The strategic goals of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) include eliminating hunger, food security and malnutrition. The FAO also cares for agriculture, helps increase resilience to a crisis and aids those suffering from rural poverty. One of their most recent success stories is mobile veterinary clinics, which does incorporate these objectives.
In 2016, Haiti experienced Hurricane Matthew. This violent storm resulted in the country’s largest humanitarian emergency since an earthquake that happened in 2010. The Category 4 hurricane caused extensive flooding, mudslides, damage to infrastructure and severe water shortages. A 2016 report from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs determined that the hurricane affected 2.1 million people, with 1.4 million people in need of aid and 806,000 people left food insecure.
Food insecurity can be directly linked to one of the most devastating effects of the storm. This effect is the incident of thousands of livestock being killed. Many of Haiti’s inhabitants rely on livestock – mainly cows – for not only food but also a large source of income. Even more troubling was the amount of livestock that did survive but suffered sickness and injury that could not be treated.
Veterinary assistance in Haiti is very costly and heavily out of reach. The FAO saw an opportunity and took the stage as the first United Nations agency to set up mobile veterinary clinics. The FAO operates these clinics by traveling to storm-affected areas and providing adequate treatment to livestock that have suffered the effects of the storm. Education is also incorporated into the equation and is of high importance. The FAO trains local veterinary assistants on proper care and technique for caring for the affected animals. Kits are also provided to Haiti’s citizens so that treatment can continue when the mobile vets have left the region. Antibiotics, deworming medication, multivitamins and other equipment have all been provided to assist Haiti, while helping the FAO reach their strategic goals.
The accomplishments of the FAO’s mobile veterinary clinics include a rise in milk production, the development of six mobile clinics and, most importantly, the hope that these clinics have given those in the Haitian community. So far, mobile vet clinics have helped an estimated 12,000 people rebuild their lives by treating their much relied-on livestock after a severe storm. If the FAO continues this project and develops even more mobile veterinary clinics, it is probable that more Haitians will be able to restart their lives in a better place after natural disasters in the future.
– Emilee Wessel
Photo: Flickr