The Eduardo dos Santos Foundation, set up five years ago, works to improve living conditions for poor communities
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2,500 schools destroyed during the civil war, up to two million children
out of school and a desperate shortage of teachers, Angola’s education
system is facing some daunting challenges.
There are 2,000 public and 250 private schools in Angola, serving a
population of 12 million. To improve the system, education and culture
minister Antonio Burity da Silva Neto
recently estimated that the government needed $500 million for the current
school year.
Education is a priority for the Eduardo
dos Santos Foundation (Fesa), a non-governmental organisation set
up five years ago. Its aim, according to its president, Ismael Diogo
da Silva, is to lend support “in matters that the government alone
cannot resolve”.
Since its creation, the organisation has disbursed $30 million, two-thirds
of which has gone into education. Fesa obtains money from large companies,
each of whom pay $100,000 a year to sit on its board of trustees. BP
is one donor firm, and others include foreign non-governmental organisations
in China, Japan and the US.
“Our
objective is to support the most vulnerable communities – those
left out of the normal education system,” says Dr da Silva. “The
war destroyed many schools in the country, mainly in the interior where
there are many problems, and about two million children are out of the
education system.”
This problem is compounded by an acute shortage of materials for pupils
– even chairs have to be imported because local production is limited
and depends on timber from the Angolan enclave of Cabinda, which is
accessible only by air or a riverboat crossing.
Nevertheless, one important change has come about thanks to Fesa’s
efforts. “The mentality of the population has changed and parents
recognise that their children have to go to school so they can learn
to read and write,” says Dr da Silva.
The stress on education is being reinforced by other relatively simple
projects to inspire parents to send their children to school. Fesa provides
sewing machines and textiles to cooperatives to make school uniforms,
while a community development programme directs the construction of
school buildings and supplies some of the materials.
“I
have travelled to many provinces and seen the very great interest among
parents who want their children to go to school,” says Dr da Silva.
“Even in our furthermost province, Kuando Kubango, I went to a
school where 200 pupils are learning French. A new wave of interest
in culture and education is sweeping through the nation.”
The foundation has also provided money for the rehabilitation of markets,
the restoration of a colonial church, a sports stadium, health clinics,
police vehicles, wheelchairs for amputees and generators for hospitals.
It promotes AIDS awareness and land mine clearance, sponsors dancing
and physical fitness programmes, and provides toys for children in very
poor families. Currently, Fesa is running campaigns to combat diseases
such as malaria, sleeping sickness, leprosy and tuberculosis, all prevalent
in Angola.
Fesa
also supports the nation’s young footballers. Although the sport
has a huge following in Angola, players’ techniques left a little
to be desired, so President Jose Eduardo dos Santos founded a football
school “because he was concerned about the bad quality of Angolan
football”, explains Dr da Silva. The first pupils were street children.
The school is supported by Fesa now, and about 370 young footballers
aged between six and 21 take part in training sessions. The Fesa teams
have played abroad several times and returned home with honours, including
the African under-20s championship. “We already have a basis for
a good future Olympic team,” says Dr da Silva.
The foundation is also engaged in housing programmes, particularly in
Viana, the biggest municipality in Luanda, where several thousand homes
are to be built. So far, about $16 million has been spent on land in
Luanda for future development.
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