No health without wealth

Helping smallholder farmers in rural parts of developing countries and thus tackling health problems is the ambition of the so-called Digital Training on Goat Health in India. The training started as a Making More Health in Action week(link is external) for animal health managers which took place in rural areas close to Coimbatore, South India. Denise Edmond was amongst the participants of the pilot.

Denise, could you outline what the Goat Health Training is?

In a nutshell, it is about finding practicable and simple ways to educate smallholder farmers in rural parts of developing countries about how to keep their goats healthy and well.

Why is it so important to keep goats healthy?

In many parts of the world, goats are virtually the only livestock that people keep. They are cheap and can adapt to different climates. By focusing on goats, you can effectively address smallholder farmers’ needs. It essentially boils down to this saying: “No health without wealth”. By keeping their animals healthy, and thereby improving their livelihood, they can take care of themselves and stay healthy. It’s a very special connection between humans and animals, beneficial to both.

How did that training change your thinking?

The easiest part of the training was determining the technical content. However, it taught me that while training itself is important, the context in which you carry it out is even more important.

What do you mean by that?

I’d like to share something that made a particularly deep impression on me. When we conducted the training at the end of the week, we were sitting in a circle on plastic chairs. Mid way through it got really hot, so we decided to switch to a shadier location. When we wanted to take our chairs with us, one of the village women suggested that we could sit on the ground instead, as is more customary in India. What amazed me was that after we sat on the ground, the whole interaction changed. We were sitting more closely together and the atmosphere became much more relaxed and warm. By changing the context, we were able to bridge cultural gaps and really relate. One of the women even brought a goat into the mix!

How did you and your team decide to go on with the project?

What my team and I had learned during that week inspired us. We didn’t just want to stop what we had started. We devised a plan to continue and handed our proposal in our internal Making More Health competition. We were selected as one of eight projects to be sponsored! Within the framework of one year, we want to upscale the Goat Health Training in South India. This is something we do on top of our daily work.

What does upscaling the training look like?

We want to increase the number of people we can reach as well as expand the content of our training. We are reaching out to vets and universities, hoping to find people who could promote and conduct it. We have created a booklet, which we want to further refine, and plan to launch a digital version of the Goat Health Training. Part of the training will be educating about food safety and environmental impact. We also want to help smallholder farmers get access to pharmaceuticals.

What impact do you wish to achieve with the expansion of the Goat Health Training?

I really want to achieve two main goals. The first and most prominent one is to help smallholder farmers succeed. Improving the health of the herd will ultimately help them support themselves, get access to education and improve their lives. Secondly, I think the training experiences can push us, Boehringer Ingelheim employees, to think outside of our normal boundaries and to consider markets in which we traditionally do not operate. We have the resources to make an impact and learn important lessons along the way. Plus, I want us to have fun doing this!