Community-based volunteers help give children the best start in life
LUANDA, 29 October 2004 – There is no safe way to walk through Angola’s largest market, Roque Santeiro. Locals claim it to be the biggest market in all of Africa, and while that is open to debate, few doubt its reputation as an epicentre of crime. It will take some courage to venture there, especially for a white, foreign woman. The woman is Joceli Manfrim, Coordinator of Luanda’s branch of the ‘Pastoral da Crianca’ – a community-based organization founded in Brazil and run by the Catholic Church. The Pastoral boasts a rich history of helping mothers and children. UNICEF is one of Pastoral’s key partners, providing financial and technical help. “This place is more than a massive market,” says Ms. Manfrim of the Roque Santeiro. “It is an area that is home to thousands of Luanda’s poorest mothers and their children. We have to reach them, and that means Pastoral da Crianca comes here.” In the remnants of Sunday’s market, passing through mounds of rubbish, rotting food, and raw sewage, Joceli arrives at a huge shed. As she opens the door, hundreds of women with babies slung over their backs, break into song. The women are poor, and some of the babies are clearly malnourished, but hope abounds. In a country where one in four children will not see their fifth birthday every year, these women know the value of health care.
If the child has lost weight, or has not gained enough since the last weighing, the next step in Pastoral’s programme is triggered: A volunteer will visit the mother in her village, and teach her how to use rehydration salts, and how to prepare foods which have a high nutritional value and are obtainable at low cost. The same volunteer will then seek to identify someone in the community who will be able to assume a leadership role. Each community leader is required to have 40 hours of training, for which UNICEF support is invaluable. Each training costs UNICEF as little as $115, and will produce a graduate responsible for 10 families, or up to 30 children under the age of six. This community leader will provide support and information to neighbours, on pregnancy, breastfeeding, immunization, or tips on preventing diarrhoea. Because all of the workers are volunteers, Pastoral da Crianca is amazingly cost-effective. Although no formal data is yet available (Pastoral da Crianca has only been active in Angola for a few years), a sense of its success can be gained from its results in the southern city of Benguela. In one community there, 35 children were dying each month. As a result of Pastoral’s interventions, six months later the number had fallen to only three deaths per month. Word of mouth has attracted Angolans to its cause. At the beginning of 2000, the network consisted of 600 volunteers. By 2003 that number had doubled. This year, it reached 1525. In addition, there are now 836 community leaders under the Pastoral umbrella. Although still small in Angola, Pastoral da Crianca has mapped out plans for expansion. By the end of this year, it expects to be active in 13 of Angola’s 18 provinces. The goal for 2005 is to cover the entire country. “We have so many people who want to make a difference in Angola,” says Joceli, amid dozens of mothers and babies. “Together with UNICEF, we can put them in a position so that they can continue to improve things for Angolan children and their mothers.”
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