Diary of a veterinary volunteer in Samoa
By Skye Turner – BVSc 2004
Over a year ago I was working as a veterinarian in a mixed dairy practice in rural Victoria. All I knew about Samoa was that it was a little country somewhere in the South Pacific and Samoans played rugby. But after chancing upon an advert for volunteers in one veterinary journal and a feature on a vet who had volunteered in Samoa for 2 years in another veterinary journal, I became intrigued. That intrigue led me to find myself on a plane to Samoa a couple of months later.
I began a 6 week stint as a volunteer with the Animal Protection Society (APS) of Samoa a couple of days later. From my background research, I knew that the APS provided the only companion animal veterinary care to the entire population of Samoa (approximately 180 000), which is spread over 2 main islands and several smaller ones. I also knew that Samoa had a huge problem with stray and feral dogs, with most people keeping dogs not for companionship but instead to guard their property.
The APS was founded by New Zealander, Joan Welch, in 1994. She was concerned at the lack of veterinary care available for dogs and cats in Samoa, and was equally concerned with the feral dog problem. After initially being run largely by palagi (white people), 13 years later, the APS has evolved into a semi-sustainable non-governmental organisation – staffed by Samoans,
but still reliant on international aid and overseas
volunteer vets. Their main objectives are to:
• Decrease the stray dog population through a desexing program, with euthanasia being the very last resort
• Provide community education on animal welfare and responsible dog ownership
• Provide a professional low-cost, affordable veterinary service to the dogs and cats of Samoa,
• and lobby the Samoan Government to enforce their animal welfare and dog control laws.
As my 6 week stint with the APS was drawing to a close, I felt a sense of hopelessness, and knew that if I was to have any real impact here in Samoa, I would have to stay much longer than 6 weeks! With the relatively small ex-pat community in Samoa, I managed to meet half the palagi in Samoa in my 6 weeks. One of these ex-pats was Karin Moore, who happened to be the in-country manager for the Australian Youth Ambassadors for Development (AYAD) program. After a quick talk with Karin, I was on my way to becoming an AYAD volunteer, and after a fairly lengthy application process, found myself back at the APS in Samoa in September 2007.
Most of my working days are spent at our tiny little clinic on the outskirts of Apia, the capital. The workload is very variable, but our skills are most commonly called on for desexing operations, vaccinations, sick and malnourished puppies, dog attacks, motor vehicle accidents and other malicious attacks on dogs (machete wounds and poisoning with weed killer are all too common).
We also regularly undertake house calls around the Apia area for people without transport, and about once a month we will travel to remote village areas and carry out desexing clinics. Fees charged at the clinic are minimal – all drugs are charged at or below cost and our most expensive operation, a dog spey, costs just $40WST (equivalent to less than $20AUD). However, to put things in perspective, the minimum wage in Samoa is around $1.50AUD/hour, so $40WST may actually be a quarter to half of an average Samoan’s weekly wage.
My clinic itself is well equipped to carry out basic operations, but with diagnostic facilities such as radiology and laboratory testing either unavailable or unaffordable, you quickly learn how to make compromises and think outside the box. Living in a developing country, you also have to learn to cope without things that you would take for granted in Australia. It is only in the last couple of weeks that my clinic could afford to get a tank to ensure regular running water (we would often go for a week at a time without water), and as a result, we can now finally use our washing machine instead of washing all our drapes, blankets and towels by hand.
I love my work here and the people I work with so much, that I am looking into transferring to a longer-term volunteer position once, my 12 month AYAD contract expires in September 2008. If I ever get back to Australia, you are more likely to find me in an animal shelter somewhere than in another dairy practice!
For more information on the Animal Protection Society of Samoa visit www.apssamoa.org
For more information on becoming an Australian volunteer visit www.ayad.com.au or www.vidavolunteers.com.au
Photo: Me operating
Contact: Andrea Jones
Phone: 8344 7844