal shelters in Kalimpong and Darjeeling, she also set up Working for Animals Inc. to raise funds for animal welfare in India. She does solo art shows to draw attention to animal issues and has written several books, including her memoir, A Life for Animals. In 2017, she was appointed Chair of the Animals Australia Board and, in 2019, awarded Order of Australia Medal for “service to animal welfare”.

General Surat Singh Sandhu
Chair, HIS Advisory Committee

After a very successful career in the Indian Army, Gen. Sandhu started a second career in the development sector as Director General of HelpAge India. He more than tripled its fundraising from Rs. 80 million to nearly Rs. 300 million a year. This prompted him to his next calling as a fundraiser. He was a fundraising consultant to Oxfam Great Britain in 2002-2003 and to various other national and international organizations. His passion, however, has been promoting philanthropy resulting in mutual benefits. He was a regular trainer at the UK-based Resource Alliance International Workshops on Resource Mobilization from 2005 to 2014, training fundraisers in Asia, Africa and Europe. He has been the Chair and Board Member of a number of NGOs, notably, Kusuma Foundation India; Resource Alliance India; Vice-Patron of Memorial Gates Trust in UK of which King Charles III was a patron; Wellness Trust Delhi 2010; and South Asian Fundraising Group, Delhi.

Recently, our Board of Trustees appointed General Surat Singh Sandhu, D.R. Mehta, Ajay Chopra, Sandeep Sethi and Shamini Shankar to the HIS Advisory Committee, all individuals of excellence in their fields. The committee benefits from our long-time friend and mentor Mr. Mehta’s invaluable expertise with charities and is chaired by Gen. Sandhu, who comes with a long experience helming Helpage India.

Timmie Kumar
Managing Trustee

Very passionate about animals from childhood, Timmie Kumar began as a volunteer with HIS before taking over as Managing Trustee in 2007. Under her leadership, HIS opened its second shelter in Bassi in April 2011 for the treatment of camels. Besides this, Jaipur is almost free of rabies since 2009 because of the Animal Birth Control (ABC) and Immunization Programme.

Dharmendar Kanwar
Trustee

A much-awarded travel writer, Dharmendar Kanwar has also done scripts for TV documentaries and contributed stories and photographs to almost all major magazines and newspapers. She is Convenor of the Jaipur Chapter of INTACH, and a member of various Rajasthan Government advisory and working committees on heritage, art and culture.

Shashwat Purohit
Trustee

With a BA, LLB (Hons) from National Law University, Jodhpur and LLM from University of New Hampshire, USA, Shashwat Purohit has worked with World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and World Health Organization as a consultant. A partner at Mindspright Legal, he advises clients on corporate, intellectual property and real estate laws.

Simrat Sandhu
Trustee

A committed environmentalist and wildlife enthusiast agitating against unlawful interference in wildlife sanctuaries and parks, Simrat Sandhu led the movement against the illegal translocation of tiger T24 from Ranthambore National Park to Udaipur Zoo. An RTI activist, she has been instrumental in helping NGOs to cut through red tape for various projects.