A new lease on life

Helping starving children in the urban areas of Luanda was our original motivator for coming to Angola.  However, once we began work here, we saw the need was much greater. So many children had fallen victim to Angola’s war culture and needed protection and the opportunity to thrive again. This realization led us to quickly ramp up our efforts in this country.

Helping children and youth – even some who were child soldiers – draw on their own resiliency is one  powerful strategy we use to help them overcome their emotional and social scars.  Child Centered Spaces provide children with structured activity under the guidance of competent and caring adults.  While teaching children about basic health and protection threats, these play and recreation areas promote children’s emotional well-being by encouraging them to interact in positive ways and support each other. Our programs have engaged more than one million children and youth and provided them with much-needed psychosocial support and skill building. 

We also work with parents. Without their encouragement, children are less likely to value education and remain in school. We also help strengthen teachers’ skills, which helps improve the education children receive. In partnership with the World Learning Organization, we’ve created a program called Projecto Onjoi or “dream” to promote education and prevent child labor in Angola. Literacy classes also are made available to adolescents and adults, while our Early Childhood Development program provides structured activities, nutritional programs and immunizations to the youngest population in three areas of Angola.

Raising healthy, happy children

Many children in Angola have to rise at dawn to stand to collect water from springs for their families.  Many sacrifice their play time and even school.  A cholera outbreak in one of the areas where we now work was attributed to the consumption of polluted water. To provide families with access to clean water, wells are being dug, and the Epongiyo Lyomala Association has partnered with the Department of Water of the Government of Angola (GOA) in Huila to open three water boreholes. The government sector, working together with other stakeholders and local communities, responded to the cholera outbreak by providing three rubber containers to the more critical locations in the community. Each has a 1,000-liter capacity.

Malaria claims more lives than any other disease in Angola. And sadly, children and pregnant women are at highest risk. The first step to changing this statistic is education and awareness within the community.  We teach the Angolan people the causes of this fatal disease and the symptoms. We also implement a number of strategies to prevent the spread of malaria, such as treated bed nets and residual spraying of houses to rid them of mosquitoes, cockroaches, ticks, and other pests that infest homes.

"Before the spraying, I used to think about sleeping outside (in the backyard) because of those ticks, mosquitoes and other insects.  They didn't allow me to sleep! … We are free from mosquitoes.  If this program continues, a lot of diseases can be avoided."  -- Carolina Mwanza, whose house was sprayed to protect her family from malaria.

We work to improve health care services to new and expectant mothers (and their children under the age of five), but we also strive to educate parents on family planning and reproductive health before they have children.

We are helping the children of Angola rebound, reintegrate and reaffirm life.