Yana Zhambekova is the Ukraine Country Director at Veterinarians Without Borders North America/Vétérinaires Sans Frontières Amérique du Nord.
Yana Zhambekova has joined VWB/VSF in July 2025 as Ukraine Country Director. Yana brings more than twenty years of professional experience in strategic leadership and program oversight of international technical assistance and humanitarian programs funded by donors/agencies and finance institutions. Yana is a certified Project Manager, and her areas of expertise encompasses the design, project implementation, monitoring and evaluation and assessment of needs and opportunities. During this time, she has worked with leading donor and humanitarian organizations, USG, GOU and civil society developing sustainable community-led interventions and initiatives and responding to emergencies.
Yana holds MBA degree from Kyiv National Economic University and a MA degree in Humanities and International Relations from Kyiv National Linguistics University.
On September 30, VWB joins Canadians in marking the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day. We reflect on the importance of listening, learning, and respectful relationships in our work alongside Indigenous communities in northern Canada, and share resources for continued learning.
Watch a replay of our World Rabies Day 2026 webinar, which brought 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.
