Meet Marc Milien - veterinary agent in Mombin Crochu

Meet Marc Milien! Marc is a quiet, gentle man with a wife and 3 children. He has always worked with animals and we sponsored him to complete the veterinary field agent training at Ag Horizon in 2018-2019 (https://www.facebook.com/people/Ag-Horizon-VET-Clinic/100054286789502/) He has proven to be a very competent field agent, capable of many veterinary procedures including surgeries such as rumenotomies, c-sections and castrations. He is fearless! He has become a leader in the vet agent community, with current students at Ag Horizon attending our mobile clinics for the opportunity to work with him. He is popular agent with the people in Mombin. Marc makes a living providing his services to the community. He charges for his time and for the medicine he gives to the animals. He and our other 3 agents (Alcima Decembre, Nadege Cadet and Carline Sucois) provide 2-3 mobile clinics per month, gathering up their supplies and traveling to remote locations (sometimes walking, sometimes by renting motorcycles) so people may more easily bring their animals to them for care (there are few good roads and basically no large vehicles in the Mombin area for animal transport). The farmers pay for the services and the agents each receive 5% of the money that is collected. The rest is put into the GDAC funds to buy more medication, supplies and pay for transport. The amount of money the farmers are asked to pay is not enough to cover the medication, supply and transportation expenses of conducting these clinics. At this time, GDAC USA supports these efforts with additional funding to ensure supplies are on hand. Why do we ask the farmers to pay for the services, you may ask? It is because we want to develop this into a self-sustaining enterprise and increase the value of the animals in the farmers' opinions. We are training the farmers that good animal care is beneficial to the animals and to them as well. There is a saying, "You put your money where your heart is." Paying to provide care for the animal increases the value and importance of the animal in the farmers' eyes. Animals with greater value receive better care. The investment the farmers make in their animals is important and must be part of the interaction. Marc and the other agents also spend time educating farmers about animal husbandry and caring for our growing goat herd which will be our primary source of goats for our goat give-away events. Marc helps select the plants our nurseries grow and disperse to the farmers to provide better nutrition for their animals (bermuda grass, leucena, moringa and elephant grass, among a few). Also, since the discovery of African Swine Fever, a devastating and very contagious swine disease, in the Dominican Republic, our veterinary agents remain on watch for any signs of it in our swine. It has been truly a difficult time the past year in Haiti, with the assassination of the president and current political unrest, multiple hurricanes and an earthquake (which, by the grace of God, had little affect in our northern location). American teams have not been able to travel to Haiti easily this year with the ever-present political unrest. There is little gasoline so agents can't travel as easily to provide remote clinics and their income has decreased. There is a shortage of food as well. GDAC has been sending additional monthly financial support for all four of our agents to help them through these tough times. We fervently hope and pray that this situation improves so we can resume bringing American veterinary teams to the area. It is an amazing opportunity to see the direct benefits that veterinary care provides for communities who rely on their farm animals to provide nutrition, transportation and work.