ANIMAL HEALTH,HUMAN BEINGS, ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE CHANGE INTERACTIONS.

Late last month of July. The We Don't Have Time Kenya and USA chapters in collaboration with Veterinarians International (USA) and Ol Jogi Conservancy (Kenya) carried out a scoping mission to develop a model for peaceful and healthy co-existence between humans, animals and the environment. At the heart of the mission was to explore pathways to build healthy and peaceful co-existence of humans and animals with their environments through interventions geared at improving care and conservation of animals and promoting human health and development in ways that conserves and maintain the complex systems that support the communities one being Ol Jogi conservation in Laikipia county. This collaborative effort will leverage on WDHT, the largest climate social media platform to amplify various efforts and draw stakeholders and other local and international partners but also provide opportunities for global conversation on local issues affecting frontline communities in Laikipia. Veterinarian International, whose mission is to provide veterinary aid and education to improve the health and wellbeing of animals and their communities, brings with it a network of One Health experts including veterinarians, public health practitioners, animal welfare specialists and researchers, ecologists and agricultural/soil health experts who provide the key veterinary expertise, equipment and supplies for both immediate aid and disease prevention; build necessary infrastructure for animal care; and educate communities about animal health, behaviour and husbandry for long-term, sustainable solutions in their own communities. The Ol Jogi conservancy is located in Laikipia County in Kenya and is home to over half of the black Rhino population in the country. The conservancy is also home to over 20 ungulate species 5 large carnivore species, 3 primates species, elephants and numerous avian species. Ol Jogi also have a Wildlife Rescue Centre which has a state-of-art wildlife veterinary clinic, established in 1985 that offers refuge to orphaned and injured animals. The conservancy have also been very successful with Ol Jogi neighbours the Masaai community, who are traditionally pastoralist but whose livelihood and culture have been threatened by shift from extensive livestock production to intensive agriculture/cultivation, destruction of grazing habitats with human settlement and farming. Increasing cost of living and economic precarity associated with collapse of beef market in Kenya means that even those that remain pastoralist have to overstock animals as means of increasing profitability leading to overgrazing and further soil degradation. Bringing these four partners together, the Veterinary International will spearhead establishment of Ol Jogi centre of excellence for One Health and wildlife medicine by training local and international veterinarians and veterinary students, animal health technicians, animal scientists, farmers and community leaders on complex interactions between animals, humans and their environment and how to apply One Health concept in their clinical practice, research, community engagements, livestock production, regenerative farming and conservation. This will be done through collaborations with University of Nairobi, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The scoping mission was successful in identifying and meeting with the key partners with WDHT US chapter represented by Dr. Sweta Chakraborty, a risk and behavioural scientist who will lead in design of human,Veterinarian International was represented by Dr. Scarlett Magda, the founding president of Veterinary International and a One Health expert; Erin Ivory, an anthrozoologist and vice president of programs at VI and she brings on board her specialty in human-animal behaviour interactions and ways of improving animal welfare and mitigate animal-human conflicts. Also present was the VI country representative Dr. Grace Watene, a budding One Health veterinarian and epidemiologist and Jillian Semaan who works at the intersection of food climate, human health and planetary health and she will be looking at various aspects of soil health within the context of habitat regeneration. The WDHT Kenyan team was represented by Patrick Kiarie the country Representative and Peter Kamau the Kenya chapter administrator as well as Dr. Robert Josphine, a veterinarian and infectious disease immunologist. We are really excited to work and interact with Veterinarian International on this incredible project and their mission to bring harmonious existence between humans, animals and the ecosystems that supports our survival on our planet. We as we don't have time -Kenya chapter we give you a high star rate of 5! Soon we will write a long detailed article and include more pictures, we are glad for you being partners of wdht and we are looking forward to interact and partner with other organisations that has same goals to safeguard our planet before it's too late as we have no planet B. (Below is attached short video clip which is a Swahili Kenyan slogan of welcoming visitors and encouraging them there is no problem if we join hands together... ) Kind Regards. Patrick.  https://youtube.com/shorts/GoEyRNOQ3ZA?feature=share