Veterinarians Without Borders North America/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Amérique du Nord couldn't do the work we do without your support. Whether it's a financial donation or a donation of your time, by improving the health of animals you will be working to improve the health and quality of life for people throughout the world.
What We're Working On
Across Southeast Asia, the health of animals, local communities, and the environment are closely linked. By working with on-the-ground partners in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, we are helping to emphasize the importance of a One Health approach, recognizing the interconnection of human, animal, and environmental health.
Just as we do in Sub-Saharan Africa, VWB/VSF is dedicated to addressing the unique challenges faced in Southeast Asia through our extensive Volunteers Engaged in Gender-Responsive Technical Solutions (VETS) program. In Asia, our VETS program deploys Canadian volunteers to countries like Laos and Cambodia. The primary goal of the VETS program is to uplift the economic and social well-being of marginalized individuals, with a specific focus on empowering women and girls in these Southeast Asian nations.
Through VETS, VWB is committed to implementing interventions that strengthen agricultural resilience, reduce vulnerabilities, and enhance the capacity of local communities to cope with challenges at the national level in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to promote agricultural best practices and their positive impacts on the environment, to build capacity of our local partner organizations, to enhance income generation activities, and to develop curriculums that train students in animal, human and environmental health programs.
Similarly, our Agriculture-based Growth and Resilience Opportunities for Women (AGROW) program enhanced the resilience of women and girls through animal, human, and environmental health (One Health) in three districts of Cambodia’s Battambang province (i.e., Rattankakmondul, Banan, and Ek Phnom Districts). AGROW employed innovative approaches to environmentally sustainable food production and farm diversification with a focus on cricket, chicken, and cattle farming as well as fodder crop management and vegetable production.
See below to learn more about each of our current projects in Asia.
To improve environmentally sustainable / green agriculture and nutrition of women and women-led groups. To strengthen the economic security from environmentally sustainable / green agriculture and livestock-based production of women and girls.
Global Affairs Canada
To work to improve the economic and social well-being of the world’s most marginalized people, particularly women and girls, in six countries across Africa and Asia (i.e., Ghana, Kenya, Senegal, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam).
Global Affairs Canada
#VETSVolunteerVoices aims to bring you the stories of our passionate VETS program volunteers from the field. Meet Ian Parfitt, a GIS Mapping Advisor who spent three months in Cambodia (January–April 2025) supporting organic agriculture and digital transformation with our local partner, AVSF Cambodia.
Megan Sylka, Senior Program Officer at VWB, shares how her recent visit to Kenya revealed the powerful ripple effects of the VETS program—highlighting how Community One Health Champion Shelmith Mwai is transforming her dairy farm, her family dynamics, and her community through knowledge, leadership, and collaboration.
This article examines how a One Health approach can transform food safety systems by addressing the interconnected health of people, animals, and the environment—highlighting the importance of cross-sector collaboration, innovations like Canada’s CFSIN, and global strategies to mitigate risks such as antimicrobial resistance, climate change, and zoonotic disease.
