[Mb-civic] Afghan Women With Pluck Tackle Bird Flu - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Afghan Women With Pluck Tackle Bird Flu
Motivated to Protect Livelihoods, Widows Prevail Over Fear, Disorder

By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, April 16, 2006; A11

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Raising chickens has always been women's work in 
Afghanistan, and in the past several years this backyard occupation has 
brought new independence and income to thousands of illiterate war 
widows who have few other ways to earn a living.

So when avian flu was detected here six months ago, and several cases of 
its virulent H5N1 strain confirmed by U.N. experts in March, ripples of 
rumor and panic coursed through the loosely organized groups of widows 
in greater Kabul who raise some of Afghanistan's estimated 12.1 million 
chickens and sell their eggs for 2 cents apiece.

For some, the first impulse was to hide, sell or destroy their 
hand-raised flocks. But in just a few weeks, radio ads, nonprofit groups 
and a roving corps of Afghan women trained by the United Nations as bird 
flu "sentinels" have taught the widows how to protect their chickens and 
themselves from catching the deadly ailment.

"Now we know what to do about this new disease. We wash and boil eggs 
before eating them, we keep the pens clean and change the soil," said 
Abida, one of 300 widows in the Kabul district of Charai Qamber who 
raise poultry at home, with chicks and training provided by CARE 
International.

Abida, a leathery woman of 50 who lost her husband and six other male 
relatives to civil conflict in the 1990s, said she had no other means of 
supporting herself and her children. She does not use a last name. "I am 
too old to do hard work, and my eyes are too weak to embroider," she 
said. "I would rather die than kill my chickens."

It has proved to be an enormous challenge to detect, treat and control 
avian flu in this vast rural country, characterized by poor 
communication and roads, widespread fear and misinformation about 
illness, a sluggish bureaucracy and a poultry population living at close 
quarters with often illiterate people in thousands of small farms and 
backyards.

After the H5N1 bird flu strain was confirmed, the Afghan government 
sealed the border with Pakistan to imports of non-frozen poultry. It 
announced that all poultry markets would be closed and disinfected and 
said it would soon begin culling in affected areas, a euphemism for 
killing off flocks when an infected or dead bird is found.

But culling proved more difficult than expected. The government lacked 
equipment and expertise. Owners were promised between $1 and $5 for each 
confiscated bird, but the funds were not immediately available. In 
several districts, officials said, flocks mysteriously vanished just 
before official teams arrived to dispatch them.

"There were several possible explanations: Either people had hidden 
them, killed them, eaten them or sold them off," said Serge Verniau, 
Afghanistan director for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. 
"The key to containing the virus is stopping movement of flocks, but 
traders may take advantage and offer people a low price to be rid of 
their birds."

One key difficulty has been determining whether sick birds have the 
dangerous H5N1 strain, which requires sophisticated laboratory analysis 
that is not available in Afghanistan. Verniau said his office had worked 
out an arrangement with Italian peacekeeping forces here to fly samples 
to Italy for testing.

There are also the problems of how to police informal markets that sell 
popular songbirds and high-priced fighting cocks, how to prevent the 
smuggling of untested or sick birds from city to city, and how to 
monitor migrating birds such as wild ducks that might land in ponds and 
contaminate them before moving on.

At this point, the FAO official said, avian flu has been contained here, 
no cases of human infection have been reported and information about the 
disease has reached much of the country. But there is still no vaccine 
available for healthy flocks and little international aid, and the 
government response has been somewhat slow and disorganized.

"The real success has come from the bottom," Verniau said. "We don't 
need an army of vets going out, because the women themselves have taken 
action, learned about the disease, and put a chain of reporting in 
place. They are incredibly motivated."

Paul Barker, Afghanistan director for CARE International, said the 
group's poultry project had been one of its most effective, helping more 
than 3,000 indigent women earn money in a way that was socially 
acceptable, easy to learn and close to home, since they could sell eggs 
to neighbors and local markets.

"We tried dozens of income-generating ideas for widows, from tailoring 
to bakeries, and this one has worked the best," Barker said. "Most 
widows have no access to land or capital, so they can't raise large 
animals like cows. Poultry has been such a great fit, so bird flu was a 
potentially devastating blow."

At a meeting of widows in Charai Qamber last week, it was clear that 
avian flu was a deadly serious topic. Half a dozen women said that 
without selling eggs, they could not buy laundry soap, salt or school 
supplies for their children. Halfway through the meeting, another woman 
arrived, looking nervous and holding up a sick chicken in a plastic bag. 
It was immediately examined and vaccinated, and she visibly relaxed.

"At first we worried a lot about this disease, but now we have been 
taught how to avoid it, how to keep the cages and bowls clean," said 
Majan, 35, a soldier's widow with a gaunt face and piercing eyes. "None 
of us can afford to lose our chickens."

In the yard outside, a rooster crowed loudly as he lorded over a pen 
full of hens. The women, engrossed in their discussion, paid no attention.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/15/AR2006041501088.html?nav=hcmodule
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