An experience in the Departmental Veterinary Medical Association Lima. By Vet Med. Lilian Chea

The Departmental Veterinary Medical Association of Lima (CMVDL) has more than 3,000 professionals and is the largest school among all departmental schools in Peru totaling around 20. In Lima there are concentrated around 50% of their members, who are mostly focused on caring about pets, especially dogs and cats.
The remaining work in Public Administration at the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, SENASA, Slaughterhouses, Municipalities, taught at the university or technical training institutes, and a fair amount has been assimilated into the Army or National Police. Veterinarians are also serving privately to the older animals in the field, and technically advising other companies and the veterinary industry.
A month after taking our positions, approximately, we had to face the consequences of the earthquake that struck southern Peru in August 2007, especially the department of Ica, the provinces of Chincha, Pisco, Lima and part of their borders. There were many concerned colleagues, who lost their home and workplace. For this reason, we organized a solidarity campaign in which we supported many colleagues, the Association of Veterinarians in Peru and the veterinary business, such as laboratories, importers, distributors, manufacturers, etc. Thanks to the support, we could travel to those places to bring some relief to affected colleagues and also to animals, veterinary care was provided free and donated drugs were applied to pets in Chincha and Pisco, and production animals in Cañete. We can stress out that we receive assistance in this work, from colleagues who had been affected by the earthquake.
The longing of our colleagues is having "presence" in national affairs, the desire to eradicate the idea that the veterinarian only heals or kills animals. With this purpose, we decided to visit the two most significant workplaces: the Ministry of Agriculture and Health where we spoke to the Minister in the first case and the Chief Advisor in the second one, exchanging ideas on the veterinary profession and the situation of the MV in those institutions. We also visited the Metropolitan Mayor of Lima, who offered unconditional support on behalf of the Municipality and himself for the College's activities.
A familiar question: What does the College do for me? Why do I need to provide or participate in it? Well, with these questions in mind, we signed agreements with language teaching institutions where they can study languages at reduced prices. The National Office of Electoral Processes – ONPE- also signed an agreement. Whenever there are elections they give advice. They were also carried out campaigns about health, vision and dental for free.
On the other hand, the agreement PALTEX with World Health Organization / Pan American Health Organization allows MV to buy books, materials and specialty equipment at minimum prices. The CMVDL was in 2009 among the best sales centers.
The training was one of our priorities. There were courses on business management, small animal emergencies, health in guinean pigs, and a seminar on zoonosis, among others.
We met other professional associations in Lima, with who organized the First Conference on Ethics in Times of Globalization, pre-conference event, which had a great response.
Throughout our management had the support of prominent foreign professionals, drawing on his visit to our country, support the school by offering lectures on their specialties, and we had the latest developments in topics such as hydatidosis, Rabies, Bats and Vampires, use of equipment X-ray, registration of veterinary medicine, among other issues no less important.
It was established that any colleague who asked for their registration in the register should participate in a workshop in which some lectures were given about various topics, emphasizing the ethics and professional ethics as well as let them know the rules of the College. The meetings closed with a very entertaining group dynamics by analysing various situations of the profession.
Finally, we visited some consultories managed by pseudo veterinaries.
These are some of the things that were done during the tenure 2007-2009. In the college there is so much work to do, the period specified in the rules is two years for both the Departmental Council and the National, which is too short. There will always be pending matters to attend, but we have the satisfaction of having offered our time and working hours to contribute to the advancement of our institution, albeit with a grain of sand.