Phet Sounthonnavong is the Country Co-ordinator, Laos at Veterinarians Without Borders North America/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Amérique du Nord.
Phet has over 27 years of experience in international development setting. She has worked in various sectors in Laos including six years of professional management of international volunteer program as a Country Program Manager - her knowledge of the local context, culture, and traditions enables her to provide exceptional care to international volunteers, and outstanding support to partner organizations. She has also worked in public health, agricultural relief, inclusive education, vocational training, and Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)/mine action.
She has been well trained in Exploded Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) by Handicap International France, UNICEF, Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining, UNDP, and National Regulatory Authority (Mine Action Centre in Laos). She is a very experienced EORE practitioner and is passionate about Behavioural Change approach. She has implemented various EORE and UXO Victim Assistance projects for international non-governmental organizations. She has critical experience in the interplay between EORE and UXO Victim Assistance. She was instrumental in work on the epidemiological case-control study and played a key role in the UNDP EORE KAP survey conducted by RK Consulting (EOD) Ltd.
Phet is a dog whisperer and animal lover. When she isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her dog, family and friends, traveling, and cooking her favourite meals and experimenting new recipes in the kitchen.
Register now for our World Rabies Day 2026 webinar, bringing together perspectives from Alaska, Ukraine, and Laos to explore why rabies persists despite being preventable — and what stronger access, local capacity, coordination, and resilient animal and human health systems can contribute to progress toward ending human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030.
#VETSVolunteerVoices brings you stories of our passionate VETS program volunteers from the field. Meet Dr. Joseph Ansong-Danquah, a Ghanaian-Canadian veterinarian who has volunteered with VWB in Ghana since 2017. In 2026, Joseph is completing his final VETS placement after nine years of supporting farmers, communities, partner organizations and fellow volunteers across the country.
In this edition of Ask an Expert, we spoke with Hannah (Tsai-Ping) Liao, whose MSc research at the University of Guelph examined what decades of Community Animal Health Worker (CAHW) programs can teach us about building sustainable, community-led animal health systems in northern Canada.
