Bugle.com – The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) has assisted at least 64 thousand breeders in Operations for Handling Mouth and Nail Disease (PMK). The assistance ranges from health promotion to animal vaccination assistance.
PMI did this to help overcome the health crisis in animals that affected thousands of these farmers. PMI’s first involvement in tackling zoonoses is a commitment to assist the government in overcoming the health crisis.
It is known that PMI volunteers in East Java, Central Java and Aceh Province together with the local government provided assistance to cattle and goat breeders. Some of the services carried out in this operation include health promotion, cage disinfection, and non-cash assistance to affected cattle and goat breeders.
This assistance effort is claimed to have an impact on changing the behavior of farmers in preventing FMD.
“This is indeed not a health crisis that attacks humans, but PMK has a double effect on the economy and society. We are committed to helping people who are in trouble, in this operation the breeders,” said the Head of the Disaster Emergency Response and Recovery Sub-Division at PMI Central Headquarters Ridwan S. Carman.
Ridwan also said that in this program, farmers are also invited to pay attention to the cleanliness of the cages, because this virus can transfer from one of them to footwear.
“The results of this intervention have resulted in changes in attitude and behavior, farmers are willing to report, and are diligent in cleaning their cages regularly,” added Ridwan on the sidelines of PMI’s PMK Operations Learning activities in Kuta, Bali.
As the first operation on zoonoses, the FMD operation was considered a success. Representative of the Federation of International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Dwi Handayani said, all stages of disaster mitigation were activated in this operation. As a result, the achievements of this program have exceeded the target.
“Quantitatively this has been achieved, but what is important is also in terms of quality. Currently, this is the only national association (regional and global) that is involved in pure animal zoonoses,” said Ridwan who is also the Head of the Health and Sanitation Section of the IFRC delegation from Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Timor Leste.
For about three months, PMI has carried out health promotion to 49,390 people. PMI in these three provinces also accompanied the vaccination by the local livestock service for at least 4,102 cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep. Meanwhile, for the disinfection of cages, it was recorded as reaching 11,174 beneficiaries.
For non-cash assistance for breeders, PMI has distributed IDR 1.6 billion to 1,100 affected breeders in Magelang and Grobogan, Central Java.
source: www.jawapos.com