Angola

Frontline Diary

18 October 2004: Improved sanitation keeps children in school

Ravaged by war, Angola is beginning its long path to recovery. Fortunately, this sub-Saharan country is blessed with natural resources  – oil, diamonds and fertile soil. Yet Angola’s most precious resource is its children. Education, clean water and good sanitation are essential ingredients for shaping this priceless resource, and now Italian donor COOP, a leading company in food distribution, and UNICEF are combining their own resources to help build a richer and stronger Angola.

The following diary entry by UNICEF Communication Officer James Elder describes how the partnership is keeping Angola’s children in school and bringing hope to their future.

© UNICEF Angola/2004/James Elder

Avelina Jamba Jose in her new school.

“My parents told [my sisters] that girls their age shouldn’t be sitting around with boys in dirty classrooms. Neither of my parents went to school beyond the age of 12 and so neither of them had much respect for our schools,” says Avelina of the classrooms in her hometown of Tombwa, on Angola’s south coast.

However, a ‘birthday present’ from the Italian company COOP has changed all that. Earlier this year COOP funds allowed UNICEF to begin repairs on Avelina’s school, providing water, hand washing facilities and new girls and boys toilets.

Previously, students were forced to use the sand of the surrounding slums when they needed to go to the bathroom – one of many factors provoking parents to pull their girls out of school. The addition of water pumps, washbasins, and toilets will not only keep Avelina and many like her in school, but will also enable the students to learn about good sanitation.

© UNICEF Angola/2004/James Elder

Construction work will begin in days on another UNICEF-COOP school in Tombwa. Here the brand new classrooms will be accompanied by a water tank, hand-washing facilities, toilets for boys and girls, and a pipeline to provide water.

Avelina’s school is now a study in contrasts. Bordered by ramshackle dwellings, foul stagnant water and rubbish, the school is now considered to be the pride of Tombwa.

“Apart from being a much better place to learn, I think it shows the children what can be done in peacetime Angola,” says Avelina’s teacher. The icing on Avelina’s birthday cake is that the school’s new water facilities extend to the surrounding community, bringing clean water to thousands of people.

After two years of peace in Angola, UNICEF has helped bring about progress for children across the country. More than one million new children are in school, 20,000 new teachers have been trained, routine immunization rates have increased by 50 percent, and malnutrition rates are decreasing. However, Angola endured one of Africa’s longest and most devastating civil wars, and millions of children continue to suffer.

In targeting education, water and sanitation, the COOP-UNICEF partnership uses the classroom to address Angola’s appalling sanitary record: Just 16 percent of rural Angolans have access to basic sanitation.

More than 500,000 Euros are now being spent to rehabilitate and construct schools and classrooms, to install water systems for schools and neighbouring communities, and to train teachers to use hygiene-related educational material.

As Avelina returns to class to show me some of her work – she is one of the top students in math and Portuguese – she explains just how much her surprise 14th ‘birthday present’ from COOP has impacted upon her life.

“If I wasn’t at school now, I’d just be selling things in the market or working as a maid. But I am going to finish school and then I am going to become a doctor.” In a country where health problems continue to harass Avelina’s eight million fellow children, it’s an enriching thought.