Tania Areori applied for an Australia Awards scholarship six years ago with the goal of becoming a veterinarian and contributing to animal health care in PNG.
Dr Areori is now a qualified vet in PNG, having successfully completed a Bachelor of Veterinary Science with Honours from Charles Sturt University.
In recognition of her skills, Dr Areori has recently been selected to take part in the Australian Government-funded Pacific Paravet Training Project. The initiative will train animal health workers from 11 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
“The project is focused on animal health capacity building because in the Pacific we don’t have a lot of veterinarians, and the paravets, the animal health officers, are the ones on the ground doing the job,” Dr. Areori said.
One of the project’s key aims is to prevent diseases spreading from animals to humans – an issue that has received international attention since the outbreak of the #COVID19 pandemic.
“There’s an important relationship between animals and human health, and also [development of] our agriculture sector. I think it’s an area that needs a lot of support,” Dr Areori said.
Dr Areori, who works for the National Agriculture Quarantine & Inspection Authority, is one of around 12,000 Papua New Guineans to have benefited from Australian Government-funded scholarships over the past 60 years.
Photo credit: Charles Sturt University