Pigs and poultry key to Myanmar cyclone program

PIGS, poultry and micro credit form the key elements of a Myanmar Church program assisting female household heads to meet the challenges resulting from the Nargis cyclone.

Female-headed households are among the lowest income groups in cyclone affected areas.

They are often burdened by crushing debts and are forced to borrow from relatives, friends and moneylenders, says Marie Stella Mu Htwe, who works on a livelihood program.

About fourteen percent of households in Myanmar’s Cyclone Nargis-affected region are headed by women, mostly widows, according to a March report entitled Women’s Protection Assessments: Post Nargis.

Sixty percent of these households live in unsatisfactory shelters, the report found, while children from these families often drop out of school for lack of cash.

More than 140,000 people died and hundreds of thousands of houses were destroyed when Myanmar’s worst recorded cyclone struck the delta in May 2008.

Full report at ucanews.com