The Team


With very little money to go round Argos relies heavily on the support of its staff and volunteers to keep running. From behind the scenes admin and fund raising work to
 "up all night" foster parenting and of course the daily clean up. We couldn't survive without a team of dedicated animal lovers with one aim in common - to improve the lives of the animals in our care. If you have time to spare and would like to join the Argos family give us a call.
stella
 ritsa

       Stella

      Ritsa

      Alexis
Stella, a founder member of The Cyprus Voice for Animals established Argos back in 2007 after realising the desperate need for a charity to protect the abused, abandoned and unwanted animals of Cyprus. From humble beginnings Stella has seen the sanctuary struggle and grow into what it is today. Her dream of a safe place for these animals was supported by friend and fellow animal lover Ritsa. Stella works 24/7 answering the cries for help from the public who always turn to her in cases of local animal abuse. Stellas work can be as varied as attending government meetings, over seeing work at the Argos charity shops, answering endless mail and phone calls and yet she still finds time to get involved with the day to day cleaning of the sanctuary along with the regular volunteers. Stella's husband Andreas once questioned the amount of time she spent dealing with animals, he now shares her passion for it..it was certainly a case of " If you cant beat them join them!"
 Joint founder of Argos and also a founder member of the CVA Ritsa shared Stella's dream of a safe place for the abandoned animals of Cyprus and has been actively involved with Argos since its very beginnings. As well as helping with the general day to day running and cleaning of the sanctuary Ritsa also rescues many dogs from the poor conditions of local pounds.
Ritsa has also been appointed by the Cyprus Government to investigate cruelty cases. 		One of the founding members of Argos and continues to be an active committee member.  Alexis is a graduate of the American Academy Cyprus , studied Law at Middlesex University in U.K. and is now a practicing lawyer in Larnaca.  One of his great loves is music, which he has studied from the age of eight and plays both the guitar and the piano. He is passionate about all animals but his favourites are cats. He advises Argos on legal matters and also makes all the Argos videos.
    nicos sandy

        Andreas

        Nicos

        Sandy
Andreas is Secretary to the Argos committee. He is a retired supervisor of the Cyprus Electricity Authority. He is an active member at the shelter keeping equipment in good working order, buying various supplies and parts for all machinery and making sure that the old Argos truck is a safe vehicle. Nicos works tirelessly to raise funds for Argos. Particularly successful has been  the sponsorship program on our website which primarily helps some of our more difficult to home animals such as those with disabilities. Nicos is also working with a team of supporters to educate school children in the work of Argos and in animal welfare in general. Nicos too has a home full of rescue animals now totalling 9 dogs!
Sandy has been a loyal volunteer at Argos since it opened its gates helping amongst other things as cat area volunteer, volunteer co-ordinator, home check co-ordinator and fund raiser. Now heading up our hugely successful collaboration with German Charity HundeLiebe, Sandy has to date helped to send over 150 dogs to new homes in Germany.  As well as organizing the paper work, sending details and photos of our dogs to the German website and airport runs Sandy gets hands-on with the bathing and grooming of the dogs before travel making sure that all our dogs meet their new owners looking their very best.  Sandy and Phil have 2 dogs of their own, pointer Rhea and ex Argos dog Tito as well as 3 beautiful cats, Bart, Homer and Boots.
Ray George

    Phil

    Ray

    George
Phil started working at the sanctuary as a way of actually getting to see something of his wife Sandy who is actively involved with Argos! Now volunteering Phil has helped with building the majority of the buildings at the sanctuary and also helped in the plans so that the area runs at its most efficient. Phil has been known on more than one occassion to return from his hobby of "hashing" with yet another rescue animal in tow. Ray helps to take care of over 160 dogs at the sanctuary. This work involves not only the daily clean up and feeding of the dogs but also the registering of new arrivals.  Rays amazing memory  means that he remembers the names of every single dog at the sanctuary even though many of them look very similar. To our dog team every dog is unique in both appearance and personality. Along with Ray George is in charge of the dog area . As well as the cleaning and feeding , duties include the registration of new dogs and keeping neutering and vaccinations up to date.
jana alison Jo

    Jana

    Alison

    Jo
Our "nurse" Jana as we know her is a regular volunteer at the sanctuary and is called on to deal with any day to day medical issues in the cat area. As a trained nurse Jana's duties include giving injections when needed, fostering sickly cats and kittens and helping to keep medical records up to date. With a small "sanctuay" of her own in her very own garden Jana shares her life not only with her husband and baby but with 4 dogs and 4 cats as well as many fish and birds. Jana shares her love of animals with her sister in law Inga another regular volunteer in the cat area.

Being in charge of our cat area means that Alison has responsibility for over 150 cats. From tiny kittens to elderly and disabled cats Alison's duties amongest other things include an awful lot of cleaning, registering new cats, administering medications and helping new owners to find the perfect cat for their homes. In her first year at the sanctuary Alison is familiarising herself with the names and personalities of all the cats and learning the hard way which are not so friendly as the far too frequent scratches show. Previously a biologist, Alison has an eye for detail and a thoroghness that is tested daily at the sanctuary.

A regular volunteer in the cat area, Jo also co-ordinates the registering and vaccinating of the cats and most recently is working with a German charity sending cats to new and better lives with German families. Jo is also responsible for the content of our website making sure that the information on adoptions and forth coming events are always current. Jo has 3 rescue cats of her own Frenchie, Finch and Ashleigh.
tracey colin inga

    Tracey

    Colin

    Inga

Tracey who helps out in the cat area says she loves the welcome she gets when she walks through the gate, there are so many cats to say hello to that it takes her 10 minutes before she speaks to Alison! She is currently on a mission trying to get the more reserved cats to come out of their shell and is finally getting somewhere with the beautiful Duchess and Mr Jinx. She says if Argos ever opened a swap shop she would consider swapping her husband for a dozen cats!

 Colin has an inffinity with our paralysed dog Pearl and spends a great deal of time giving her the one to one attention that she loves. Colin also helps out with taking the photographs that you see on the website, quite a task when your faced with some very lively dogs and dogs that often wont sit still for the camera. Inga also gets involved with the health of our many cats and fearlessly tackles the many cats who often put up quite a fight when it comes to taking tablets. Like Jana, Inga and her family also share their home with rescued animals.
sue barbara angela

    Sue

    Barbara

    Angela
Foster mum Sue has taken care of several orphaned puppies helping them to get over a very difficult start. She also helps to socialise many of our dogs that are travelling to Germany, ensuring that they arrive in their new homes equipped with all the social skills they need to fit into their new homes. Barbara is a regular volunteer in the cat area and has fostered many kittens, nursing them often through the night from sickly beginnings into healthy kittens. Along with husband Jim, Barbara shares her house with several rescued animals of their own. Angela helps out regularly in the cat area. She has a particular bond with Nodia a cat whose various health problems are still somewhat of a mystery to us. She is however determined not to give up on her and takes care of the regular treatment that Nodia needs.
jim janet maria

    Jim

    Janet

    Maria
Builder Jim is never short of work. Having been responsible for a vast amount of building and planning at the sanctuary Jim has helped to turn a barren piece of land into the impressive sanctuary that it is today, complete with cattery, 8 large dog runs, 3 puppy runs, 14 holding pens, a quaratine area and boarding kennels. Jim and his wife and volunteer Barbara have several animals of their own at home. Janet recently moved to Cyprus from Norway where she had already heard about Argos. On previous visits to Cyprus she had often visited the shelter and donated generously. Now a permanent resident along with her four Cairn Terriers, she has become a weekly volunteer helping out with feeding of the dogs and general chores. Janet is a professional dog trainer, educated at Oslo Hundeskole in Norway and has worked for several years training people and dogs, mostly puppy and young dog classes so we are very lucky to have her on board. Maria is another helper who takes foster dogs into her home and prepares them for their future lives.
Maria is also a regular volunteer in the cat area.


    Alison & Tony

     Ernesta

    Anne-Mari
Alison and Tony are new volunteers in the dog area of the sanctuary. Having recently taken early retirement and moved to Cyprus they were looking for some "occupational therapy" as they called it and have found just that by helping to clean the dog runs at the weekends. Tough work but both say they are finding working with the animals very rewarding. Ernesta is an active committee member who originates from Lithuania. She has studied business economics at Middlesex University in U.K, has studied computer design in her native Lithuania and is a whiz on computers. Ernesta speaks her native Lithuanian, Russian, English and currently studying Greek and understands Polish. Currently works as a hotel receptionist during the summer months. She attended a native Lithuanian dancing school and has attended extra-curriculum classes for event organising.  She loves all animals but is drawn mostly to Cats and dogs. Ernesta volunteers at the cat shelter on a regular basis. Anne-Mari lives in Kirkenes, Norway where she is an active member in many animal welfare organizations.  She has been visiting Cyprus every year since 2006, and in 2009 she found out about Argos, in an effort to learn about the animal shelters in Cyprus and the animal situation in general. In 2011 she visited Argos in order to take there a rescued kitten. From there on, she became a strong Argos’ supporter. Now she is acting as our ‘Scandinavian Liaison’, she maintains the Facebook Scandinavian group ‘Support Argos’ in Norwegian where she creates awareness and runs different fund raising campaigns. She also maintains a very active sponsorship program for the Argos cats and dogs.
Anne-Mari works in the area of health care, and her job is to assist people with special needs. Sometimes she even takes some of her animals with her at work, and the patients like it very much! She has two dogs – Isac and Zaro, and 3 cats, Odin, Lucas & Snorre. Her dream is one day to be able to adopt animals from Argos! To show that Argos is in her heart she has a tattoo on her arm in Greek saying “All animals deserve to be treated with respect and love”