by Jemin B. Guillermo

Roxas City (28 June) -- Community folks are being tapped to help in the awareness campaign on bird flu.

To ensure that appropriate campaign messages and materials are to be used, a week-long community communication planning workshop was conducted in Talon, Roxas City.

According to Gigi Aguirre, Program Director of the Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC) of the Ateneo de Manila University who conducted the workshop, barangay Talon is one of the 3 pilot barangays in the country being targeted by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in the conduct of said workshop.

Said barangay has passed the criteria set by UNICEF in the conduct of the community-based communication planning, Aguirre said, pointing out that barangay Talon has been noted as a pathway of migratory birds from other countries.

She said that a significant number of poultry species are also found in said area based on the survey conducted by the research group of IPC.

Some 12 barangay residents, 7 of whom are adults and 5 others are children, attended said planning workshop.

UNICEF Communication Specialist Nilo Yacat said that they are stepping up their advocacy campaign to raise public awareness on bird flu through the development of appropriate messages and materials for dissemination.

Yacat stressed that bird flu has been included as a special project under the Sixth Country Programme for Children (CPC 6) of UNICEF since most of the victims of bird flu in bird flu affected countries are children.

Since 1994, Capiz was one of the few pilot provinces of UNICEF in the country in the implementation of programs for children.

Meanwhile, an inter-agency efforts, particularly of the Departments of Agriculture (DA), Health (DOH), and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) have been tasked to intensify their activities and maintain a bird flu-free country.