Our work in Vietnam focuses on remote rural areas where unproductive land and childhood malnutrition have a damaging impact on community health.
While Vietnam has seen significant development in recent years, particularly in urban areas, it remains a poor country, with significant poverty in remote rural areas.
One in three children is stunted as a result of poor nutrition during their formative years. With more than 60 percent of the population dependent on agriculture, access to quality agricultural inputs and extension services is critical.
While the country has some highly productive agricultural land it is in short supply and there are large portions of the country – particularly the highland regions—where the land is not productive. Not surprisingly those areas, home to many of Vietnam’s ethnic minorities, are the poorest in the country.
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.
The VETS project focuses on working with our partner, IEHSD, to build their capacity to improve gender-responsive sustainable development. Based on their identified needs volunteers are recruited to work directly with staff and community members to improve their understanding of One Health and how it can be integrated into smallholder farming practices.
Working with the Thai Nguyen University volunteers will develop a curriculum to train students in animal, human and environmental health programs to set up demonstration sites within target communities. The project also focuses on improving community leave risk communication practices and improved access to animal health services.
IEHSD is an independent organization established in 2013, in cooperation with the Center of Public Health and Ecological Research at Hanoi University (CENPHER) former VWB country partner.
Through inter-sectoral cooperation and multi-disciplinary approaches such as One Health, IEHSD implements interdisciplinary research on the assessment of health risk in relation to agriculture intensification, livestock production, water and environmental sanitation, community development, food security, antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic diseases, infectious diseases and non-infectious diseases.
#VETSVolunteerVoices brings you stories of our passionate volunteers from the field. Meet Dayo Olaniyan, a Gender Advisor who spent three months in Ghana (May–August 2025) with our local partner, GAPNET, strengthening gender equity in livestock production and empowering rural communities.
In this edition of Ask an Expert, we connected with Dr. Richard Rusk, a public health physician and clinician who grew up in South Africa and is now based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. With expertise in the epidemiology of infectious and vector-borne diseases, he brings both human and animal clinical experience, along with a systems-level perspective, to addressing challenges facing communities in Canada and around the world.
#VETSVolunteerVoices brings you stories of our passionate VETS program volunteers from the field. This blog was written by Kayla Williams, a Veterinary Student and Animal Health Advisor who supported our VETS partner, the Apex Body of Women in Poultry Value Chain (WIPVaC-Apex), in Ghana from May to August 2025.
