Support us in walking 70,500 miles (140,000,000 steps) for charity
When?
From June 1st to CAVI annual conference on 13th-15th October
Who?
100 animal health professionals from the UK and Ireland will be walking in aid of charity. The Irish team is supporting VIVA.
How?
We are going to walk 10,000 steps a day, every day for 20 weeks, with a new challenge to accomplish every week. Together, as a team, we are planning to walk distances equivalent to the length of the Great Wall of China, the journey from the North to South Pole, the journey circumnavigating the globe, and many more… to reach a total of 140,000,000 steps (70,500 miles) by CAVI annual conference.
At Merial, we are passionate about animal health, and we recognise that preserving livestock health and preventing disease is fundamental to the viability of all types of farming systems. We know that when animals are healthy, humans are healthier, too. Farmers can count on us to support them in raising and caring for animals in a sustainable way, so that they can have pride in their stock and consumers can have confidence in the food they eat.
An introduction to VIVA:
VIVA (Volunteers in Irish Veterinary Assistance) was founded in 1999 by Brendan Mimnagh, a veterinary surgeon, to harness the goodwill of the Irish agricultural and veterinary sectors in assisting livestock aid programmes in the Developing World. These programmes have an important contribution to make in fighting hunger and alleviating poverty in the Developing World. Over 600 million of the poorest people in the Developing World are entirely dependent upon livestock for their livelihoods. For these people, animals mean much more than just meat, milk, wool, feathers, hair and hides – they provide draft power, represent cash and a store of wealth for emergencies, confer status, fertilise gardens and crops, provide fuel through biogas and serve important cultural functions. Through their work as four-legged tractors and from the manure they provide, draft cattle and buffalo enable families to produce sufficient levels of vegetable and cereal crops. With these animals comes a world of hope but only if they are healthy and productive. VIVA works with these marginalized communities in several ways:
- VIVA enables community groups to buy livestock and begin to create sustainable livelihoods
- VIVA trains community animal health workers and supply them with medicines where access to veterinary services is restricted
- VIVA supports animal breeding programmes by training artificial insemination technicians and providing them with the necessary supplies and equipment
- VIVA provides training and advice for our partners using volunteer vets
VIVA (working in conjunction with other livestock aid organisations) is currently involved in projects in Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Albania and Romania.
Thank you for your support!
To learn more about our weekly challenges and our progress,
follow us on social media or visit our website www.calfmatters.com
- Twitter: @CALFMATTERS and #CALFMATTERS
- Facebook: facebook.com/calfmatters
- Facebook: facebook.com/VolunteersinIrishVeterinaryAssistance
The challenge is running until CAVI annual conference, where all the money raised will be presented to VIVA.
