The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) organizes from 18 until 21 February the Farmers’ Forum in Rome. This forum brings together all international and local stakeholders in the field of rural development and poverty reduction. During this event, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Europa will present its latest study on climate change and small-scale livestock farming.

Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium warmly welcomes the recent expressed opinion of Bill Gates about foreign aid in the media. Foreign aid programmes do matter and certainly if they address poor farmers - the majority of people in developing countries. But VSF Belgium would like to stress that livestock is often forgotten, although it is one of the most sustainable and economically viable ways of living in arid and semi-arid lands. These areas constitute almost half of the African continent and have been affected most by the recent food crisis in the Horn of Africa.

What do you wish for 2012? The African livestock keepers would like to have fewer droughts, a better rainy season, a good health for humans and animals, more milk, and they wish for their children to go to school and have enough food to eat… Do you help to realize their wishes?

Tine Deschacht, junior assistant for Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium in Uganda, has been working for one year on the Karamoja Livestock Development Project (KLDP). She works with local communities of pastoralists on peacebuilding and conflict management in the north-eastern region of the country, Karamoja, near the Kenyan border.

In the Horn of Africa, the number of victims of the food crisis is rising steadily. At the present time, more than 12 million people are in need of food aid to survive. In Kenya, the lives of 3.2 million people are in danger. Turkana is one of the worst affected regions of Kenya.

At the end of July, Francesco Zizola was in Turkana to take pictures of the drought. The photographer of NOOR agency has seven World Press Photo awards to his credit. He went, among others, with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium to Turkana and witnessed the aid brought to livestock keepers by our NGO.

More than 11 million people need urgent help in the Horn of Africa. In Kenya 2.4 to 3.5 million people are threatened by famine. Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium supports the pastoralists in Turkana and Garissa.

On 15 October 2011, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium and the Belgian platform on tropical animal health and production (be-troplive) will organise a symposium on veterinary medicine in the South. We’ll look back on the actions in the tropics of Belgian vets and alumni from the South and we’ll celebrate the worldwide eradication of rinderpest.

A humanitarian catastrophe has once again hit the Horn of Africa. More than 11 million people are in urgent need of food aid and, in the most affected areas, more than half of the children are suffering from malnutrition. This is horrifying news. Images of under-nourished, skeletal children haunt our minds. However, was this situation not predicted? And is drought the real cause for this new food crisis?

On 28th June, the international community announced that rinderpest had been wiped out. The official declaration was made at the 37th meeting of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in conjunction with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). After decades of famine, African livestock keepers no longer have to fear the disease. Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium contributed to the eradication of the cattle plague in South Sudan.

On the 10th of June, Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium organizes a conference on pastoralism and its role in combating poverty and climate change. This activity is part of the development education project of VSF Europa and takes place in collaboration with CELEP (Coalition of European Lobbies on Eastern African Pastoralism) and the Food First program.

From 13 to 16 May, Member of European parliament Thijs Berman has visited Turkana, a region in the north of Kenya. He visited the projects of Vétérinairs Sans Frontières Belgium among others. He was invited by CELEP, an international coalition of civil society organisations that represents the interests of African pastoralists to the policymakers in Europe and East Africa.

On the 1st of June Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium celebrates World Milk Day. The Brussels statue of Manneken Pis, dressed as African livestock keeper, will be peeing milk the entire day. In this way the Belgian NGO wants to call attention to Africa, where milk is one of the main sources of nutrition. By improving the herds’ health, the cows produce more and better milk which improves living conditions for the livestock keepers.

ECHO, the humanitarian aid office of the European Commission, gives financial support to Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium for its ICRD project. This project, which started already its third phase, aims to improve the response of livestock keepers in East Africa to drought.

On 24 January 2011, the international community officially launched the world veterinary year. Veterinary education was founded in France 250 years ago. Not only do veterinarians guarantee animal health, they also play a crucial role for human health. In fact, looking at cattle breeding today, millions of families in the developing world still depend on livestock for their survival.

Advertising agency Famous devised the iPhone application ‘Sick Cow’ for Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium. This is an app in which you hear a sick cow each time you rotate your iPhone. The idea was to ask 5 euros for the app, which corresponds to the cost of vaccinating one African cow. If you buy a ‘sick cow’, you heal one at the same time. But Apple sees this differently.

2010 is slowly coming to an end and everyone is hopefully looking forward to a new year full of challenges and achievements. A lot of African families of livestock keepers are also looking forward to a new year. Offer them your support and send a greeting card!

From 25 September 2010 until 16 January 2011 the Belgian photographer Roger Job displays his photos on the Turkana livestock keepers at the Charleroi Museum of Photography. His work on drought and climate change in Kenya, which was awarded with the Nikon Press Photo Award 2009, was accomplished in cooperation with Vétérinaires Sans Frontières. Francis Anno and Michael Ameripus, Turkana shepherds who work for our Belgian NGO in Kenya, will be present on the opening of the exhibition and will reside in Belgium until 28 September.

Half of the people of Niger are undergoing a serious food crisis, while three quarters of the cattle are suffering from hunger and thirst. This is a disaster for this West African country, where more than 80% of the population rely on livestock for their daily survival. Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Belgium is supporting the local population by distributing food supplies to people and their herds.

Make an online donation and support VSF Belgium!

Roger Job’s work will be shown at the Charleroi Museum of Photography in September, enabling visitors to the Museum to find out about VSF Belgium’s actions.

Development of traditional veterinary medicine, autonomy and food security, the role of women in livestock keeping and much more. Discover how livestock keeping is carried out in Rwanda and Belgium on our website www.elevageicietlabas.be

Following its 75th anniversary the Belgian National Lottery granted a supplementary One Million Euros to organisations which had contributed to the Millennium Goals programme. Vétérinaires Sans Frontières was one of the winners of this appeal.