Stronger Together: Bangladesh Student Team Marks World Rabies Day with Vaccination Drive and Community Outreach

Students from the OneHealthVillage project join the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at Patuakhali Science and Technology University to vaccinate pets and share rabies prevention messages.

Rabies is fatal once symptoms appear, but it is entirely preventable. On World Rabies Day, 28 September, students from the OneHealthVillage project turned that message into action at Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), Barishal Campus.

OneHealthVillage is Bangladesh's winning team in the SEAOHUN 2026 Regional Student Competition, the One Health Campus-to-Community Challenge. The project is funded by Chevron through the Southeast Asia One Health University Network (SEAOHUN). The challenge gives student teams across nine countries a small grant to design and run health projects in their own communities.

Under this year's theme, "Stronger Together," the students worked with the university's Veterinary Teaching Hospital to bring animal health experts, students, and community members together. Their shared goal is Zero Human Deaths from Dog-Mediated Rabies by 2030.

What happened on the day

• Awareness rally: Participants marched to raise public awareness of rabies prevention.

• Free rabies vaccination: Pets and community animals received free vaccines, protecting animals and the people who live alongside them.

• Zoonotic disease cards: The team handed out cards they created, explaining in simple language how to prevent rabies in people and animals. (Zoonotic diseases are illnesses that pass between animals and humans.)

Veterinary students led much of the work on the ground, from speaking with the public to supporting the vaccination effort.

Standing Together with Faculty and Partners

Professor Dr. Khondoker Jahengir Alam, Dean of the Faculty of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, and Professor Dr. Farzana Islam Rume, project supervisor from the Department of Microbiology and Public Health, attended with other faculty members.

The team thanks Professor Dr. Md. Selim Ahmed, Chief Veterinarian of the PSTU Veterinary Teaching Hospital, who directed the free vaccination programme. They also thank the One Health Institute, Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU), for joining the campaign.

Youth and community working together

OneHealthVillage is a student-led project in Rahamatpur, the community near the PSTU Barishal Campus. Eight students from PSTU, Sher-E-Bangla Medical College, and the University of Rajshahi train local residents to become community leaders. These leaders host relaxed village gatherings, using a printed toolkit, to help neighbours protect people, animals, and the environment together. The project also covers bird flu, leptospirosis, and the misuse of antibiotics.

The World Rabies Day campaign took the same approach to a wider audience: when youth and community work as partners, healthy habits spread.