FAO/Mazen Haffar

“I remember one woman asked me to save her newborn calf. She said to me ‘Please, whatever you need to do, don’t let my calf die.’ I did my best because I knew it would improve her living.” – Faten Jeghali, veterinarian and artificial insemination technician from rural Hama.

Every day is a financial challenge for smallholder livestock keepers to improve and sustain their only livelihood. Therefore, maintaining a good breed of healthy animals is a valued objective for FAO’s national animal health services (AHS) and artificial insemination (AI) campaign, under the Building Local Resilience in Syria (BLRS) project, funded by UK Aid.  

Like many working domains, veterinary service is widely considered a male-dominated profession, which is also preferred by the livestock keepers themselves as they hold deep gendered beliefs about males’ capabilities and experience. This puts female technicians like Faten under a pressing challenge to double their effort to prove their capabilities and succeed, as the 38-year-old needed to shift the misconceptions by the communities in rural Hama about her abilities.

An uphill journey

Upon completing her degree in veterinary medicine in 2009, Faten was about to finish her master’s degree when her studies were interrupted by the armed conflict in 2011, as she could not reach the veterinary laboratory to present her research and obtain the degree. A few years later, her husband passed away due to the conflict, making her a single mother to her only six-month-old daughter. However, despite all these harsh circumstances, she remained perseverant and never gave up.

She successfully returned to her profession as a veterinarian, but whenever one of the cows she had been treating needed artificial insemination, she would ask for the support of another vet. This prompted her to continue to evolve her skills and take up an artificial insemination course to perform (AI) services by herself.  

The passion to help

“I worked hard to gain people’s trust. Everyone, including my colleagues, were surprised and skeptical about a woman doing artificial insemination” Faten sums up her journey towards becoming a food hero to support vulnerable farmers, especially women, to make their food production practice better.

“One of the elders in a nearby village said to me that if he had not seen me working with his own eyes, he would not believe that I can perform artificial insemination for a cow!”

These challenges have uplifted Faten’s spirit to position herself as a passionate and skilled technician who offers clients advice for livestock-keeping practices, besides the veterinary services she provides.

“I see families taking good care of their animals beyond just being a source of livelihood. I cannot describe my happiness to help them when I treat a cow to become healthier.” Faten describes her passion for helping.

Faten has since led a pioneering career as a veterinary in rural Hama, making her the only female veterinarian working in artificial insemination across the country today.

Working shoulder-to-shoulder

FAO is collaborating with 66 experienced veterinarians to reach more than 24 000 livestock-owning affected households in Aleppo, Deir-ez-Zor, Hama, Homs and Rural Damascus with animal health and artificial insemination services, resulting in significant improvement to livestock production in terms of the quality of the breed, increased milk production rates, and therefore, improved income, livelihoods and resilience.

A package of relevant and focused training topics was presented to the veterinarians, including Faten, about cows’ health before insemination, cows’ estrous cycle management, storage, transportation and preparation of semen straws for an effective inseminating process, reproductive anatomy and physiology, fertility disorder and treatment, and others.

“The training was interesting. We learned about technical best practices that would help to increase pregnancy rates and reduce the number of insemination attempts. We also refreshed our knowledge about better artificial insemination practices that would help me increase the cows’ pregnancy rates,”

She continues:"Being part of FAO’s national campaign has so far allowed me to help more than 110 vulnerable women in rural areas who face challenges to receive animal health services because they lack awareness and knowledge. I believe that those women would feel comfortable speaking with a female veterinarian and learning as well. I will finally have the chance to provide women with support and advice to empower them and scale-up their living conditions,".

Women empowerment and gender equality are core priorities for FAO’s work. The Organization, through the implementation of the BLRS project, has placed great focus on helping women overcome gender-based violence and economic violence to make a significant impact in achieving equality in rural communities. “Women do face difficult challenges, but I encourage all women and everyone to be determined, persistent and patient, and work hard to realize their dreams” Faten concludes.