Mimi in Angola

• The root of all good June 2007
• Can boys be witches? June 2007
• Dressed as a gentleman June 2007

The root of all good

Photo: Louise Dyring / Save the Children

I am in the north of Angola in the province Uíge. There are many good reasons to be here as the COE for Save the Children Denmark. Angola has suffered 40 years of war. Now it is over but you can still sense it... “If you need to pee, stay away from the sides of the road.” That was the message I got at the start of the nine hour drive to Uíge. Thousands of land mines are still left a long the side of the road – lethal for children. And for us.

I visit the school in Bem-vindo where close to 4000 children get their chance in life… under various circumstances. The land mines do not play a significant role here because education saves lives. Except from the regular school subjects the children also learn to avoid the mines and to protect themselves from HIV – another “killer” of the post war period in Angola.

Rain = no school
The children in Bem-vindo go to school in shifts – a morning shift and an afternoon shift. This is a means of taking full advantage of the precious resources, such as teachers and classrooms. Some of the children (the lucky 56 students in a class) have a real classroom. These classrooms have been built due to the support from Save the Children. Many of the other children attend lessons under the trees. Unfortunately that is only possible in the dry season – that means three month a year. Rain means no school.

Having a classroom is vital if children in Angola are going to have the opportunity to attend school. But this is not the only barrier. Everywhere I see children running to school carrying plastic chairs, empty cans or homemade wooden stools. The price of admittance to school is bringing your own chair. Everything has to be paid for… notebooks, pens, black boards and chalk. These necessities are also made available by Save the Children which gives the possibility for children to enter education.

Children are the future for this damaged country. Over 60 percent of the estimated 15 million people in Angola are children. Save the Children are aware that adults who have gone to school for four years will earn twice as much as adults with no education. This is also the case for the children in Bem-vindo even though the school has 4000 students and only four (!) toilets. There used to be eight toilets but half of them are now used as classrooms.

School is the root of all good! They know that in Angola. In Save the Children we know this as well.