NOW in its 20th year, Vetaid, a Scots based charity, continues to support the lives of subsidence farmers and pastoralists in sub Saharan Africa The latest group of volunteers told their story this week to members of the Cameron Travel Trust who had sponsored their trip through Vetaid to Tanzania.
The team of five young Scottish students saw for themselves the lives of the Maasai people whose wealth is determined by the number of cattle they own.
Philip Everitt, a student at SAC Auchencruive, said this aspect of an economy based almost enAtirely on livestock underlined how important animal health was in these areas.
Since its inception by three Edinburgh post-graduate students in 1989, Vetaid has grown into an organisation which now helps the lives of over a million people in East Africa.
Currently, with a staff of 40, it works in Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. Its £1.5 million annual funding comes from a number of sources including grants from the EU and the Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Its work includes animal health training and distributing and restocking livestock. It also helps to promote land rights and improving access to water.
Professor Hugh Reid, of the Moredun Research Institute, where Vetaid is based said that a great deal of the work carried out at Moredun on animal health and diseases was very relevant to areas such as Tanzania.
The Cameron Trust was established two years ago by former NFU Scotland president, John Cameron and his wife Margaret. Its aim is to encourage young people to travel abroad in order to see the issues and problems faced by other societies.
So far the trust has given grants of over £50,000 and has helped more than 40 students. It is open to anyone under the age of 26 and Margaret Cameron said she was "slightly disappointed" in the lack of numbers coming forward from the agricultural sector.
Source: the scotsman
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