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Photo: USAID/Jay Sorensen

Romanian children are captivated by USAID’s avian flu puppet show. Here, they listen breathlessly as the doctor reads a lab report with serious consequences for the fate of the village’s beautiful singing chickens.

On August 14, 2006, a USAID-sponsored program launched a campaign to teach Romanian children from rural families how to protect themselves from avian influenza. Local health authorities, community nurses, Roma health mediators, and rural family doctors joined young students from Bucharest’s Academy of Film to put on an exciting musical puppet show to educate the public. The traveling show was performed in eight Romanian counties believed to be at risk of future outbreaks of avian flu.

The story begins as two conceited hens are horrified by the dramatic death of a common pigeon in their yard. The village priest and the local doctor convene upon the scene and ask the children in the audience if they know what to do if they see a dead bird. Messages about staying away from dead or sick birds and about washing one’s hands are repeated through catchy, amusing songs, with the actors addressing the audience directly. The pigeon is sent away to be tested at a lab, leaving the two hens deeply worried. After all, if the avian flu virus is detected in their village, the hens know what will happen to them! And their favorite rooster seems to have a cold.

All’s well that ends well, and it turns out that all ends well for the hens and the villagers — except for the pigeon, who, it turns out, died of natural causes (whew!). Lessons about the need to wash eggs before cooking and heat poultry products above 70 degrees Celsius are repeated in a fun, non-alarming way. At the end of the show, the doctor and village priest give special coloring books with avian flu safety messages and colored pencils to the children in the audience. Children and even adults enjoyed the first production immensely. As a result, USAID will record the show and provide English subtitles, so it can be used as a resource by other countries facing the threat of avian flu.

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