Deolinda Rodrigues Day Care Centre Minars, Benguela, Angola…

Deolinda Rodrigues Day Care Centre Minars, Benguela, Angola

  The Angolan areas of Mapunda, Calumbiro and Sra do Monte have been selected to be part of the SOS family support service due to their proximity to the existing SOS Children's Village in Lubango. The high numbers of orphans and vulnerable children, limited resources to respond effectively to the problems faced by them, and the community's desire to provide care and support for orphans and vulnerable children made these prime areas for support.  This report describes the services offered by the SOS family support in this area:   

96 families are currently benefiting from the SOS family strengthening programme in Lubango, Angola. The programme, which started in 1994 as an emergency relief programme, has been involved in various actions over the last few years such as immunisation campaigns, feeding centres and literacy series.

Take a look at the circumstances of three families and how the family strengthening programme services have helped them:

The Cussucala family While mourning the loss of her husband in the Angolan civil war, mom Cussucala and her seven children became displaced and fell onto hard times. The now vulnerable children fell out of the educational system. The family was fortunate if they managed to eat once a day and their clothes became threadbare.

The Jacob family Also displaced after the war this family of four - father, mother, son and daughter - soon faced tragedy. Due to a lack of basic services the mother passed away in 2004 from malaria. The widowed father who was working on a neighbouring farm received two kilos of maize or 200 Kwanza (USD 2.50) daily. Unfortunately after one year he fell into a deep depression and became a jobless drunk. The children ate once a day when possible and roamed the streets for handouts.

The Job family This family came from the Ganda municipality, Benguela province, to Lubango as displaced people. The husband passed away in 2001 leaving his wife, five sons and a daughter alone. The children dropped out of school and meals were a rarity as the family had no income.

On entering the SOS family strengthening programme all three families received immediate food relief, clothing, blankets, medical treatment, where necessary, and counselling.

The children were given school uniforms and the funds to go back to school. The caregivers were educated on how to start food gardens. SOS Children Village in Lubango provided seven hectares of land for an agriculture farm. Each family received their own plot of land to develop agriculturally for self consumption and sales. The first harvest of vegetables was productive and 20% of the money was used to buy more vegetable seeds and maize. The following two harvests were bountiful and the families' diets improved significantly with three square meals a day.

Mom Cussucala was provided with a loan of 5,000 Kwanza (USD 66) to start a small business. She started baking and selling cakes. Apart from that, she enrolled in a sewing course and was given a sewing machine so that she could sew clothes for the children, and for sale. Her second son is considered as one of the best pupils in the SOS School.

For dad Jacob working a piece of land considered his own has been therapeutic and he has begun to reduce his alcohol consumption. He now favours working instead of drinking and the children are happy to have hot meals daily.

Mom Job was helped to access birth certificates for her children so that she could receive child care grants. She was previously employed as a domestic worker but due to poor health she resigned. The family strengthening programme then provided her with a loan of 3,000 Kwanza (USD 40) to start a small business selling bead and charcoal. Due to the improved eating habits of the family the children are able to concentrate at school and are doing well academically.

Besides the examples of these three families another 447 children in the Mapunda, Calumbiro and Sra do Monte areas are benefiting in a similar way through the SOS Family Strengthening Programme in Lubango, Angola.