b'Virtual Vet Training Transforms a Mothers LifeBy AIME KNIGHT, World Ark writerPhotographs by NARENDRA SHRESTHABEFORE SHE LEAVES HER HOME, NESTLED IN THE HILLS OF CENTRAL NEPAL, KUSU MAYA MALLA TIES HER HAIR BACK in a bandana and runs through a checklist of her tools: A pair of latex gloves. A microscope and syringes. A refrigerated box of livestock medications. A tablet. This veterinary equipment, a gift from Heifer Nepal, is critical to Kusus work providing animal health services to local farmers in her rural community of Parbat. The 40-year-old mother of three earns an income for her family traveling farm to farm, administering vaccines and medicines to buffaloes and goats, offering advice to farmers on how to properly clean animal sheds and what kinds of livestock fodder are most nutritious.But it wasnt always this way.Kusus days used to consist of household chores, raising her children and supporting her husband, Amrit, with farm work. Shed cook and clean and take to the fields to tend to the familys small goat herd and vegetable garden.Though her days were full and long, and despite the fact shed completed her schooling up to the tenth grade, Kusu had never earned an income of her own.That is, until the COVID-19 pandemic hit.10| SPRING 2023'