Dateline ACT
Photo
essay: Angola - life from the ashes of war
Luanda,
Angola, July 30, 2002
Photos
by Paul Jeffrey (ACT International)
Text by Rod Booth
Photo 1: Bridge
over the river Cassai
This bridge was blown up three times during the civil
war. A quarter century of conflict has left Angola's communications
and transportation infrastructure in shambles, making difficult the
provision of emergency aid and the return to their homes of the country's
more than four million displaced persons.
Photo 2: Survival on the outskirts of
Luanda
During the war, the population of the capital city of Luanda
expanded to more than three million people, many of them displaced rural
families struggling to survive in
such makeshift neighborhoods without benefit
of public services of any kind.
Photo 3: Home
Hundreds of thousands of Angolan children have grown up in such surroundings,
with access neither to schooling or medical care.
Photo 4: Pondering the future
Life in the Luanda neighborhood of Boa Vista has been sparse for this
child. Now that the fighting has concluded, he and his parents must
decide whether to stay in such conditions or risk the uncertainty of
return to their village.
Photo 5: Returning IDP family
Many of Angola's four million displaced persons have
had to survive for years in the bush, cut off from aid and assistance
by the on-going conflict. Now they are wending their way through the
minefields to aid centers such as those assisted by ACT partners in
Angola.
Photo 6: Feliciana's village home
Feliciania Alfonso returned to the charred remains of what had been
her family's home in Kamasinque, burned in 1999 by passing UNITA forces.
Government counter-insurgency efforts in the last months of the war
added many more such to the list of destroyed Angolan homes and farms..
Photo 7: Only one wall remains
After years of living in the bush to escape the fighting, Nene Beatriz
returned home to find only one wall of her former home in Luxia village
still standing. With help from ACT's Lutheran World Federation (LWF)
partner she is planting her few carefully nurtured cassava roots and
struggling to build a new life for her family.
Photo 8: The most heavily mined country
in the world
Mute testimony abounds to the sad fact that despite more than 86,000
Angolan mine-accident victims, nobody knows exactly how many million
more unexploded landmines remain in Angola. Says Mines Advisory Group
director Steve Priestley: "The
world has created a monster here. We're going to be removing land mines
in Angola for a long, long time to come."
Photo 9: Children, the eternal victims of war
Many Angolan children have never known peace. As UNITA combatants lay
down their arms and convene to the 36 designated demobilization areas,
they bring with them wives and children who have been for decades surviving
as best they could in the Angolan bush.
Photo 10:
Child Soldiers
Both UNITA and the government military forcibly recruited underage combatants.
Will these child soldiers, many of them orphaned, easily learn the ways
of peace?
Photo 11:
Scrabbling for food in Luanda
But at least the child soldiers had food. These youngsters, on their
own on the streets of Luanda, must scrabble to find and share such as
they are able. ACT partner agencies are working to provide schools and
care facilities for these young victims of war.
Photo 12:
Caring for a new generation
In the village of Muacanhica, Moxico province, ACT/LWF social worker
Guilhermina Chipango befriends a young i.d.p. child returning to a new
life in her parents' former village.
Photo 13:
Laying down the tools of war
In the Lucusse demobilization camp, UNITA General Jacobe Matos greets
local LWF director Moises Gourgel during an ACT assessment visit to
the area. ACT's Angola partners, LWF and IERA (Evangelical Reformed
Church of Angola) are providing kitchen kits, blankets, medical supplies,
and training programs for more than 25,000 returning families.
Photo 14:
Eager to learn
ACT/IERA has twice rebuilt its war damaged buildings in Kikaya which
house a vocational training center, health clinic, offices, and a school
for the street children of their community. Now, despite having almost
nothing to work with, they are rebuilding again and have restarted the
school.
Photo 15:
Learning for a better future
Despite two previous shattered peace-accords, Angola's former combatants
claim that this peace will last. As one ex-soldier put it: "This
time the politicians had nothing to do with it. Those who fought with
weapons in their hands are the ones who have made peace. We're done
with war in Angola".
Photo 16:
Providing shelter
"Many of these people are barely alive" says Angola OCHA director
Lisa Grande, describing the condition of the hundreds of thousands of
displaced persons who have emerged unexpectedly from their fragile bush
sanctuaries. Providing adequate shelter and getting supplies to those
in need over roads still heavily mined is a serious challenge for ACT
and its Angola partners.
Photo 17:
The long road back
ACT partners are providing basic materials for those starting on the
long road back to renewal and rehabilitation. But their concern is for
the healing of minds and hearts as well as the provision of needed material
assistance. ""There's
no room in Angola for revenge or rancor" says ACT/LWF
rights coordinator Emilio Cesar, "and
the church is in a unique position to help create
a culture of peace. It is present in every village,
and its willing to get involved without fear."
Photo 18:
Hope for tomorrow
A young boy in Uige gives the "thumbs-up", hope for a better
future for the people of Angola.
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