President’s Report: 2009-2010

When our kids were growing up, my wife, a family therapist, always insisted that at the Sunday evening meal each person say what their low point was for the previous week, and what their high point was. At the end of the year, we did the same for the previous 12 months. It was always interesting to hear what our kids and their teenaged friends would say.
Would it be personal or global, a relationship issue or environmental degradation? I usually had to struggle to remember what had happened over the past week, never mind the year, and to somehow rate the experiences on a scale, but it was always instructive.
When I look back on the last year for Veterinarians without Borders / Vétérinaires sans Frontières (VWB/VSF), I see one very low point and a whole lot of high points. The sudden, unexpected death of Jo-Ann Smith just after Christmas, was without a doubt the low point for the VWB/VSF family. It was both a personal and organizational loss. Jo-Ann had been our first Office Manager, initially working in a space in the lab across the hall from me, and continued to work with us as we expanded. While some of us waved our hands and talked about grand ideas, she made sure all the administrative details were looked after so that we could deliver on our promises. She cared passionately about our work. We miss her deeply. But from that very low point came also a high point: the rest of the team – especially our Managing Director Erin Fraser, Treasurer Jim Fairles, and Communications Manager Jessica Kennedy – immediately stepped in to work overtime to make sure that the programs that Jo-Ann cared about kept going. Even as Ryan Aguanno and volunteers worked to pick up the (well-organized!) pieces around the office, Erin and Jessica restructured the student program,organized an exciting orientation session, wrote up a crisis response policy, moved the office to Victoria, and hired an intrepid (or crazy and passionate like us?) wonderful new Office Manager – Jaelithe Piccolo.
This past year, VWB/VSF signed agreements with the International Livestock
Research Institute (ILRI) and the International Development Research Centre
(IDRC) to create programs that build capacity to implement ecosystem approaches to emerging diseases. Managed by Sonia Fèvre, our Asia Program Manager, and led by David Hall, from the University of Calgary, the work brings together practitioners and researchers from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Indonesia. Our reputation for taking integrated, ecohealth approaches led to an invitation by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) to prepare a compendium of international cases where a one health approach has been used. The compendium was distributed by PHAC and the United Nations System Influenza Coordination at an inter-ministerial meeting of the International Partnership on Avian and Pandemic Influenza in Vietnam, the
third week in April. After the disaster in Haiti, VWB/VSF member Anne Leboeuf worked energetically with strategic partners to support the Haitian Ministry of Agriculture’s goal to help rebuild and improve livestock animal health and production capacity in the country. Building on the foundational work she did, we are now in the midst of recruiting someone who can devote the time and energy to help us follow through with the long term rebuilding of animal health infrastructure in Haiti.
Our community-based, ecosystem approaches to canine population and rabies control have garnered international attention, with demonstrated success in Guatemala and Chile. Elena and Guillermo, our team in Chile, who are in the midst of the earthquake zone, are carrying forward initiatives to integrate canine population control and health with public health and the wildlife conservation work of the Wildlife Conservation Society.
In January we organized our first in-person training workshop for the 16 veterinary students selected to participate in this year’s student program. The two day session included intercultural workshops, project presentations and team building exercises which helped prepare students for their international placements.
Brian Evans, Canada’s Chief Veterinary Officer, affirmed his support for VWB/VSF’s work even as he faced difficult financial challenges within the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). We have an agreement for continued support for another year, with subsequent years to be negotiated. This is enabling us to continue to build on our successes and use the base funding to leverage funds from other sources.
I have been excited and privileged to represent VWB/VSF at meetings this past year in Canada, Europe and China. Some days I feel as if I am just the pretty face on the prow of this most amazing ship. I can’t think of a place I’d rather be.

David Waltner-Toews