AFRICA/ANGOLA - ITALIAN VOLUNTEERS FOR DEVELOPMENT VIS LAUNCH NEW PROJECTS IN RURAL AREAS OF ANGOLA

Thursday, 4 December 2003

Luanda (Fides Service)- “We have just started two new projects for development in rural areas of Angola” Antonio Raimondi, president the Italian Association Volontariato Internazionale per lo Sviluppo (VIS) told Fides. “For some time we have been working in Luanda, the capital, in the Bizanga district, one of Africa’s largest slum areas. We have opened schools, health centres, started a project to help street children get off the streets and we are active in the struggle against AIDS” Raimondi told Fides. “Now we have intend to launch a series of programmes in two interior regions: Kwanda Norte and Moxito. The projects include repairing and re-opening existing school and health structures which we hope to complete by June 2004. Once the sites are ready we will organise management. In view of stage two of our projects we have started a training programme for teachers and nursing staff”.
Raimondi underlines the importance of assistance in rural areas in Angola: “De-population of the countryside must be avoided for two reasons. The first is that deregulated urbanisation is turning certain districts of Luanda into slums where the crime rate rockets. Consider that 5 or possibly 6 million of Angola’s 12 million people live in the capital. This situation threatens to explode. Secondly, depopulation of rural areas must be avoided at all costs because it prevents the development of these areas. It is true that the territory is infested with anti-personnel land mines but it is also true that the soil is fertile and Angola could in the future become a major producer of agricultural products”.
With regard to other potential resources the president of VIS adds: “besides agriculture Angola has oil, diamonds, iron, manganese. But wealth is unevenly distributed. It is also a question of mentality: most Angolans under 40 have known nothing but war and they cannot imagine a life of peace. Even the political leaders find it difficult to develop policies where are not about war but about peace and development”. (L.M.) (Fides Service 4/12/2003 lines 29 words 348)


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