Ensuring Angola's 'Food Security'

Luanda — The Republic of Angola recently received USD $100,000 from the country of Brazil to the UN Infant and Children Education Fund (UNICEF) to assist children and women in situations of food shortages. Brazil is joining the UNICEF in providing for initiatives of reinforcement of food and nutritional security in Angola, particularly in drought hit regions covering ten of the country's 18 provinces.

With the Brazil's funds, UNICEF will reinforce the Angolan Government initiatives to overcome the challenges of nature, thus ensuring food security, through prevention and treatment of malnutrition, supply of drinking water for affected children and their families in the provinces of Zaire, Bié, Kwanza Sul and Huíla.

Currently, some 10% of Angola's population are subject to food insecurity, as outlined in the OCHA (Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affair of the United Nations) diagram below. According to the latest WHO data published in April 2011, malnutrition deaths in Angola reached 9,095 or 4.35% of total deaths; one of the highest death rates for this cause worldwide. 

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”.  Commonly, the concept of food security is defined as including both physical and economic access to food that meets people's dietary needs as well as their food preferences.

Food security is built on three pillars:

• Food availability: sufficient quantities of food available on a consistent basis;
• Food access: having sufficient resources to obtain appropriate foods for a nutritions diet;
• Food use: appropriate use based on knowledge of basic nutrition and care, as well as adequate water and sanitation. (AllAfrica.com, OCHA

Removing Angola's Landmines: The Remaining Task

MALANGE, Angola – Ten years after the end of the civil war in Angola, the country still remains, despite its best efforts, one of the most unexploded mine-affected countries in the world. The African nation was due to finish the demining by 2013, but the Angolan government is requesting a five-year extension to complete the task.

According to the United Nations Development Program, more than 80,000 people in Angola have been maimed by landmines since war broke out in 1975, and thousands more were killed.  One out of eight Angolans lives in a landmine-affected community, and the 30 years of war have riddled all provinces with mines.

One of the NGO's working to de-mine the affected areas is the Norwegian People's Aid (NPA) which has 132 local employees and 2 international staff. Beyond the modern equipment and technology that Norwegian People's Aid's team uses rats in their demining efforts. Rats have an exceptional sense of smell and can be trained to detect explosives.  Unlike metal detectors, they can detect both metal and plastic-cased landmines and can release up to 400 square meters of land per day.

NPA also relies on villagers to tell them where the mines and other explosive devices are located. The agency has teams to sensitize the people on the risks and on the danger of mines and other unexploded devices. They have observed that the villagers are very conscious of the dangers and when they find a suspected mine, they work with NPA to remove it. 

The Norwegian NGO works with the national demining commission, CNIDAH, which coordinates the efforts of both NGOs and local demining teams. The commission monitors the operations all across the country.

CNIDAH's departmental head of operations, Brigadier Roque de Oliveira, says the government has put a great deal of effort into demining, because it is deemed crucial for the development of the country.

"For Angola to grow and develop, especially in agriculture, we need to demine. For Angola to build houses and schools that were destroyed during the war, we need to demine. And we need to demine railroads to improve development as well."

Besides agriculture, the country and the region also have the potential for tourism. Just a few kilometers away from the landmines are the third biggest waterfalls in Africa. Ten years ago, few people would venture here. Today, it has become a popular place for locals and expatriates to visit.
 
The Angolan government has recently asked for a five-year extension to finish demining, arguing that only 40 percent of the job has been completed in the past decade. (Voice of America)

Angolan Youth Making Beautiful Music

Every day in the district of Samba, a part of the Angolan capital Luanda, about 60 children and adolescents faithfully take lessons each day in classical music on donated violins, basses, and cellos.  This is all a part of the  Kapossoka School of Music, created by Angolan professor Peter Fançony, the director and founder of the school which also supports Kapossoka Symphony Orchestra.

Founded on October 10, 2008, the original idea for the school was to provide a place where Angolan children could engage in cultural activities to prevent crime and stop the misuse of leisure time.  In providing a learning opportunity for needy young people, the school underwrites the costs of all the fees and materials, oftentimes offering clothing and meals.  With interest from the government, even high ranking government officials have personally provided funds for the school's operation.

As City Director of Samba, Professor Fançony traveled in work to the Philippines in early 2008, where the then Angolan ambassador in that country, Flávio Fonseca, also shared the same interest in classical music. The conversation flowed naturally and Flávio Fonseca showed Peter Fançony a violin factory.  From that factory, 60 violins, 10 cellos and 6 contrabasses were ordered, which are being used today.

Recently the Kapossoka Symphony Orchestra, comprised of students training at the music school, took part in an international festival of youth orchestras in Argentina, called the Festival of Iguazu.  At this festival, the Kapossaka Symphone Orchestra won 1st prize in the category of "Effort, Attendence and Good Conduct".  Upon their return back to Angola, the Orchestra was received and greeted by the President of the Angolan Republic, José Eduardo do Santos who congratulated the students on their honor. (TAAG Austral Magazine)

Angola Celebrating Polio Reduction

After being plagued by a re-emergence of the polio virus in 2005, Angola has not experienced any new cases of the crippling disease for a full year - moving the world a step closer to the final goal of global eradication, United Nations agencies recently reported. 

Laboratory results have confirmed that the last case of the wild poliovirus was a 14 month old child from Uige Province in the African country's north-west in July 2011, following years of concerted efforts by the Government and its partners to halt the outbreak, which had spread to neighboring countries, according to a joint press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Government of Angola.

"This success is the result of the improvement in the quality of polio campaigns round after round," said the acting WHO Representative in Angola, Jean-Marie Yameogo, who also credited the "high commitment" of Government officials at all levels and the engagement of civil society.

Other factors included improved surveillance of the disease, improved routine immunization and the coordination of efforts in neighbouring countries, along with greater access of populations to safe water and sanitation, according to the joint release.

Primarily funded by the Government, the country's massive vaccination campaigns deployed thousands of health workers and volunteers door to door and at crossing points, main streets, markets and water points, reaching 95 per cent of children under the age of five.

The decline of new cases from 33 in 2010 to five in 2011, with none as yet in 2012, is significant, UNICEF's Representative for Angola, Koenrad Vanormelingen, noted, while also warning against complacency.

"These investments demonstrate the importance of building strong primary health care for all the country's children," he said. "We have a duty to protect and ensure that all children are born and developed in a healthy polio-free environment, which means we can not stop until every child is fully vaccinated." (United Nations News)

Luanda's Grand, New Airport Project

Under current construction, Luanda’s new international airport is designed to be one of Africa's biggest and rival Johannesburg airport, in South Africa, as a traffic distribution hub for the region.   The new airport is being constructed some 40 kilometres outside the Angolan capital, in Bom Jesus, in the Viana municipal area, will have runways capable of receiving what is currently the largest passenger aircraft in the world, the Airbus A380.

“The size of the project, which is obvious from the length and layout of the runways, was decided in order to turn the airport into a hub that is capable of taking traffic away from Johannesburg airport destined for countries in Central and East Africa that use it for that purpose,” according to the Africa Monitor news service.

" The key idea,” it added, is that a big airport in Angola, “with a size capable of making it the second-largest facility of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa,” will be heavily used as a transit point for passengers traveling on to countries such as the democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zambia, Uganda, Kenya and even Tanzania. 

The new airport, which has been under construction since 2008, covers an area of almost 10,000 hectares and will have two double runways capable of landing the Airbus A380, 12 departure tunnels as well as restaurants, offices, a hotel nearby and a rail link to the capital city and, possibly, with the neighboring province of Malanje.  The new terminal building will have an area of 160,000 square meters (1.8 million square feet) to enable a capacity of up to 15 million passengers per year.   The area of the cargo terminal building will be 6,200 square meters, capable of handling of 35,000 tones of cargo per year.

Construction of the new airport is in the hands of a consortium of Chinese companies and Brazilian company Odebrecht and the first phase of the new airport may be concluded in 2012. (Africa Monitor)

Luanda's Novel Community Gyms

The redevelopment of Luanda has produced gyms and other spaces to provide quality physical education and allow the clients to keep fit and stay healthy.   But many of these facilities are economically out-of-reach to many of the urban dwellers.   Today, in response to that need, there are outdoor gyms in several community public spaces for all municipalities, an initiative of the Provincial Government of Luanda.   Under this program, no one has to pay and the more experienced to serve as physical education teachers. Creating community gyms is a program of the national government and is being implemented at national through provincial governments.  In Luanda there are already gyms in Ingombota, Samba, Sambizanga, Rangel, Kilamba Kiaxi, Viana and Cacuaco. 

Around 17:00 hours, many community gyms begin to get crowded with people. Children, youth, adults and seniors come to do their physical exercises. At the Independence Square in central Luanda, there are hundreds of people running or moving fast; men and women who for reasons of health or aesthetic, are dedicated to the sport. 

Those who live nearby are the gyms often stay until after 21:00 hours such as in the areas of Samba, Cape Island, New Marginal and the Independence Square where the attendees perform more practice physical exercises. The community areas are well lit and attended with police officers nearby to ensure all safety and tranquility.  

Luanda resident Paula Costa, 34, trains at the Independence Square, his favorite place from Monday to Friday.  "We do not complain, because the government has provided this for us.  Previously, it was difficult to find spaces for leisure. Today we have several sites for outdoor recreation, "he said.  Before community gyms " we felt like walking, exercising, and we could not afford a gym. Now we exercise in well equipped facilities without worrying about time and payment.  Now we just need to care for and preserve this public good, for our good, "acknowledged Paula Costa. (Portal de Angola, July 31st)