Thursday, January 24, 2008

USAID South Asia Avian Influenza Partners Meeting


USAID South Asia Avian Influenza Partners met in New Delhi, India on January 16 and 17, 2008 for the first regional meeting. Focus of the meeting was on prevention and outbreak response in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal. Attendees were from USAID missions, FAO, WHO, and USAID-funded projects, StopAI and AI.COMM.

Presentations from the meeting are available below in PDF format:

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Notes and photos from Ghana Holiday Activities

I wanted to send along our holiday pictures, which show some of the social mobilization and community-based communication activities we've been doing in Ghana. We've been working with the Ghana AI Communications Sub-Committee on an emergency communication plan. We're working in 5 districts--Brong Ahafo, Volta, Ashanti, Eastern and Greater Accra and our partners, in addition to the sub-committee, include Ghana Red Cross, Ghana Vet Services, National Association of Poultry Farmers, EXP Momentum, and Ogilvy. In December, 196 Red Cross volunteers were trained in interpersonal communications and then went farm-to-farm and to markets to share key AI prevention messages with the general public. This community-based communication was reinforced by two radio adverts with messages on basic hygiene, confinement, and separation.

Just before Christmas, when many people give poultry as gifts, we put together additional field activities in the same regions. This time, social mobilizers from local organizations; Prolink and CEDIC, visited all of the key poultry and egg sections in markets in regional capitals. The teams talked to market sellers and visitors, sharing with them good practices to stay healthy and to prevent AI. The teams handed out flyers with optimal behaviors as reminders. Overall, the field teams reached over 27,000 people during this busy week before Christmas.

Hope you have a happy new year and we'll share more pictures later in the year.

Nichola Peach
AI.COMM/Ghana team