Butler County veterinarian, volunteers join forces to help Haitians get goat
Dr. Barb Karner keeps busy running two veterinary offices in Butler County — Muddy Creek Animal Clinic in Clay Township and Suburban Animal Clinic in Penn Township, but she’s recently found time to help Haitian residents learn how to raise goats and become self-sufficient.
Karner’s part in the initiative comes as part of a volunteer group, Hearts 4 Haiti’s most recent mission to the country, which concluded on Friday, March 14. The group, which was founded in 2018, conducts two volunteer missions per year to Haiti to deliver supplies and assist at a local medical clinic, among other activities.
“I've been a donor to the organization for quite some time, but as a veterinarian, I offered to spearhead their goat project,” Karner said.
“In Haiti, we would go to the market, we would buy a goat, and we would give it to a family in Haiti,” said Hearts 4 Haiti vice president Linda Beck. “And then they were to raise the goats to create more goats, and then they would have them for milk.
“That was like a small business. To receive a goat was a big deal.”
Karner did not go to Haiti on the most recent trip. However, on Saturday, March 8, she conducted a Zoom class with a group of six Haitian residents, one to serve as the “goat expert” of their respective community. These six were hand-selected by Dr. Maudelin Mesadieu, who runs Hearts 4 Haiti’s medical clinic.
The class was to train these six residents on how to properly take care of the goats that the group purchases for them.
“She was training them to be a vet tech, so they could be the ones that would be taking care of goats in their community,” Beck said. “We provided them each with a kit that contains some tools.”
“They learned about what they could do to keep their animals healthy,” Beck said. “That’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help them do a better job of being caretakers.”
According to Beck, the goat project got off the ground when, by chance, she met Karner at a fundraising gala for the organization.
“We were asking for donations to buy more goats, and she saw the need for proper training of people to care for the goats,” Beck said. “If they have healthier goats, it helps the people of Haiti more.”
Karner says that the information she relayed was practically second nature for her, as she has plenty of experience around goats.
“I have a farm, and I raise meat goats, so it’s very easy for me to convey my knowledge,” Karner said.
“It was her idea to train these people, and they were so eager to learn,” Beck said.
According to Beck, their most recent trip was the first time that internet service was available to them in Haiti during a mission there since Hearts 4 Haiti was founded, thus allowing the Zoom meeting to take place.
While Karner herself wasn’t part of the trip, Beck says that somewhere between 6 and 12 volunteers make the twice-yearly trip to Haiti, and that Beck and her husband George have personally been to the country four times.
Already, Hearts 4 Haiti, along with Karner, are holding meetings to determine their next steps. Their next trip to Haiti is scheduled for August.
