Training the Trainers in Tanzania
The provision of veterinary aid in Tanzania was for many years part of the government’s responsibilities. In recent years, economic reforms have lead to the opening up of the sector to private investment, as government assistance withdraws. Private veterinary practice is emerging slowly in the absence of government help but this is taking place, for the most part, in urban and peri-urban areas. As a result of this privatisation, the provision of veterinary services in remote villages and scarcely populated areas has collapsed. This has hit rural people hard who had to continue earning a living from their farms, even in the absence of veterinary aid.
Bóthar, along with its project partners Volunteers in Veterinary Assistance (VIVA) and Heifer Tanzania, responded to the needs of farmers throughout this east African country and established an Animal Health training programme.
This project aims to train 90 people, from 100 different communities in north eastern Tanzania, in how to attend to basic animal health in their localities. These people will be livestock keepers themselves and will be nominated by their community to receive the training. The training programme includes
- Effective disease control at grassroots
- Disease surveillance and reporting,
- Diagnosing and treating common animal ailments,
- Correct dispensing of drugs,
- Referral to private/public veterinarians and paraprofessionals,
- Record keeping
They will be provided with veterinary kits and trained how to administer medicine and to correctly diagnose and treat common animal illnesses.
It is important that this system is affordable for farmers and self-sustaining after outside funding ceases. For a period of two years after the training takes place, ongoing support and monitoring of the project will take place to ensure the sustainable uptake of the project, with refresher trainings being provided as appropriate. Professional veterinarians will also provide some back up service post-training for the communities.
A central fund will be established to pay for medicine and supplies and bicycles will be provided so that the animal health workers can deliver their services to even the most remote farmers.
This is not the first project of its kind in Tanzania as Bóthar’s partner here, Heifer Tanzania, has been working in the country since 1973 and has already successfully trained over 300 animal health workers in neighbouring communities. The reach of this project is also wide, as there are an estimated 100,000 people in the 100 villages involved in this project.
