How to examine a goat

PAHWs in Senoudom practise a physical exam with their goat.

Mentoring in full swing

With the dry season now in full swing, Veterinarian Anne Drew is again working with Primary Animal Health workers (PAHWs) to improve animal healthcare in Xaythany District. After playing a key role in a vaccination campaign against Haemorrhagic septicaemia (HS) at the end of last year, encouraging more farmers than before to vaccinate their cattle, the PAHWs are more motivated than ever to continue providing healthcare serivces. However, they still need a lot of training and support to learn about better disease prevention, treatment and livestock management.

Here Anne and Lampheuy discuss bloat treatments for cattle with the PAHWs in Senoudom village.

MoU Celebration

VWB/VSF and the Faculty of Agriculture, National University of Laos (NUOL) were happy to celebrate the signing of an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two institutions this September. This agreement recognises our mutual interest and commitment in working together over the coming years and is a key step in developing our activities to bring further benefits to the wider communities involved. Other key partners in the project include the District Agriculture and Forestry Office, the Health Department and local farmers and the Women’s Union.

Community spirit for health

This month saw the launch of our first Community Health Day, which will take place in 10 more villages. These events aim to promote the services of PAHW volunteers by introducing them to their community, are an occasion for children and adults to learn about community health and hygiene whilst having fun, and are also raising awareness about this year’s national cattle vaccination campaign on 11 November (focused on haemorrhagic septicaemia). The organisers are also excited about preparing dances, songs and traditional games.

The Community Health Day in Sen Oudom village was held on 14^th September. Introductory speeches were given by Dr Sompanh, the Faculty of Agriculture Vice-dean, the Village Chief, and by the 3 PAHWs. It provided an opportunity to introduce the PAHWs to their neighbours and increase the community’s understanding of their role in disease prevention and animal treatment.

The District Department of Health, as well as the Water and Environment Resources Office, both provided entertaining and informative sessions including games and talks on waste management, pollution, household hygiene, bio-security, as well as tips for preventing dengue fever, currently rife in the area. The day ended with fun and engaging health videos which both children and parents enjoyed. More Community Health Days are planned throughout September and October, making these a couple of busy but exciting months for the project team in the lead up to the harvesting season and annual dragon boat festival.

Refresher training and worms in a chicken

Post-mortems, vaccination and disease prevention were order of the day at this month’s Refresher Training. After mentoring visits over the summer, the Refresher Training for Primary Animal Heatlh Workers (PAHWs) was an opportunity to bring everyone together to share their experiences so far.

The workshop used learner-centred methods to ensure participants were actively involved and felt responsible for their own learning. Small group discussions were held on most topics, while games were injected throughout to maintain energy levels and review learning. We also did focus group discussions to assess the effectiveness of posters on disease diagnosis and treatment. The highlight of the workshop was by all accounts the post mortem exam led by NUOL and DAFO staff. The group discovered that compared to ducks, the chickens examined had a high proportion of intestinal parasites, including ascaris, tapeworm and cecal worm. This was an eye-opener about the importance of de-worming, and reflects the scavenging behaviours of local chickens.

At the end of each day of the workshop, the PAHWs gave feedback on the day and mentors deliberated on how to adapt the agenda. The mood barometer showed increasingly positive results with most of the PAHWs happy about their continued learning. The workshop also served as a launch pad for the upcoming Community Health Days, which we will recount in September!

Training of Trainers

Left-to-right: Sonia, Malavanh, Taffese, Daovy, Blanaid

This week we completed the Training of Trainers in preparation for our second PAHW training workshop. The Ecohealth team met with colleagues from the District Agriculture and Forestry Office, the University’s Faculty of Agriculture, and Environment, as well as the District health clinic, some of whom have been training and mentoring the PAHWs over the past six months.

Kolakoth and Daovy playing the balloon game

The objective of this 3-day workshop was to strengthen the mentors’ capacity in participatory learning techniques, to develop the content for the PAHW training and to brainstorm ideas for the Community Health Days that are being planned for this autumn. Participatory learning is particularly important in this context where the purpose of the work is to improve villagers’ practical skills. It also recognizes that the learners already possess a great deal of knowledge and allows them to exchange this information with the trainers and each other. The training emphasized how important it is for discussions and presentations to be interactive, and for participants to have fun! Everybody got their heart beat racing while playing the balloon game on the first day. As well as being a chance to play and laugh together, this was a lesson in cooperation and communication skills.

Chicken post mortem

Left-to-right: Tongtem (DAFO), Keo (DAFO), Taffese (VSF), Dehtaloon (NUOL)

The trainers also learned some new practical skills through Taffese’s laboratory session on “How to do a post mortem examination”. The trainers were very interested to enhance their diagnostic skills and are eager to pass this knowledge onto the PAHWs.

Loving (work-)life in Laos

The centre of Nabong Campus

Now that the field interviews are wrapping up, the team here at Nabong is moving into a planning phase and things are much quieter than during my last update. Taffese and I are preparing the next training workshop for the Primary Animal Health Workers (PAHWs). This will involve refreshing some of the information from the initial training in February and building on this through hands-on practical sessions and interactive discussions.

Over the past few days Taffese has been called out to the field to see a number of disease cases. From goats with wound infections to diarrhea in piglets he’s been providing assistance to the PAHWs. One particularly interesting case was an adult bull whose owner noticed the tongue hanging out and he seemed to be unable to eat. When Taffese went to see it there was pus-like green discharge coming from the mouth and his neck was swollen. He appeared thin and dehydrated from being off feed. While they were unable to get a good look inside, Taffese suspected that there was some sort of foreign body caught in the mouth or throat that was causing infection. He recommended that the bull be put down for humane reasons. Hopefully we will be conducting a post-mortem exam to fully understand the disease process.

Taffese's patient

While Taffese is out getting his hands dirty, I’ve been in the office creating some educational materials that the PAHWs can use during training and as a reference for their practice. It’s really important that we provide tools that will help them to continue learning long after we’re gone. Not quite as glamourous as wrestling buffalo like Taffese but rewarding all the same!

The most striking thing about my experience here is that despite the more laid-back lifestyle in Laos, time is really flying by! I’m almost halfway through my practicum and it still feels like I’ve just landed. I have to admit that I was nervous about being away for 3 months but this is such a beautiful country filled with beautiful people that I think it will be difficult to make the transition back to grad student life in Guelph.

Our home on campus