Carmen Barba Claassens has worked with Travelling Animal Doctors for several years. The organization has grown to rely upon this dedicated and capable veterinarian, who has led TAD campaigns in the Galapagos Islands, Thailand, and Madagascar. According to her colleagues, observing Carmen with an animal makes it quite apparent that she chose the right vocation.
Carmen went to veterinary school with TAD’s founder, Dr. Jochem Lastdrager. They graduated the same year, and Carmen followed Jochem’s professional journey on social media; she watched as he established TAD in 2014, and its mission resonated with her.
“I wanted to travel the world, and I wanted give back,” she said. “In the States and in Europe, there’s always veterinary care. I loved the idea of traveling to a new destination, knowing that they had little to no access to such care; providing that vet access to animals; and lowering the impact dogs and cats have on local wildlife. I loved the idea of knowing I could make a difference.”
Opportunity soon knocked. In 2016, Carmen worked as head vet on a TAD campaign in the Galapagos. She went on to lead a campaign in Koh Tao, Thailand, and then a rabies vaccination campaign in Madagascar.
“The vaccination campaign took about two weeks, and we vaccinated over 3,000 animals for rabies,” she said. “Then we spent three more months on a spay/neuter campaign, going every day to a new village. Overall, we spayed and neutered 475 animals, and the villagers were very welcoming.”
Carmen worked with two Madagascar-based veterinarians, as well as three researchers working with The Mad Dog Initiative — one from Madagascar and two from Canada — to determine the impact of dogs on the lemur population. She said the group would set up a meeting with each village chief in advance to explain what the visit would entail.
“Often, people already would be waiting in line when we arrived,” she remembered. “In one village, we had 80 people waiting for rabies vaccinations for their dogs and cats. It was insane. But it was always a good experience. The village chiefs were welcoming, and happy with our work.”
While visiting the villages, Carmen and the TAD/MDI team also would engage in another top priority: public awareness and education. Rabies is very common in Madagascar, and many of its communities suffer from lack of access to healthcare.
“Healthcare in Madagascar isn’t good, and villagers often don’t have money or transportation anyway,” Carmen explained. “If someone is bitten by a rabid dog, they might face 20 hours in a bus for rabies shots. People die, because they don’t know what to do, or they can’t pay, or they can’t get to a medical facility.”
In each village, the team also spends time with children. They teach young people how to understand a dog’s body language to avoid — or at least lower the chance of — getting bitten.
“We build a nice bond with the villages’ children,” Carmen said. “When we drive our van into each village, the kids will be waiting, singing and clapping. We play soccer with them (TAD purchased soccer balls and air pumps in advance of the volunteers’ travel to Madagascar, and the volunteers presented these gifts to the schools). We also watched Disney movies on a laptop; in general, we have fun with them.”
TAD works hard to build relationships with Madagascar’s existing veterinarians, as well. The populations in distant villages are not their clients, so these relationships are noncompetitive, and after a TAD campaign ends, the team donates rabies vaccines to urban veterinary clinics.
Carmen must juggle a variety of responsibilities while working on TAD campaigns (team leadership, omniscient, teacher, TAD Community Ambassador, animal wrangler, environmentalist, rabies scholar). In particular, she is in charge of volunteers on location, handling their orientation and managing their daily needs and activities. In addition, she is the lead surgeon.
“Our volunteers are veterinarians and vet students, and it’s my job to keep them happy,” she said. “The local veterinarians and I also take the time to teach them how to prep animals for surgery and monitor anesthesia, and we teach surgical techniques. In addition, I oversee all the surgeries and make sure all the animals are kept safe.
“As we move forward, I hope we can get vet techs as well,” she added. “If we have students who can work more closely with our vets, it will save us a lot of work.”
Carmen encourages professionals and students in the field of veterinary medicine to consider volunteering with TAD.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, working with a small team on the road,” she explained. “It’s adventurous. You’re working in the mud and the rain. You’re doing work that’s really important, giving back to communities that need the help. And you’re always building new relationships, making new friends, and experiencing new cultures.”
Carmen first met her fiancée, an American veterinarian, on the 2016 Darwin Animal Doctors project in the Galapagos, and they worked together again the following year with Travelling Animal Doctors in Thailand. They just recently completed a yearlong contract at an SPCA shelter in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada and are now back home in Europe.
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Carmen Barba Claassens has worked with Travelling Animal Doctors for several years. The organization has grown to rely upon this dedicated and capable veterinarian, who has led TAD campaigns in the Galapagos Islands, Thailand, and Madagascar. According to her colleagues, observing Carmen with an animal makes it quite apparent that she chose the right vocation.
Carmen went to veterinary school with TAD’s founder, Dr. Jochem Lastdrager. They graduated the same year, and Carmen followed Jochem’s professional journey on social media; she watched as he established TAD in 2014, and its mission resonated with her.
“I wanted to travel the world, and I wanted give back,” she said. “In the States and in Europe, there’s always veterinary care. I loved the idea of traveling to a new destination, knowing that they had little to no access to such care; providing that vet access to animals; and lowering the impact dogs and cats have on local wildlife. I loved the idea of knowing I could make a difference.”
Opportunity soon knocked. In 2016, Carmen worked as head vet on a TAD campaign in the Galapagos. She went on to lead a campaign in Koh Tao, Thailand, and then a rabies vaccination campaign in Madagascar.
“The vaccination campaign took about two weeks, and we vaccinated over 3,000 animals for rabies,” she said. “Then we spent three more months on a spay/neuter campaign, going every day to a new village. Overall, we spayed and neutered 475 animals, and the villagers were very welcoming.”
Carmen worked with two Madagascar-based veterinarians, as well as three researchers working with The Mad Dog Initiative — one from Madagascar and two from Canada — to determine the impact of dogs on the lemur population. She said the group would set up a meeting with each village chief in advance to explain what the visit would entail.
“Often, people already would be waiting in line when we arrived,” she remembered. “In one village, we had 80 people waiting for rabies vaccinations for their dogs and cats. It was insane. But it was always a good experience. The village chiefs were welcoming, and happy with our work.”
While visiting the villages, Carmen and the TAD/MDI team also would engage in another top priority: public awareness and education. Rabies is very common in Madagascar, and many of its communities suffer from lack of access to healthcare.
“Healthcare in Madagascar isn’t good, and villagers often don’t have money or transportation anyway,” Carmen explained. “If someone is bitten by a rabid dog, they might face 20 hours in a bus for rabies shots. People die, because they don’t know what to do, or they can’t pay, or they can’t get to a medical facility.”
In each village, the team also spends time with children. They teach young people how to understand a dog’s body language to avoid — or at least lower the chance of — getting bitten.
“We build a nice bond with the villages’ children,” Carmen said. “When we drive our van into each village, the kids will be waiting, singing and clapping. We play soccer with them (TAD purchased soccer balls and air pumps in advance of the volunteers’ travel to Madagascar, and the volunteers presented these gifts to the schools). We also watched Disney movies on a laptop; in general, we have fun with them.”
TAD works hard to build relationships with Madagascar’s existing veterinarians, as well. The populations in distant villages are not their clients, so these relationships are noncompetitive, and after a TAD campaign ends, the team donates rabies vaccines to urban veterinary clinics.
Carmen must juggle a variety of responsibilities while working on TAD campaigns (team leadership, omniscient, teacher, TAD Community Ambassador, animal wrangler, environmentalist, rabies scholar). In particular, she is in charge of volunteers on location, handling their orientation and managing their daily needs and activities. In addition, she is the lead surgeon.
“Our volunteers are veterinarians and vet students, and it’s my job to keep them happy,” she said. “The local veterinarians and I also take the time to teach them how to prep animals for surgery and monitor anesthesia, and we teach surgical techniques. In addition, I oversee all the surgeries and make sure all the animals are kept safe.
“As we move forward, I hope we can get vet techs as well,” she added. “If we have students who can work more closely with our vets, it will save us a lot of work.”
Carmen encourages professionals and students in the field of veterinary medicine to consider volunteering with TAD.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, working with a small team on the road,” she explained. “It’s adventurous. You’re working in the mud and the rain. You’re doing work that’s really important, giving back to communities that need the help. And you’re always building new relationships, making new friends, and experiencing new cultures.”
Carmen first met her fiancée, an American veterinarian, on the 2016 Darwin Animal Doctors project in the Galapagos, and they worked together again the following year with Travelling Animal Doctors in Thailand. They just recently completed a yearlong contract at an SPCA shelter in the Caribbean island nation of Grenada and are now back home in Europe.
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