‘Our projects always have gender equity as a focus’

Mike has been involved with Vets Without Borders Ireland since 2004 and it has taken him on some wonderful adventures where he has put his professional experience and pig-health expertise to important use in various parts of the world. But his story begins in west Limerick where his upbringing was partly influential in the direction his professional life would take – that, and a particular TV show. He explains: “I grew up on a dairy farm in west Limerick, so it was an interest in animals, seeing our local vets at work, and watching All Creatures Great and Small, which was huge at the time, that initially sparked my curiosity.” Later, he says, the variety of work, meeting farmers and the problem-solving element cemented his attraction to the job.

Mike started working with pigs, he says, in 1997 and it led to his introduction to Vets Without Borders when its founder, the late Brendan Mimnagh, reached out to him. “Brendan asked me to travel with him to Malawi to deliver a pig-husbandry course to new pig farmers on a livestock project there," Mike says. He continues: "This was my first time in Africa, so it was incredibly interesting and as we were working in very rural areas, I was seeing a side of the continent that tourists never see. 

“Visiting these projects, what I found inspiring was how the gift of a cow or pig to a rural family could transform their lives. A cow provided not only milk for the household but fertiliser for the vegetable patch, a calf for sale that generated income and, in some cases, farmers had mini-biogas plants which provided gas for basic lighting and cooking. As a vet, seeing how important it was that these livestock were healthy and how challenging this was in these regions made me more determined to get more involved, so here I am more than 20 years later.”

Goat farms in Nepal

More recently, Vets Without Borders Ireland has been working with goat farmers in Nepal’s Kaski District. Mike tells us a little about that: “Due to the very small size of their holdings – they have, on average, four goats per farm – and socio-economic constraints, there are deficiencies in how these goats are bred, fed, and housed. They have poor market access, often selling their surplus goats to middlemen at low prices. Veterinary services in these rural areas are almost non-existent.”

Vets Without Borders Ireland partnered with the Animal Health Training and Consultancy Service (AHTCS), which is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation established to enhance the living conditions of marginalised communities there. Together, both organisations are working to empower farmers there to be more self-reliant. Mike explains what that means: “Self-reliance looks like a farmer who has a working knowledge of the good husbandry practices of goat keeping, who is aware of the nutritional and welfare requirements of his animals, and who has a community animal health worker, or ‘village vet’ as they are often called, available locally for advice and essential veterinary care.”

Empowering women

The organisation is also involved in empowering women through goat farming in Bangladesh “Earlier this year we collaborated with Vets Without Borders Sweden in training 20 marginalised and unemployed women in basic goat keeping practices to enable them to create a backyard goat enterprise that would generate an income. At the end of the course they were each provided with a female goat and the group shared two buck goats for breeding," Mike explains.

This year has been designated International Year of the Woman Farmer by the United Nations, and it is this type of project that really champions the role of women in farming and helps to break down the significant challenges they face. Mike explains: “Women produce 60-80 per cent of the food consumed locally, in low-to-middle-income countries, but own less than 20 per cent of the world’s agricultural land and have limited access to irrigation, tools, credit, and other services. Our projects, like the intervention in Bangladesh, always have gender equity as a focus to try to address this imbalance. In addition, many studies have shown that when women’s incomes rise, a very large share is reinvested in their families’ health, nutrition, and education so targeting women in these countries gives a better return in development terms.”

Vétérinaires Sans Frontières

Vets Without Borders Ireland is a member of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières (VSF) International, which enables it to collaborate, share expertise, and extend the scope of its good work. 

Mike comments: "We are a small organisation compared to some of the other members of the network so being part of this alliance allows us to access their experience and expertise to help us grow. It also allows us to collaborate on projects with other members of the network and this sharing of our resources allows us to make a more effective use of our funds. At present, we are working with VSF Sweden in Bangladesh and VSF Netherlands in Malawi and we hope to develop these relationships over the coming years."

Part two of this interview will feature in the October issue of Irish Farmers Monthly.