History
At the end of 1979, the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan. Three months later, the Dutch Committee for Afghanistan was founded. Main objective of this committee was to offer aid and assistance to the Afghan population. Initially, general humanitarian aid was provided. But gradually the focus changed to veterinary activities as a way to help the Afghan population. In 1994, this led to the foundation of DCA-VET (Dutch Committee for Afghanistan - Veterinary Programmes), a non-governmental organization (NGO) that focuses explicitly at veterinary programmes.
In 1988, DCA established her first veterinary training centre in Peshawar, Pakistan. Afghanistan itself was too dangerous for foreign aid organizations. In Peshawar, DCA trained Afghan refugees as paravets. These paravets returned to Afghanistan and set up small veterinary field units in their home villages.
In 1994, the first DCA-VET veterinary training centre in Afghanistan was opened in Herat. 1994 was also the year of the official foundation of DCA-VET.
Till 1995, DCA worked mainly
from Pakistan . For logistical reasons, all DCA-VET activities were focused
on the east of Afghanistan.
In 1995, DCA-VET handed over this area to the FAO (Food and Agricultural
Organisation) and moved her working area to the North West where very little
was done on animal health and animal production. In this period, DCA-VET also
started the distribution of vaccines to the veterinary field units. The office
of DCA-VET moved from Peshawar to Kabul (becoming the National Headquarters)
in 2002. Also the training centre in Charikar, which was destroyed during the
war, was rebuilt and the paravet course started there.
2004 was a historical year for Afghanistan: a new government was formed. 2004 was also a vital year for DCA-VET. After years of support by the Dutch government and the European Union, USAID became the major donor. As a result, DCA-VET was able to open a new training centre in Charikar, and a new regional office annex training centre in Mazar-i-Sharif.
USAID financed the RAMP-project, which gave DCA-VET tremendous opportunities. From January 2004 till July 2006 DCA-VET, together with the Afghan partners Afghan Veterinary Association (AVA) and Partners in Revitalization and Building (PRB), expanded her working area to 30 provinces. At the end of the RAMP-project (June 30, 2006), 400 veterinary field units are established with 600 paravets working there.
When the RAMP-project came to an end, DCA-VET covered the period in between funding as much as possible from her own core funds. This enabled the 290 DCA-VET VFU staff members to carry on their work at more or less the same level as during the RAMP period.
A special event in 2006 was the set up and construction of the Baghlan Cheese Factory, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Development Cooperation. The aim of this project is to improve local food security by offering the farmers an outlet for their surplus of milk.
In January 2007, a new USAID funded project started as a follow-up of the RAMP-project. This project, called 
ASAP, concentrated on the Northern, Western and Central regions of Afghanistan from Farah to Badakhshan. The focus of this project gradually shifted from strengthening of the VFU system to enhancing the business sustainability of VFUs. The ASAP working area moved from the overall Northern region to the North East and Central parts of Afghanistan.
In October 2009, an EU funded project started in the provinces of Farah, Herat, Badghis and Ghor. Since April 2010, the IDEA NEW project is being implemented in five other formerly ‘ASAP‘Northern provinces i.e. Faryab, Jawzjan, Sari Pul, Balkh and Samangan .
The extension of the ASAP project that was agreed upon in June 2010, now also includes the establishment of new VFUs in provinces in the South and East of Afghanistan, e.g. Ghazni, Logar, Kandahar, Khost, Wardak, Paktika, Helmand, and Nangahar.
In all DCA-VET projects, ranging from the Baghlan Cheese factory to the DCU project in Uruzgan, the objective of reaching sustainability is now one of the major topics.
Another principal aim of DCA-VET's current efforts in Afghanistan is to enhance integration of public and private veterinary services. For it is our ultimate goal to create an environment in which private and public veterinary services work successfully together for the benefit of the Afghan livestock owners.
Latest revision 07 July 2010