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Couldn't get to Baltimore for the Mere Saathi web site launch in July?  Want to relive the scenes of rural India and the passion to serve?

You can read the Mere Saathi story as Dr. Audrey Barker told it: The cow pie that first connected her to rural Indian women, the killer tiger and a mother's sacrifice, and the Untouchable villages where veterinary science showed us the way to a better future.

We hope you'll share the Mere Saathi story with friends. Sign up for Mere Saathi email updates.  And let us know how you want to be part of the story.

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Welcome to Mere Saathi’s website launch!  Thank you so much for being here. It really means a lot to me.  This project - Mere Saathi - is such an important part of my life, and I’m really excited to share this with you!

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The launch of the website is significant for a couple reasons.  The most important is that it's the visible component of what has been overall major progress for Mere Saathi this year.  And it’s that progress that I’m most excited about - the revitalization and a new phase.

And of course, a website is the primary tool with which to create awareness and support for what we do.   I’m hoping after this presentation, you will all be super-pumped about helping women in India, and you'll tell all of your friends to check out meresaathi.org and sign up for email updates.

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Mere Saathi’s vision is to enhance the lives of and empower impoverished Indian women by improving the health of the animals in their care.

In order to really understand why animal health has anything to do with empowering or lifting Indian women out of poverty, I’m going to talk about the One Health concept and give some background about me, the project, and India.  All the photos in this presentation are from Mere Saathi visits to India during 2010-2017, plus my first personal trip in 2006.

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Things are very different in India.

If you go to India for the first time -- I think those of you who have been would agree -- your very first impressions will be the severity and ubiquity of the poverty, and that there are animals everywhere.

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Above is a photo taken during our March 2017 trip.   This is in the heart of the city of Varanasi - a city with twice the population of Baltimore.  And yet, here’s a family dairy operation, right in the heart of the city.  Sights like this are more than commonplace.  Animals are everywhere - from cows, buffalo, and goats that are kept for milk, to the stray dogs and stray bulls that you cross paths with as you walk or drive anywhere.

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I fell in love with rural India and the beautiful women that live there before I started Mere Saathi.  That first time I visited India as an undergrad was my first time out of the country.  A bit of culture shock. My first prominent memory is of a tour we were on to a temple.  Our vehicle had to park pretty far from it, and I’m walking with my group.   I stop and take photos, and then I realize that I've fallen quite far behind the group.

So I start running after them, and I slip on a huge pile of cow poop and get it all over me!  I was right in front of a hut where there was a young woman milking a buffalo. She started giggling at me. I’m embarrassed and thinking, There is no way I can go into this sacred temple now with poop all over me.  But this woman, the one who was giggling, gestured to me to come over, and she helped me wash off.

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She had no running water, so we were working from pails that she had collected. She was trying to show me how to use this strange brush device to clean, and of course we don’t understand a word either one of us is saying, so it was an awkward, fumbling social interaction.  We ended up just laughing so hard at the absurdity of it. It was the first experience of many - of connecting across the world, which is an incredible experience.  Finding that even though we are from completely different worlds, at the core we re all the same.

After that experience and many other from that first trip, I felt so compelled to one day come back and try to have some positive impact on the lives of Indian women.

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So fast forward a few years later to vet school.  We’re learning about the One Health concept, which is the idea that the health of animals, humans, and the environment is intimately connected.  Each affects the other.  And I knew that this was how I could, as a vet, help women in India.  And that’s how Mere Saathi was started.

We started simply - by visiting rural villages, meeting people, talking, and building relationships with individuals and various organizations like the local vet schools, and with various government officials.

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We became immersed in village life, took surveys about living conditions and animal husbandry practices, and documented our physical exam of animals.

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We did some research projects, all of which allowed us to build up a body of knowledge and experiences, and to make the connections we needed to develop plans for how to employ One Health concepts to help impoverished village women.

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This is where Mere Saathi does its work – in rural Dalit villages like the one shown below.  Dalit is the name of the untouchable caste, those lowest on the social order, the most impoverished.

The caste system has been officially abolished by the Indian government.  But as you can imagine, the deeply-rooted manifestations of the caste system are still very present in the culture, especially out here in rural India.

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In a Dalit village such as this one, every single family owns a few animals - mostly cows, buffalo, and goats for milk.  This is where Mere Saathi can have the most significant impact - in milk production.

There are also tons of stray dogs and a few stray cats that live in these villages and can affect mostly the children who play with them.  We’ll connect all of that with some photos later.

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The most obvious benefit of the milk production from these animals is its nutritional value.  The women in these villages are Hindu, thus vegetarian, so milk is the sole source of protein for their families.  And for growing children, protein is absolutely vital for proper development.

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We were once in the Sunderbans region of India, which is home to some of the most dense populations of tigers in the world.  We were staying in a village and were awakened one morning by screaming and shouting.  We learned that a tiger had come through the village and killed several goats.  When we learned that no humans were harmed, we said, "Thank goodness, it was just the goats.", And an older village woman said back to me, “If a tiger came to my home, I would rather he kill me than my cows.  If he kills me, my sister will take care of my children. If he kills my cows, my children will starve.”

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That made a lasting impression on me.  It helped fuel this passion – it helps me to never give up.

So, the milk that these animals produce is truly vital to their basic human needs.

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But it's not just nutritional value that the production of milk has.  In India, milk production also has the unique ability to empower women specifically, and to help lift communities out of poverty.  Here's why:

Any extra milk produced above and beyond what is consumed directly by the family is sold and provides extra income.  But this is a very special, unique income that allows for financial independence and social mobility in ways that no other source of income for these women can provide.

The primary livelihoods of the families that Mere Saathi works with is farm labor.  The husband and wife both go out and work in the fields on someone else’s land.  The wages earned from the work of both the husband and the wife are all paid to the husband .  The women do not see this money.  They have absolutely no say in how it is spent.

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However, the money earned from selling the extra milk is paid directly to the women.  This is because women are their primary caretakers of dairy livestock, and it is culturally acceptable and is the current practice for them to hold on to this money and make decisions on how it will be spent.

This opens up an incredibly effective avenue to empower women and enhance their personal financial security.  But it also extends beyond women.  Studies show that empowering women is the best way to lift entire communities out of poverty, breaking the cycle of poverty. Because women are more likely to invest in the health and education of their children.

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This next photo was taken a few years ago.  Mere Saathi was meeting with women self-help groups and helping educate these women on optimizing the nutritional regimens for their cows.  This is in Andrha Pradesh, in villages that have already made big steps toward lifting themselves out of poverty.

These self-help groups were each made up of 7 to 10 village women who came together to form microfinance groups with the money they earned from milk production. With collective funds, they were able to finance – take out loans - for things like their daughters’ education and acquiring new cows.

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They’re taking major steps to end the cycle of poverty. But perhaps even more significantly, they are realizing their self worth and gaining independence which – in a cultural environment such as the one these rural women are in – is invaluable.

All of this is only possible through extra milk their animals are able to produce.

But in many villages in India, many of the animals aren’t healthy enough to provide adequate nutrition for the women, much less extra income.  Cows like the one in the next photo - skin and bones - are the norm in Dalit villages.

This woman, Amrita, told us that her cow - this cow - was giving her half a liter of milk a day. Contrast that with the average milk production of a dairy cow in America - 33 liters per day.  Or contrast it with the cows of the women in the self-help groups I showed in the previous photo.  They were in much better health, producing 5 to 10 liters a day.

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Amrita had been milking this cow for five years straight from one pregnancy, because she knew if she stopped milking and tried to get the cow pregnant again, it would never get bred successfully or have a healthy calf.  And so it would completely stop giving her any milk at all.  All this because of the poor health it was in.  So the poor health of her animal was not only affecting milk production but the ability to give her new calves and build her herd.  This is a common scenario.

So the bottom line is this:  If you can improve the health of these animals, you can greatly improve milk production, improve the longevity of the animals’ productivity, and significantly improve their ability to reproduce - all of which will have a tremendous impact on the financial stability and independence of these women.

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Another impact that animal health has on rural Indian families is that it directly affects human health, especially children.

Just like humans can pass diseases to each other, animals can also pass diseases to humans.  These diseases are called zoonotic diseases or zoonoses.

Here in America, the average person doesn’t have to even think twice about zoonosis.  But here in these villages, they are still a very real threat to their lives, especially their children - diseases like tuberculosis, brucellosis, leptospirosis, parasites, and rabies.

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Most children walk around barefoot, which increases the likelihood of getting worms.  I don’t think I've been to a village yet where I haven’t seen at least one child blinded by larval migrans - from a parasite picked up from feces of animals.  I've met two women who have lost children to rabies.  So zoonosis are a real threat.

Once again, if we can improve the health of the animals in these villages, we can help prevent zoonosis and in some cases literally help save lives.

So you can see, there are so many ways that Mere Saathi can employ the idea of One Health to help people, specifically Dalit Indian women. Here are some of the ways we’ve done so already:

In the past we've held animal health clinics, like the one here.

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We did that in several locations.  This photo is from a village outside of Kolkata.

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We vaccinated street dogs for rabies.  These dogs are usually quite friendly.  It’s been difficult keeping from taking them all home with me!

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And as I mentioned before, we have held educational sessions with women in self-help groups about more efficient nutritional regimens for their dairy animals.

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28 But it’s the new phase of Mere Saathi that I’m the most excited about.  It's is the reason I’ve asked you all here.  We are launching a new phase that has inspired this revitalization.

A few months ago, I partnered with HIT - Helping India Together.  Dr MIchael Atchison is the founder, and he has graced us with his presence here today.  This was such a breakthrough for Mere Saathi, because HIT works with established projects already on the ground that are working in the poorest communities in India.

A few months ago, HIT introduced me to the health care team in Kachhwa, a large town west of the city of Varanasi.  This is a team of people who share my view on the value of human life.  They share my passion for helping the most marginalized people of India.  So this was huge for Mere Saathi  - a game changer.

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Through the community outreach team at Kachhwa, I was introduced to two nearby Dalit villages.  We held a mini clinic and talked to the women there.  This was a new location for Mere Saathi.  Each region of India is different, so I had my eyes wide open, with the real goal of learning and observing, more than contributing.

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What I found is that the needs of these villages are much more basic than those I’ve visited in the past, and certainly some of the poorest I’ve ever seen.  Average milk production was only 1-2 liters of milk per day.  The women struggled to get their animals pregnant, and mortality rates, especially of juveniles, is very high.

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At first this was overwhelming.  It had me feeling almost hopeless, powerless.  But soon a pattern emerged.  It became apparent that there’s a simple measure that would make an absolutely huge impact on the lives of these women.

I found that the biggest reason for such low milk production and overall poor health was parasites.

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Through the exams that I performed, I found that 75% of all the animals showed the obvious outward signs of severe internal parasite burden.  This completely robs these animals of the little nutrition that they’re getting in the first place.  This has a dramatic impact on how much milk they can produce. And for the juveniles, it stunts their growth, forever limiting their production potential.  It can even kill them.

Perhaps the most conspicuous problem was the external parasites.  Over 90% of the skin area of every single cow, buffalo, and goat that I examined had evidence of external parasites.

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The buffalo in this photo is bald and de-pigmented from severe lice infection.

And most animals were covered in ticks.  These parasites don’t just make the animals look and feel miserable. They carry diseases - severe, deadly diseases - which can be spread to the other animals and to humans.

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There is a simple, safe, effective, high-impact way we can treat these animals for all of these parasites, both internal and external.  Dewormer is a relatively inexpensive, safe, effective treatment, and it can have a tremendous, direct effect on milk production and improved health.  So, for the next phase of Mere Saathi, we are focusing in on this very specific issue – parasites - because its low cost and high impact.

There’s another really important factor in why I’ve  decided that this next phase will focus on deworming, and it’s really simple:

Each woman that I spoke with asked for a dewormer.  They all know the value that deworming has.  They are asking for this treatment.  But they don’t have the resources to obtain it themselves.

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This woman, Swaati, told me that her goat was dying from anemia caused by a parasite.  But she didn’t have the money to buy the treatment she needed. When I examined it, I could see he was pale and weak.  A simple de-worming regimen would save this goat and could prevent this from happening to the other animals.

I’m estimating that just deworming alone can increase average milk production by 100% - from an average of 2 liters per day to 4 liters per day.  That’s going to mean the difference between just enough milk to feed a woman's family, and extra that she can now use to earn money for the first time in her life.  And it will keep the animals producing and healthier for longer, and help reduce zoonotic diseases transferred to humans.

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36 Our plan for 2018 is to return to these villages and de-worm 300 animals.  And more importantly, to train the community outreach team in Kachhwa to safely and effectively dispense the de-wormer.  And we will position this team so they can continue to deliver de-wormer twice a year, even when Mere Saathi is not present.

The de-wormer I plan to use treats both internal and external parasites.  And it's safe for baby animals, milking animals, and pregnant animals.  It will cost only $2 per animal to de-worm.  That’s a really tiny cost in order to have such a dramatic impact on these communities.

But in order to make this a reality and make it sustainable -  to touch as many lives as possible - I really need your help and support. I need people who want to become a part of this – who want to be a part of helping lift this new phase of Mere Saathi off the ground.

So this is where the website comes in.  Everyone please go to your mobile device and type meresaathi.org in your browser.  This is our new website - wooo!!

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So here you can learn more about the project and how you can get involved.  You can also sign up for Mere Saathi email updates.  And most importantly, you can donate online.  The donate page will send you to HIT.  Because Mere Saathi is not yet a 501c3 non-profit, our fiscal sponsor is HIT.

Our current campaign goal is to raise $5000 in five months.  That’s $5000 before our 2018 return to Kachhwa.  This will cover expenses to send a small team back to india with enough de-wormer to treat 300 animals.

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But more importantly, it will allow us to train the community outreach team from Kachhwa on how to properly and safely dispense the de-wormer twice a year, even when Mere Saathi is not in india, so that there will be ongoing safeguard against parasites.  This campaign will jumpstart the process of lifting an entire community out of poverty.

I hope you will make whatever donation you can.  And more importantly, I hope you’ll become a champion for this cause.  Please tell your friends, sign up for updates, become a partner, like us on Facebook, stay involved.  And please let me know if you’d like to become even more involved as a Mere Saathi volunteer.  Info@meresaathi.org