Help a chicken farmer, help a country. That’s the idea behind a development project that has already taken several Guelph veterinary students to rural Tanzania, including this past summer. Now organizers hope to ramp up efforts to improve livelihoods among even more subsistence farmers in the East African country.
Under the project run by Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires sans frontières-Canada (VWB), U of G veterinary students have worked with chicken farmers scattered around Rungwe district in southwestern Tanzania. “We want to connect more of these villages together,” says Adam Little, who is helping to co-ordinate student visits overseas while completing the final year of his DVM.
Farmers there lack capacity and resources, he says, but “a properly managed poultry industry in these communities is achievable and valuable because it provides a consistent source of revenue. In addition, the outcomes of human, animal and environmental health are increasingly linked, and the veterinary profession is optimally poised to address these concerns.”
For more, read the article in At Guelph.