Those of you who visit the Facebookpage of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium regularly have probably noticed already that a camera crew was working in Karamoja, Uganda. They were shooting scenes for the VTMKzoom-show “Beestig!”. The unique – and often hilarious – sequences will be broadcast by VTMKzoom in November, but here we give you an exclusive look behind the scenes.
Building latrines can be a good solution. A latrine is probably even one of the best solutions. But why is the construction of latrines one of those development projects that so often seem to fail? The examples are plenty: toilet constructions that are so nice that they are now being used as the office of a local politician; latrines that are locked, except when the NGO visits them because “it is Josephine’s toilet!”; the community who has built a nice latrine, or so it seems, until you open the door and you see there is not even a hole -they only wanted to please the donor… So, it is not about latrines. It is all about poo-poo.
Move with Africa is an action meant for the young. Interculturality, world citizenship, north-south relations; these are the themes that the action initiated by Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique takes on, in partnership with ten development cooperation actors, the Belgian ministry of Development Cooperation, and the ministry of Education of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Within the scope of this project, Pauline describes her stay in Rwanda with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium.
After having slept a little longer than usual, with great cheer among the majority of us, we lunch quietly in Kigali before a debriefing. The general opinion is that all seems almost perfect. Martin, who works for Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium, learned some French expressions that he is fond of using…
After buckling our bags (yes, it is already the last day in Butare), we take the road for Nyanza where the group separates once again. We follow a veterinarian who goes by the name of Félicien whilst the others will provide assistance on a deworming campaign. Félicien, his large white coat, and material, embark on his motorbike. We leave to assist and even take part in the various care given: internal deworming, gestation diagnoses, and dehorning. Not bad, eh?
The traditional morning omelets were served quickly; have the Rwandans become accustomed to our pace? In any case, we begin to adapt to their way of doing things. The groups of the previous day were reformed and traded work places. It is thus towards Nyanza that we embarked on our delicious picnic in order to help the beneficiaries of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium to construct an improved oven.
Seated in the shade of a banana tree at the terrace of our hotel, Corentin and I (Lyam) would like to take a few minutes to tell you about our adventures this day. We left around 8:30 in the morning, once our picnic was safely loaded into the 4×4.
A new day begins for us at 7:00 am. A little school excursion! Nothing is better than a good omelet before we pile into the jeeps. We’re full of energy, which will be necessary as we’re about to face the perilous and rocky roads of Africa.
Move for Africa is an awareness campaign on development cooperation, organized by the Belgian newspaper La Libre Belgique. Students from the Collège de Bellevue in Dinant travelled to Rwanda to discover the projects of Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium. They exchanged experiences with the local population to get a better view of development issues such as poverty and food security. On their trip, they wrote a blog.
Through funding by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium is developing a tool to monitor zootechnical performances in Sub-Saharan countries. The software tool is called ZAK (“Zootechnical Analysis Kit”). Each month, the developers will keep you up to date on the project.
