vision
Our vision is to see communities - animals, humans, and the environment - thriving through sustained benefits from development programmes and initiatives.
our focus
Our focus is on improving the health and welfare of animals, the wellbeing of the human communities in which they live, and the environment they all share. Our work draws on the intertwined nature of animal, human, and environmental wellbeing. By adopting a One Health approach, we can develop holistic solutions that address all three these elements, without advancement in one compromising the other. We aim to promote social prosperity by facilitating knowledge sharing.
HISTORY
VillageHealth is built on a portfolio of projects to improve community-based animal health and welfare since 2019. Led and developed by Prof Leanne Scott and Dr Isabel Meyer, this portfolio originated from work done through the Department of Statistical Sciences at the University of Cape Town. The projects aimed to expose students to ways of structuring and developing holistic solutions to complex socio-technical problems, especially animal care challenges in resource-poor communities. The student projects have since evolved into longer-term projects that involve working with animal health and welfare organisations to better understand community needs, and to improve interventions and impact. We now actively seek partnerships to expand this work.
Photo credit: Rene Ronge
our team
Our team combines skills in community development, problem structuring, systems modelling, statistical sciences, and veterinary science.
We work with community members to scope problems, collect data, and co-create solutions.
Prof Leanne Scott (PhD), co-founder of VillageHealth. is fluent in problem structuring, statistics, survey design, and multi-criteria decision making. She works with communities and local government to structure problems, gather data, and describe the landscape within which to develop solutions. She is currently associate professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences at UCT. At VillageHealth, she trains community members in data collection and manages community-driven data collection initiatives.
Dr Isabel Meyer (PhD, MBA, BVSc), co-founder of VillageHealth, is a veterinarian and operations researcher who focuses on the design of development interventions for sustained impact. She works with communities and animal welfare organisations to assess and design their interventions for sustained benefit, and has worked with corporates to improve the impact of animal management programmes. She trains community members in basic animal care and One Health.