How we help

1 Region – 12 Challenges

Over time, our commitment has grown beyond our initial focus on animal health. We pursue holistic development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and in response to the many challenges we face, we advocate for a wide range of issues that positively impact the lives of East Africa’s rural population.

Animal Welfare

At the heart of our work is the welfare and protection of animals in our project countries. The pastoral livestock management we promote in our projects ensures a species-appropriate conditions for the farm animals.

The holistic approach of our work, with the aim of strengthening human and animal health and creating an intact environment, also includes improving animal welfare. Ensuring adequate medical care for the animals and optimizing feed hygiene and husbandry conditions not only ensure more economical and sustainable use of the animals, but also improve animal welfare. For example, the open pastoralist grazing system we promote also represents a species-appropriate form of animal husbandry that allows ruminants to behave and feed naturally, compared to many conventional livestock systems.

Furthermore, through the promotion of vaccinations and deworming, we make an important contribution to the health and well-being of stray and owned dogs and cats. One project that focuses on animal welfare in particular is one we are currently implementing in Somalia, which improves the living and working conditions of donkeys. Awareness raising and training on proper husbandry and use of donkeys as load carriers and means of transportation are an important part of our work on the ground.
Climate Change Adaptation

Extreme weather events such as droughts and severe floods are not uncommon in East Africa. As climatic conditions change, they are becoming increasingly frequent and prolonged.

They hit vulnerable rural populations particularly hard and usually result in the loss of livelihood and hunger.

Increasing the resilience and productivity of livestock through veterinary services and effective water and feed storage are important measures in preparing for droughts. In addition, sustainable management of resources plays a major role. This includes adapting pasture management to climatic change, rehabilitating rangelands after overuse and building management systems that enable disaster preparedness, management and “early recovery.”

In Ethiopia, for example, we are building the resilience of rural communities to such events and using targeted interventions to prevent hunger as a result of severe weather and drought.
Food Hygiene

For pastoralists, animal products are essential for their food- and income security. However, the conditions under which meat, milk and eggs are produced, processed and sold are unfortunately often not particularly hygienic. Foodborne infections are thus encouraged and shape a great threat to human health.

Measures to improve food hygiene are therefore incorporated into almost all of our projects. Even simple changes in the handling and processing of milk and meat, such as hygienic aluminum containers, hand washing facilities, knowledge and for example equipment for cheese and yogurt production or the consistent and hygienic disposal of slaughterhouse waste, have a major impact.

In one of our projects in Uganda, for example, we are making an important contribution to safeguarding the health of people in and around Kampala by promoting slaughter hygiene through the training of slaughter personnel.
Food Security

We support people in acute and chronic food insecurity. Conflicts, flight, natural disasters or animal diseases are often the cause of extreme poverty and malnutrition. Here we help the affected families by providing food or feed for their animals. After crisis, we are there to help with reconstruction.

More than half of our projects are so-called emergency aid projects. These often focus on combating or preventing hunger. Improving veterinary care is essential, as it keeps farm animals alive and increases their productivity. As a result, they provide more milk, eggs and/or meat, and thus are an important source of food and income.

Furthermore, we help families to improve the climate-resilience of agriculture and decrease the threat of animal and plant diseases and pest infestations, even in the long term, so that the mounting (climate-related) crises have less devastating effects, as in one of our projects in South Sudan.
Veterinary Medicine

Veterinary services such as vaccinations, deworming, feed management as well as treatment of sick animals form the focus of our projects. To ensure these services, the education and training of animal health workers is an important pillar of our work.

Community Animal Health Workers are selected by their communities and receive on-site training in disease detection and treatment. They are also provided with equipment including syringes and needles, vaccines and medicines. These include a heat-stable antibiotic, a dewormer, a remedy for sleeping sickness in cattle, powder for lice, eye ointment, wound oil and a remedy for ticks. The training enables them to treat animals in their communities and surrounding areas, support vaccination campaigns and report animal disease outbreaks.

For example, as part of our Vaccinate for Africa campaign, we conduct mass vaccinations of dogs and cats in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan against rabies.
Empowering Women

In East Africa, women are disadvantaged in many respects, because traditional role models and social structures limit their rights and freedoms. They often have no access to education or have learned only few basics and therefore have few opportunities to earn their own income and are thus dependent on male family members.

Empowering women is a core element of many of our projects. In particular, women are supported, their economic independence is strengthened and the transition to a more gender-equal society is promoted.

An essential pillar of women’s advancement is access to education. In some projects, therefore, women receive training in income-generating activities and basic business skills. It is particularly important to involve all community members in this process so that such social changes are supported by all.

In Sudan, for example, girls and women receive training and are supported in earning their own income. In addition, the project acts as a safe space where challenges and problems can be discussed. They receive information on gender-based violence, such as female genital mutilation and early marriage.
One Health

Healthy people. Healthy animals. Healthy environment.

One Health is a collaborative, multi-sectoral and transdisciplinary approach that addresses local, regional, national and global levels to achieve optimized outcomes of sustainable and holistic health and well-being for people, animals and their shared environment.

Holistic action is imperative to address the multifaceted nature of the tasks in our projects. People in East Africa live in strong dependence on their livestock and the integrity of the environment that surrounds them.

Typical challenges that we face per One Health approach are, for example, zoonoses, infectious diseases that can be transmitted reciprocally between animals and humans. But food safety, water and sanitation hygiene, or antibiotic resistance are also areas we address using the One Health approach.

In our One Health project in northern Kenya, we work with partner organizations to improve not only veterinary services but also medical care for pastoralists and, for example, to mitigate the effects of drought through more reliable weather forecasting.

Regular treatment of livestock is crucial to the health of those around them.
WASH

The pastoral way of life is adapted to living in water-scarce areas. Water scarcity is nevertheless one of the main challenges. In addition, hygiene and inadequate sanitation are other issues that primarily affect the health of people in East Africa.

Awareness campaigns and workshops aim to improve hygiene conditions in households, as well as food hygiene. Access to soap and washing facilities, as well as the imparting of knowledge on the hygienic handling of food, are aimed at preventing the transmission of infectious diseases. Infrastructural measures, in turn, make it possible to separate water points and sleeping areas for humans and animals.

Together with our partners, we build or rehabilitate wells and other water sources and provide training to ensure that the local population can maintain them independently, as in a project in Sudan, for example, where water sources are have been rehabilitaed to supply livestock and people.
Peacebuilding

Scarce natural resources, such as pasture and water as well as widespread poverty are major causes of violent conflict in East Africa. More frequent droughts and other climate-related disasters are increasingly worsening the situation for pastoralists. We are mitigating the potential for conflict.

In these cases, our measures in the areas of conservation, sustainable pasture management and the construction and maintenance of water sources are having a positive impact.

In addition, local administrative structures are strengthened or introduced, which contribute to the peaceful and sustainable management of, for example, wells or pastureland. In some cases, forums for exchange and negotiations are also established, where conflicts can be settled peacefully or mechanisms can be strengthened that aim to reduce or prevent conflict.

In South Sudan, for example, we are pursuing the reduction of violent conflict in one of our projects. As a cross-cutting issue, the promotion of peaceful coexistence is thus a frequent component of our projects.
Education

Building up or expanding people’s skills is an essential approach of our work. The aim is to enable people as well as authorities to solve challenges themselves – even after the project has ended. Through training courses, people are taught skills that can be used to cover basic needs and provide (more) income for their own families in the long term.

Often, funds generated in this way are invested in further economic ventures, but also used for medical services or the education of children. In addition to the usual occupations of pastoralists, new areas such as farming, sewing or running cookshops are introduced. If the activities are less dependent on the weather, they can be carried out even during drought, thus strengthening the resilience of the communities at the same time.

In one project in South Sudan, former child soldiers are the target group of our vocational training measures, giving them a new start in life.

Ehemalige Kindersoldat:innen machen eine Ausbildung als Näher*in.
Income Security

Few people in East Africa have a secure income. However, especially in exceptional situations, such as those caused by drought or flood, but also conflict and displacement, a secure source of income is the anchor for many families. We therefore support pastoralists in diversifying their sources of income in order to be able to farm more independently of unpredictable influences.

In addition to livestock, this can include taking up arable farming and vegetable production or, for example, fodder cultivation. Furthermore, we support families in developing other income opportunities besides farming, for example by providing further training in food processing or marketing. Securing income often requires investments in small businesses. Village savings groups, which we set up together with the farmers, are an important tool in this regard.

We are also working to improve the infrastructure in order to create a reliable economic environment for the development of small enterprises and business projects. One example here is the promotion of marketing opportunities for animals and other agricultural products, such as the establishment or improvement of local markets. In trade, we also support the securing of important cross-border trade chains, such as in a cross-border project between Kenya and Ethiopia.

© Henry Fuchs
Environmental Protection

We make an important contribution to protecting the environment in our project regions in East Africa and also to climate protection worldwide. We promote organic farming and extensive animal husbandry adapted to the ecological situation, improving biodiversity, safeguarding genetic diversity and preserving habitats for flora and fauna.

With improved pasture management, we make a particularly effective contribution to climate protection by increasing the carbon storage capacity of grasslands and pastures and binding climate gases in the soil. Good pasture management and organic farming also protect against flooding by significantly increasing the soil’s ability to store water.

In South Sudan, we have combined the issues of environmental protection and food security, and since 2016 have been leading a project in which communities in Gok County are learning to farm more resiliently and independently with more diverse and organic agriculture and livestock.

Why is One Health relevant?

The Earth is an interconnected ecosystem in which all living things, humans, animals and the environment interact. Most recently, avian flu, Ebola, and the COVID-19 pandemic showed us that diseases from the animal world threaten human existence. Likewise, we see how human activity disrupts nature in many ways: we threaten wildlife and plant habitat by ever-expanding land for agriculture and housing development. We are destabilizing our climate system and adverse weather phenomena such as droughts and severe weather are increasing. Species extinction is proceeding at an unprecedented rate of loss. Diversity is important because it has a major impact on the stability of natural ecosystems – such as clean water and air, or food.

Christian Griebenow, Managing Director, VSF Germany

„Many new diseases are emerging in livestock and wildlife. These diseases cause problems especially in areas where health systems are underdeveloped and there are no regular veterinary checks and surveillance. Disease control (i.e., pandemic prevention) using the One Health approach takes human, animal, and environmental health into consideration, and looks for the most efficient and safest way to detect the signs of disease in all three areas early and responds accordingly. (1/2)“

Christian Griebenow

Managing Director, VSF Germany

(Berlin, Germany)

„An effective and safe way to achieve this, following the One Health approach, is to monitor and where possible treat the animals to detect the root of a disease and control the incidence of infection. Unfortunately, this has not been successful in the emergence and spread of COVID-19. In the case of rift valley fever - a zoonosis with pandemic potential - we are working together with the International Livestock Research Institute and the Friedrich Loeffler Institute to explore the fundamentals of this disease and to understand this dangerous disease for both African and European countries and to combat it at its source. Because we all have understood at the latest since COVID 19: Pandemics know no borders! (2/2)“

Christian Griebenow

Managing Director, VSF Germany

(Berlin, Germany)

Do you want to find out more about our work?

Dr. Martin Barasa

Head of Programmes

Barasa@vsfg.org

How we help

1 Region – 12 Challenges

Animal Welfare

Climate Change Adaptation

Food Hygiene

Food Security

Veterinary Medicine

Empowering Women

One Health

WASH

Peacebuilding

Education

Income Security

Environmental Protection

Why is One Health relevant?

Do you want to find out more about our work?

Dr. Martin Barasa