A cooperation between two USAID projects

The FAO-USAID funded project titled “Improving food security of women and children by enhancing backyard and small-scale poultry production in the Southern Delta Region” aims to develop skilled community vaccinators through providing training and necessary vaccination kits to ensure prevention of poultry diseases in the project area. The project has so far distributed 8,500 birds in thirteen (13) villages. With the onset of winter it is prudent to revaccinate all the distributed birds. A three-day training course was designed with a mix of theoretical instruction and demonstration / practice to establish village-level vaccination.

The course was carried out in cooperation with Department of Livestock Services (DLS) covering:
-Biosecurity measures,
-Two major, preventable, economically important, backyard poultry diseases (Newcastle disease and fowl pox),
-Vaccination techniques,
-Handling birds, and
-Community mobilization for smooth operation of vaccinations.

Trained Community Vaccinators will conduct vaccination on a commercial basis. Thus, there are opportunities for income generation after the project.

In the recent course, carried out during 2-4 December 2014 in the Upazila Livestock Office, Dumuria, Khulna, there were 21 participants. These were 15 village women who are either poultry beneficiaries in the FAO project or women with previous poultry vaccination experience in their respective community. Also joining the course were five ‘Info-ladies’ and a Program Officer from the USAID-funded project ‘Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia-Bangladesh’ (CSISA-BD)'.

The Info-ladies said that they have enjoyed not only the ‘classroom’ training, but also the outdoor practical sessions. They also said that they gained confidence in performing vaccination in their community. They urged the CSISA project to give them similar Vaccination Kits to those provided to FAO project vaccinators. CSISA-BD Deputy Country Coordinator, Mr Bidyuth K Mahalder, visited the training and expressed his appreciation. The FAO team gave their vaccination kit specifications to him in order to enable him purchasing kits for the trained Info-ladies in future.

This is the second occasion the FAO project supported CSISA-BD to build capacity of the InfoLady capacity. After the first training in September 2014, Timothy Russell, Chief of Party CSISA-BD, wrote to the project’s Training Expert, saying “FAO Backyard Chicken production training for InfoLadies, You were brilliant. The best organised training I have seen to date. An example to our staff on how to organise training. I particularly appreciated the trainers guide you have prepared. I certainly hope we can work together again in the future. I would like you to train the infoLadys as village livestock vaccinators. Tell me when you are ready to do that training. We are delighted to continue the cooperation between our projects” FAO Bangladesh has been collaborating with this joint initiative ever since and hopes to make significant contribution towards reducing food and nutrition insecurity and enhancing household income of targeted rural and peri-urban populations of the southern delta region of Bangladesh, with special attention to women and children.