Recent Projects 

Camilla Church shares her experience of lecturing to an international audience from the comfort of her own home. Through the BEVA Trust, I recently took part in an online lecture programme organised by World Veterinary Service and running as part of Ohio State’s university’s Global One Health Summer Institute. The World Veterinary Service would usually do these seminars live in Ethiopia, however due to COVID-19, an online seminar was done instead. Over the previous twelve months I ha

I have too many fond memories of volunteering in Lesotho at the Semonkong Hospital Project - I was unable to select a single memory! The scenery of Lesotho is unmatched and our visit to Maletsunyane falls was incredible. The whole country is over 1,400 metres above sea level and the Semonkong Hospital Project location was over 2,275 metres above sea level. I certainly won't ever be castrating 30+ horses at this altitude in the UK (Snowdon is 1085m, Ben Nevis 1344, Scafell Pike 978m)! My memorie

I have volunteered for 3 BEVA Trust and BHS clinics now, and each has been an enjoyable experience; the first one I attended was just after I graduated and I really benefited from the surgical experience in an environment where I was not afraid to get stuck in, and each time I go I get more experience and am now confident teaching others. The best part of the clinics, however, has got to be knowing I’m making a difference to each of the horses we see. This really hit home for me when I was visit

With COVID-19 putting BEVA Trust projects on hold we asked former volunteers to share their fondest memory with us. It is hard to pick my fondest memory of volunteering at the Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust as so many come to mind! However, one patient I will always remember was a little donkey that presented to one of the village clinics we attended. He had an incredibly painful eye that was completely closed, crusted shut and covered in flies, as well as a large abscess over his dorsal spine.

We had been warned that, even by Gambian standards, the country was experiencing something of a heatwave for the time of year. As we sweltered on the tarmac outside Banjul terminal building, queuing with fellow passengers for our own temperatures to be checked lest we introduce the ‘novel Coronavirus’ we’d been hearing about, the whole situation seemed somewhat surreal. With the blessing of our practice and after a multitude of vaccines, we left a sodden, storm-swept UK with cases full to bursti

From the "sublime to the ridiculous" doesn't even start to portray the contrast.Having disembarked, the heat whilst standing on the tarmac was impressive. The airport was basic but was undergoing renovation but in the light of the corona virus outbreak every passengers’ temperature was taken and alcohol hand wash offered. Heather the cofounder of The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust met us at the airport. The drive to The Derek Knottenbelt Veterinary Hospital was revealing but not quite as much as

Andrew Harrison and Luise Harrison have set off to The Gambia to provide veterinary support to the Gambian Horse and Donkey Trust. Here's an insight into their preparations.Ah well, we’re off. We’ve left TCEH and Upton upon Severn trying to recover from Storm Dennis last weekend, when we were both on call. It was fairly busy in terms of number of calls ( and a C section on a TB mare in the middle of Saturday night) made more difficult by having to circumvent flooded roads. We’ve left Lucy, our 1

In December Joana Bourbon, Jessica May and Paul Martynski spent two weeks in the Gambia and Paul Martynski shares his experience of working at The Gambia Horse and Donkey Trust.I have never done any charity work (I am ashamed to say), and I have never ventured south of the African Sahara; so two weeks working on behalf of the BEVA Trust in the smallest mainland country in Africa, was always going to be an interesting, if not at least enlightening trip.At the beginning of December 2019, myself an

In November 2019 the BEVA Trust supported volunteers Dr Karl Holliman BVM&S CertEP MRCVS and Jeffrey Newnham DipWCF to travel to Morocco to spend a week at The American Fondouk . Jeff Newnham shares his experience and passion for volunteering. Karl Holliman delivered Dental Training throughout the week with 3 days of lectures and wet lab based training to visiting Vets and Vet students. Jeff Newnham with Mohamed Larbi Souhail (Fondouk Vet) presented 2 lectures focusing on farriery and diseas