Participants of the paravet training originate from villages all over Afghanistan. Special DCA facilitators visit villages where there is a need for veterinary care. In consultation with the local Shura they recruit capable and motivated trainees. These trainees are mostly male, but when possible also female trainees are selected. After an entrance exam, these trainees participate in a paravet course in one of the three DCA training centres in Charikar, Herat, and Mazar-i-Shariff.
A paravet course runs 24 weeks. The curriculum of the training includes diagnosis and treatment of the most frequently occurring diseases, vaccination of animals, and training in extension of best practices in animal health and production to farmers. Practical training is a very important element in the paravet curriculum. For handling, diagnosing and treating of animals will be the major tasks of the future paravet. Also a seminar on business development is part of the paravet course. After all, as private entrepreneur a paravet must be able to run his or her small business effectively. After graduation, the paravets return to their villages to start a veterinary field unit, supported by DCA. Over the years, DCA has trained more than 1,000 paravets. Most graduates are now working in one of DCA’s field programmes or are operating their VFUs which are fully privatised.
DCA has been striving for some time to obtain an official registration of the Charikar Training Centre. On the 23rd of March 2019, DCA received an official certification by the Afghan Ministry of Labour. In 2018, the DCA training curriculum has been translated in English in order to have it audited by an external specialist of OIE, the World Organisation for Animal Health.
