Do you have an interest in humanitarian animal medicine? Veterinarians Without Borders may be the perfect opportunity for you!
Veterinarians Without Borders (Vétérinaires Sans Frontières) is an international organization dedicated to sustainably improve animal health and husbandry in underserved areas through education, veterinary service, enterprise development, and enhanced trade. The organization has provided services in 17 countries, and has aided in providing treatment and vaccinations to over 150,000 animals. The agency also has a desire to promote food safety and nutritional security through veterinary care and knowledge.
Some of the services that the organization provides include community meetings, training locals on animal health care, delivering vaccinations, helping to form co-ops, and teaching people about food production, nutrition, husbandry, and disease control.
Through the program CAHWS (Community Animal Health Workers), the organization empowers locals with an aptitude for animal care to perform basic veterinary tasks. This program greatly benefits underserved communities in that many of the countries where they work, there are very few veterinarians and even if there were more vets available most farmers would not be able to afford their services, resulting in CAHWS filling in the gap and being able to notice emergence of new outbreaks early on.
In Ukraine, Veterinarians Without Borders has partnered with animal humanitarian agencies to provide basic needs to 700 animal shelters and 1200 drop off-locations where citizens are seeking safe shelter with their pets.
If working with an organization like Veterinarians Without Borders sounds like something you would be interested in, email volunteer@vetswithoutborders.ca about available opportunities to volunteer!