Vet Students tackle Cooley for VIVA

Áine Collins reports:

"On April 21st, ten veterinary students from UCD took part in the Cooley Legends Half Marathon/10k race in Co. Louth. With months of training done, all were very excited to get our running shoes on and begin the 60% off-road run across the Cooley Peninsula. It took some time for the sun to come out that morning but when it finally did the eagerness of the participants to get going was easily seen. It was a tough climb over the mountain but the final decent into Carlingford town with supporters lining the street encouraging the runners to keep going made it worthwhile. After a few well earned refreshments and much chat about the race the event was over before we knew it. It was a brilliant day and the craic in Carlingford afterwards was great, all in aid of a very worthy charity".

The participants were as follows: Pat O Neill, Regina Long, Lisa Buckley, Corina Versteegh, Áine Collins, Shona Coombes, Brendan O Huiginn, Amy Brogen, Claire Ashburner, Mirium de Feu.

VIVA & "Vet 250"

2011 marks the 250th anniversary of the veterinary profession and commemorates the opening of the first veterinary college in Lyons, France in 1761. Veterinary Ireland and the Veterinary Council have launched a number of events to mark the occasion.
One of Veterinary Ireland's initiatives for this auspicious year is to throw its weight behind a major fundraising drive by VIVA.

Our flagship fundraiser, the annual VIVA Wheelers 100 km cycle challenge takes place in Westport this year. Veterinary Ireland hopes to mobilise over 250 vets to take part as an expression of solidarity between the veterinary profession in Ireland and livestock farmers in the Developing World. This event will raise much needed funds for our overseas projects.

The VIVA Wheelers have raised over € 165,000 for VIVA's projects through their cycle challenges. Joining the VIVA Wheelers is a fantastic opportunity to get fit, explore some of our most scenic areas by bike and raise funds for a good cause. Our events are organised by a professional cycle tours company and the routes are selected to ensure that cyclists of all abilities can take part. Many of the cyclists return to our events year after year.

In conjunction with the Cycle Challenge, VIVA are organising a raffle with a grand prize of a pedigree Limousin Heifer. For those who can't accommodate the heifer in their back garden, the option of the value at sale of the heifer will be offered! To raise their sponsorship, participants on the Cycle Challenge can sell tickets for this raffle or indeed organise events of their own.

2011 is also the European Year of the Volunteer. We're now calling all vets with their slogan – " Volunteer – make a difference " – and we hope that the profession will respond in big numbers.

For further information on the VIVA Wheelers contact Mike Burke on 086 – 2568357 or mike@viva.ie. You can also follow us on Facebook.

Midland Showjumping

L to R : Brian Gormley MVB, Ann Gannon, Brendan Mimnagh, Mary Gannon, Oliver Glancy

Midland Showjumping, who have been very loyal supporters of VIVA over the years have again donated the fees from their annual summer showjumping event to support our overseas livestock projects. At a recent function in Granard, organisers Brian Gormley and Oliver Glancy along with sponsors Ann Gannon and Mary Gannon presented Brendan Mimnagh of VIVA with a cheque for € 2,000.

Mike O'Leary Trust Travel Bursary 2010

This August, Martin Breen, a third year vet student in UCD and this year's winner of the Mile O'Leary Trust Travel Bursary, travelled to Uganda to visit VIVA's animal traction project in the east of the country. His brief was to look at the impact of the project on theindividual farming families.

Martin has just now published his report on the trip which can be viewed here or in the viewer below. According to Martin, the most signifcant impacts of the project has been a reduction in the labour needed to cultivate the land, an increase in land tilled and increased yields from crops like cassava and maize. The extra income generated by the surpluses prduced is going to pay for education expenses or being re-invested on the farms.

VIVA would like to thank again the O'Leary family for their support for this valuable initiative.


Uganda 2010 report - Martin Breen

A Ugandan family prospers

We recently received this report from Dan Bazira (Heifer Uganda) on a visit he made to one of the families involved in the VIVA-funded project in Kumi District which involves providing oxen and ploughs to the Koelei Amora Ican farmers group:

Traveling to Tilling Village in Kadok Zone, Kobwin Sub County, Kumi District in Eastern Uganda, one may think that the narrow paths are a clear indication that no people live in this area. It is a surprise to find that there are such people: the middle aged couple of Hellen Adek, 43, and Charles Opolot, 53, who have been married for 26 years and have 10 children (6 boys and 4 girls), all in school.

A smiling lady dressed casually welcomed her guests with a statement: " Each time I hear Heifer friends are visiting us, I am always delighted, along with my family members. Who ever knew that we would host visitors from within the district, across Uganda and those from outside this country? Heifer has made us who we are today " .

The story of this creative family began in 2006, when as a family they decided to join a community based farmers' group within the area. The group had come together to carry out communal digging rotationally with the aim of addressing the food insufficiency that families were facing. Hellen said, " This was actually more labor intensive than we thought, for we were still using our hand hoes to open up land maximally to a tune of one acre per family." The group, Koile Amora Ican Project, approached Heifer International Uganda, through their well-focused leadership, for any support to address their plight.

Through a partnership with VIVA Ireland, funding was secured to support this community with an Animal Traction Project. " Little did we know that families like one of Hellen and Charles Opolot would turn out to be a creative family with what seemed to be a meager support," said Dr. Joshua Zimbe, Regional Extension Services Supervisor.

A change of the family's history of misery, food insufficiency and a lack of education for the children of Opolot came to reality when they started being trained by the project extensionist. " With Heifer-tailored training, you start off learning before any live gift is given," said Charles Opolot. In 2008, the family, along with three other families, received a complete set of bulls and ox-ploughs to help them open up a larger acreage of land for agriculture.

Today, Opolot's family has not only looked to the gifts they received, they have also diversified to other livestock species like sheep, goats and poultry. Each family member fully participates in the complete management of the affairs of this project. Last season, the family harvested over a lump sum of 10 tons of maize, cassava, millet, groundnuts and sorghum from approximately seven acres of land, which were opened up using the oxen given. Incomes are now assured within the family, children are going to better schools and nutrition has greatly improved, according to Hellen Adek.

" To ensure that we have enough food for the family throughout the year, we have set up five local granaries to store our produce around our homestead " , Charles Opolot said. To the community this is a creativity that was not common within the area and now some of the families have adopted this technique of post-harvest handling.
" Heifer International and their partners, VIVA Ireland, have done us great in terms of addressing our genuine need; we are really appreciative of this support " , concluded Charles Opolot.

Supporters run, jump and cycle for VIVA

Some VIVA Wheelers take a break on the Bantry 100


Aine Collins with her medals!

This summer, VIVA supporters have raised almost € 23,000 in various fundraisers. First up was Aine Collins, a vet student in UCD,who raised over € 700 running in four races earlier in the summer

Midland Showjumping have been very supportive of VIVA in the past and this year was no exception. They donated € 2000 from the proceeds of their summer showjumping event to VIVA

The annual VIVA Golf Classic was held in Glasson on August 6th. 40 teams battled it out for the top prize on this fantastic course raising over € 5,000 for VIVA's overseas projects. Thanks again to Tony McManus for his contribution to the success of this event.

The VIVA Wheelers annual 100km cycle challenge had a hard act to follow after the success of the inaugral event in the Burren last year. However, their luck held with the " Bantry 100 " cyclists basking in sunshine as they whizzed around the awesome scenery of the Sheep's Head and Mizen peninsulas. This latest cycle will raise almost € 15,000 to add to the € 150,000 already raised by the Wheelers since 2005

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Silage-making training in Uganda

With the silage-making season upon us here in Ireland, we thought we'd look at how they do it in Uganda where the farmers on VIVA's animal traction project make silage to feed their oxen in the dry season. The grass is chopped using machetes, mixed with molasses and then sealed in sausage-like plastic bags. Hay bales are also made by stuffing the dried grasses into timber boxes to compress them before they are tied.




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