Ten-minute chat - Veterinary Record

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Careers
Ten-minute chat
As well as being president of BVA’s
Northern Ireland Branch, Simon
Doherty sits on the board of the
livestock development charity,
Send a Cow, which helps people in
sub-Saharan Africa escape hunger
and works to improve the health,
education, housing and happiness
of whole communities.
Tell us about the charity.
Send a Cow (www.sendacow.org) started
working in Uganda 26 years ago and has
developed into a modern charity. Some
of its methods have been so well thought
of that they have been incorporated into
national agricultural policies in several
countries. We deliver training in gender
empowerment, organic horticulture,
health and hygiene, as well as animal
husbandry. Once the training has been
embedded in the community, we’ll
undertake appropriate livestock placement
– as the name suggests, we started with
dairy cattle, but now our work includes
goats, sheep, poultry and even bees.
How did you get involved?
Initially as an ambassador, helping to
spread the word about the charity in
Northern Ireland and doing some local
fundraising. Send a Cow was also keen to
use some of my veterinary knowledge, so
I’ve also got involved in providing advice
to the programme and research teams.
And why?
One of my primary motivations for
becoming a livestock vet was my interest
in food production. I became aware of
the charity and, when I learned about
what it does, I visited Ethiopia and
Kenya to see its work in the field, and I
was hooked. Our mission statement is
‘To give families and communities the
hope and the means to secure their
own futures from the land’, and that is
exactly what Send a Cow does – helping
ii | Vet Record Careers | November 28, 2015
smallholder farmers to help themselves:
we know that hand-outs can often lead to
dependency, but a ‘hand-up’ can improve
adoption and innovation.
What does being a board member
involve?
We guide and advise the strategic direction
of the UK management team, particularly
in relation to fundraising and our schools’
development education programme.
Have you helped with fundraising?
I’ve been involved in a number of
fundraising projects linked to local
events in my role as an ambassador. I
also undertook the Live Below the Line
challenge with the NI Chief Veterinary
Officer, Robert Huey, a couple of years
ago, when we both lived for a week on
food costing less than £1/day.
What do you get out of it?
More than 1.3 billion people across the
world live in extreme poverty, surviving
on a lot less than £1/day every day of
their lives. I feel that my involvement
with Send a Cow is helping in a small
but sustainable way to help to change
that. I’ve also seen the impact the charity
has on the lives of our beneficiaries. It
is a privilege to be able to represent an
innovative organisation and I enjoy telling
people about the work that we do.
Does the charity have other sources
of funding?
Send a Cow has been awarded a round
of UKAid match-funding for donations
made up until December 31, 2015. While
our work continues in seven countries in
Africa – Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda,
Burundi, Zambia and Lesotho – our
‘Planting Hope’ project in Ethiopia will be
the primary beneficiary of this initiative.
Any exciting initiatives planned?
We have a lot of exciting partnerships
Simon at a keyhole garden in Ethiopia;
(inset) a Send a Cow beneficiary
under way. XLVets has been doing
quite a bit with us in recent years and
continues to do so. We have also been
working with the Jersey Overseas Aid
Commission getting Channel Island
Genetics’ help with improving dairy
quality and yield while maintaining
some of the inherent drought- and
parasite resistance characteristics of
the local breeds. As an accredited
CowSignals trainer, I’ve introduced
this concept to Send a Cow and we
are working with Joep Driessen at the
CowSignals Training Company to embed
appropriate parts of the training into our
extension worker training programme.
What was your proudest moment?
As a teenager, I worked at Streamvale
Open Farm – Northern Ireland’s first
open dairy farm – at weekends and
school holidays. A number of years later,
I returned to the farm as a qualified
vet and provided clinical services for
the Morrow family who run it. This
year, Send a Cow was nominated by
Streamvale as its charity of the year and I
was delighted to be able to return to the
farm representing Send a Cow.
doi: 10.1136/vr.h6398
Downloaded from http://veterinaryrecord.bmj.com/ on October 23, 2016 - Published by group.bmj.com
Ten-minute chat
Simon Doherty
Veterinary Record 2015 177: ii
doi: 10.1136/vr.h6398
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