00.02.07

MUSIC, Children speaking

Reporter: How old are you?

I don't know.

00.02.16

My mother? I don't know my mother.

00.02.18

I have never had any dreams because it is not easy

00.02.21

I live here, in that chair.

00.02.25

The war was so difficult!

00.02.29

I am very afraid. I saw people dying.

00.02.34

I was the only one left. The others died. There were seventeen of us.

00.02.44

I have not forgotten. I will never forget it in my whole life.

00.02.59

Title, voices in the street. Music.

00.03.11

Once upon a time, long, long time ago, so long ago that we can't even remember when, children had a home to sleep in at night. Before they went to sleep, they were told a story that started "Once upon a time". Today, there are around four thousand children sleeping under the stars, according to UNICEF statistics, three thousand according to the Angolan authorities. Luanda became a big house without a roof, for the children who managed to escape the bullets, the bombings, the bombs. There aren't many without a war story to tell.

00.04.02

Int.: Betinho

B: I came from Malange.

R: When?

B: No....

R: But when did that happen?

B: During the time of the troubles.

R: What do you remember about the troubles in Malange? How were things there?

B: there? There was war, machine gun shootings. My father died.....and he was being eaten by animals.

R: And your mother?

B: My mother died in a bomb blast?

R: Your mother died?

B: Yes.

R: Because of a bomb?

B: Yes.

R: Was that why you came here?

B: Yes.

R: Did you come by yourself?

B: I came with my little brother.

R: Where is he now?

B: He is at Maria Pia.

R: Maria Pia? What is that?

B: It is a hospital.

R; Is he ill?

B: He was run over.

R: Is he very young?

B: Very young. He is only three years old.

00.05.04

They spend the night at Talho do Povo. There is street light there.  They can make believe it is safe. But tomorrow, their destiny might be a different one.

00. 05.16

Int.: Matias

R: Do you have any more friends on the streets?

M: We do.

R: Where are they?

M: Some stay over the "Parabólica", others in other places.

R: Why don't you stay together?

M: They beat us up. We have slept together but they used to hit us with sticks.

00.05.33

But they are certainly not going to the famous  Parabólica... the name means Satellite Dish - it came from a place where they kill time watching Rambo and other celluloid heroes. The Parabólica Gang is mainly boys, as is the case with most of the gangs that roam Luanda's streets.

Each territory has its own well-defined strategy for survival. A routine that become the norm.

00.06.05

Int.: João

R: What is that on your neck?

J: A wound.

R: How did you get it?

J: Fighting with my friend.

R: You've been fighting?

J: Yes, he has long nails and he scratched me

R: Where do you come from?

J: Kwanza Norte.

M: When did you come here?

J: I don't know the date.

M: But was it a long time ago or not so long?

J: A long time ago.

R: So, how do you spend your days, here in Luanda?

J: The usual.

R: And what is the usual? Do you get up very early in the morning?

J: Very early.

R: What time is very early?

J: Around six or five a.m.

R: And later, what do you do?

J: We clean up the place where we slept. Sometimes a lady comes round and asks us to do chores at her house, and we go and do them.

R: What sort of chores?

J: Carry the water, the rubbish, and then she gives us something to eat.

R: What do you get to eat?

J: We eat food.

R: But what sort of food?

J: Rice, bread, fish.

R: What would you like to eat?

(laughter)

R: If you could anything, what would you have to eat?

J: I would like to have steak and chips.

00.07.33

Music, rubbish bins

Many street kids rummage daily through the "bandalho", also known as the pan on four wheels.

00.08.02

Int.: Joaquim

"Here I am with my "bandalho", I eat a lot of dirt".

J: Take your hands off me, I want to tell the truth.

Other child: Tell what?

J: That I eat things from the rubbish.

R: You eat things from the rubbish?

J: Yes.

R: Why?

J: I eat from here because I have no food.

00.08.22

They scavenge through the rubbish bins, to try and quiet their rumbling tummies.

00.08.40

Int.: Zézito

Z: Sometimes when we are very hungry and we can see there will be no food, we have to look in the rubbish bins.

00.08.54

Z: Sometimes, we find really good food: meat, fish, potatoes, chips.

00.08.58

One of the gangs has decided to build a house. No, it's not exactly a house, because there are Kings inside.

00.09.07

Int.: Mingota

R: What do you call your house?

M: Castle.

R: Castle?

M: Yes.

00.09.13

15 children live in the castle. They are the subjects of King Chico. The King has been through the school of life. He offers them protection, and holds state at home.

00.09.27

Int.: Chico

R: Do all the kids stay here with you?

C: I was here on the street by myself, the kids were going all over the place, they were being beaten up, I took them in, we built this house and now we live here.

R: How do you spend your time?

C: I sleep until midday, there is nothing else to do.

R: And they bring you food?

C: They do, but sometimes I have to go to bed hungry.

R: Do you tell them what to do, how do things work?

C: We all eat together.

R: And money? Do they bring you money?

C: Money, yes to buy food.

R: Anything else?

C: Yes.

R: What?

C: Clothes.

R: Anything else?

C: Sandals.

R: Anything else?

C: Yes. I bought a radio so that we could have some fun.

R: How do the kids get the money?

C: They go begging by the cars. Sometimes they carry water to the buildings and they get paid.

R: You don't do that type of work anymore?

C: No.

R: You stay indoors all the time?

C: Yes.

00.10.51

Those who want to live in the castle, in the city centre, must serve King Chico. On the rubbish tip, there is always room for one more. They can make up fantastic tales, but there are also a lot of true stories.

00.11.15

Int.: Silva António

R: Why did you live in Uíge?

SA: Because of the war.

R: Were you there during the war?

SA: Yes.

SA: What happened?

SA: There was a lot of destruction, lots of fighting, we couldn't live there any longer, otherwise we would die. That's why we left to come here.

R: When you arrived, where did you stay?

SA: In the military hospital, but later, because I was very hungry and I wasn't ill anymore, I went into the streets.

00.11.46

00.12.03

Father Horácio with the children

Then he got fed up of walking the streets and went to Palanca. (Pronounced PALANLKA) Here they are taken under the wings of  a priest.

Today, Horácio Caballero has got another trophy for his extended family. Right now he has 350 children. At Palanca, they live off the donations from  several international organizations and they are responsible for cleaning the tents where they sleep. For the majority of the children, the future is still uncertain.

00.12. 27

Int.: Silva António

 R: Do you want to stay here in Luanda or go back to Uíge?

SA: I don't know yet. I haven't achieved anything.

R: Were you afraid?

SA: I was very afraid, I saw people dying.

R : What was it like?

SA : There were bombs, land-mines.

R: What was it like during the war, the day you left? Where were you?

SA: I was in the Uíge in the marketplace . When I returned home, after the fighting, there was nobody left.

R: What happened in the marketplace?

SA: It was all very sudden. There was lots and lots of shooting. Everyone was trying to escape but we didn't know where to go. There were bullets everywhere. We didn't know which side was UNITA or which side was the MPLA. All we could see were people shooting inside the town.

00.13.24

Children playing table - football

The story almost always has the same ending: the war split people up from their immediate family, and from their distant relations. According to rural Angolan custom, cousins, uncles and aunts,  nephews and nieces, are just as dear as people's own children. But the war  spared no-one. And that's how roughly 100 thousand children got separated from their families.

00.13 51

Child ringing bell

Lunch is a ritual. It's usually just corn flour and beans. Father Horácio, who runs Palanca, puts the children in groups to try and forge some social reintegration. To try and somehow substitute those broken family ties.

00.14.12

Int.: Silva António

R: You haven't spoken to your family.

SA: No, I haven't had any more contact with them.

R: How long ago has it been?

SA: It's been three years.

R: Do you miss them?

SA: Yes, I miss them a lot.

R: Whom do you miss the most?

SA: My baby sister. I miss her a lot. I left her when she was very young.

00.14.35

Father Horácio driving a car. Music in the car.

Father Horácio still goes to town. Several nights a week, he walks the places that he knows and where he is known.

00.14. 52

Music in English

00.15.00

Int.: Father Horácio

R: Father Horácio, where are you going tonight?

FH: We are going to the Quinaxixe, to the Marginal.

R: And what are we going to find?

FH: We are going to meet children. They are waiting for us.

R: And what are you taking them?

FH: Today it's milk. Sometimes it's cornflakes, sometimes biscuits.

R: Apart from food, what else do they need?

FH: They need to be treated like human beings, like people.

00.15.29

Children singing and clapping

They call him Horacito, which means Little Horácio. Horacito likes to talk to them, but he can't keep them talking for long. The children are restless. What they want to see most of all is the bag of powdered milk. They improvise plates and don't even wait for the milk to be mixed. They devour it as soon as they get their hands on it, and it's the best thing that happens to them all night, along with healthcare.

00.16.16

Sister Danuta with a child

SD: "That dressing should not be removed until we get back, do you understand...it doesn't matter if it looks dirty, it doesn't matter. Otherwise it will become infected again because of the dirt. All the work we did would be in vain.

00.16.33

Child crying with the pain

00.16.38

Danuta is a Polish nun who is used to working in vain. She's been in Angola for seven years and she still carries on with her dressings. But the older children have found a way to cheat the pain. They drink caporroto, an explosive drink that almost kills them.

00.16.55

Children singing, car  being driven away

00.17.01

Now, Father Horácio returns to " Palanca"  and will come back here another time. The kids stay on Marginal avenue, clutching their cardboard, living on the edge. Some say that money is the biggest vice. They won't show their faces for  fear. Fear of paying with their lives for speaking out.

00. 17.30

Music, children running, cars in the background

But there is always someone who takes the risk.

00.17.37

Int. : Careca

C: Angola stinks. It stinks. This country is rotten.

R: Why?

C: Because this country has no law. Here, all that policemen want is a comb. They like to comb their hair. Do you know what I mean by comb?

R: What do you mean?

Ch: For example: "Comrade, come over here."

"Yes, comrade officer."

"Are you all right?"

"Yes, comrade officer."

"Show me your documents"

"Comrade officer, I don't have documents, I am a street child."

"A street child?"

He goes through my pockets  to see if there is any money. If there isn't, then he will keep the nice clothes I have on. The Angolan Police. That is why this country is really bad. Really, really bad.

R: How do you think things could get better?

C: This will never get better.

R: Why not?

C: Because of people's ambitions. Ambitions aren't just  for the older people. Even we kids have will have the same ambitions, we will get revenge.

R: What revenge?

Z: What revenge?

If a man is very ambitious, he is proud of his money. So although he has so much, he can't give any of it to the people who sleep on the streets.

00.18.54

Night, lights, children

When you go down to the famous Roque Santeiro you'll discover trade that is hidden during the day. In this market, now Angola's biggest trading centre, children offer themselves for sale.

00.19.10

Dark room

We enter a labyrinth with a nauseating smell, fertile ground for all sorts of diseases, where we find a demobilised soldier who has fought all over southern Angola. Someone rushes out as Tony prepares to show us where he has been sleeping for the past few years.

00.19. 28

Int. : Tony

T: I live here because when I left the army I was living with my parents and didn't have anything. So I came here.

R: And what do you do here?

T: Well, to start with there are no jobs, and I don't want to go back to the army, I am tired of it. I am waiting for a day when I can get a job and start working. Now I live here and go about my usual business

R: And what is your business?

T: I run a brothel. That is how I get my food, I live off it.

R: Do you have many girls working for you?

T: No, only four. I sell more drinks than anything else.

00 20.08

They are known as " Little fourteens", because they are all about that age.

00.20.15

Int.: Esperança

R: Why did you come here to the Roque?

E: To get on with my life.

R: Do you get better paid here?

E: Yes.

I have no commitments, no husband, I can get on with my life.

R: Are there many girls here who lead the same life as you?

E: Yes, there are a lot of girls like me.

R: Are they younger or older than you?

E: They are younger.

R: Do they come from Luanda?

E: There are some from Benguela, from Malange, from Catete, and some from this neighbourhood.

R: Aren't you scared?

E: No, I'm not scared.

R: Does someone protect you?

E: Yes.

R: Who protects you?

E: There are some houses where bad things can happen. Criminals turn up.

R: Is there someone looking after the house?

E: Yes, I sleep there.

R: And is there a man at the door?

E: What?

R: Is there a man that looks after you?

E: Yes. The man that owns the house.

00. 21.35

Esperança shows us the places where she spends most of her time. She doesn't know whether she will ever do anything else.

00 21 53

Children playing with computers

At the other extreme of the Angolan social scale, is the Elisangela Filomena School. To send a 5 year-old here, a civil servant would have to save up 12 months salary. But the school has managed to fill its places for the past five years.

00 22 18

Int.: Fernanda Bravo

We have a lot of demand. I have an average of 1500 children but if I had the resources I could have more than three or four thousand.

00 22 30

School children in the class room

Obviously, selection is governed by the size of the wallets! The children of politicians, businessmen or foreigners can go from here straight to  university.

00 22 44

Children running  (without uniforms)

That's just a dream for the majority of Angolan school children. Throughout the country, as here in Negage, children have a great deal of difficulty learning to read or write.

00 22 58

Int.: Sózinho Pacheco

SP: We have a lack of resources, a lack of books for example, we have enough pencils, but the lack of books is hard. Another problem is the shortage of teachers. We've got just one teacher for 134 pupils. That's too many. It gives me a headache.

00 23 18

SP writing on the blackboard

Sózinho gives lessons without books, without lunches, without desks. Even then, he tries to impress on them the advantages of education.

00 23 29

SP teaching

SP: Why are you here?

Children: To study.

SP:To study?

C: Yes.

SP: To learn a lot of things?

C: Yes.

SP: Isn't it only by studying that we can develop?

C: Yes.

SP: So, in this situation it's not good to be uneducated. Do you understand?

C: Yes.

SP: So, from the moment we enter the classroom, we have to be well-behaved children and not misbehave, do you understand?

C: Yes.

SP: So we'll be able to earn a living in the future so that we can get on. Do you understand?

C: Yes.

SP: Now, we have to go home. I will see you all tomorrow.

C: See you tomorrow sir.

00 24 20

These pupils should be back tomorrow. But there are one and a half million children who stopped having lessons because their schools were destroyed by the war.

00 24 31

Noisy streets, women shouting, man in a car.

00 24 47

Music. Little boy holding a baby.

Joaquim has never been to school. He says he came from the bush and walks around every day with Teresinha. The 4-month old baby is on the streets every day. The sight of the baby raises more income from begging than an outstretched hand alone.

00 25 04

Int.: Joaquim

R: Whose baby is that?

J : It is my sister's.

R: Do you go to school?

J: No.

R: Do you always hang around here?

J: Yes.

R: Where do you go begging? Is it only here or do you go somewhere else?

J:  Here, here and there.

R: How much money do you make a day?

J: One hundred.

R: One hundred? And do you keep the money or do you give it to your sister?

J: It's for her.

00 25 26

Music, boy walking around with a baby, cars go by.

00 25 42

Girl with a baby. Music

Many Angolan families threw their children out on the streets because they had no means to feed them. They can return home if they manage to fill their pockets. But there are also many children that are abandoned soon after birth.

00 26 09

Child playing in the swing

Kuzola is an institution which takes in abandoned children. In this children's home are orphans, babies abandoned on the streets, in the hospitals, in rubbish bins. They are sad, apathetic children, who hardly say a word. Kuzola is sponsored by the French petrol company Elf Aquitaine, but in spite of this, there is nothing to eat today. The children's home also has 25 children who came from Bié Province. They have been here since July, waiting to have a false limb fitted.

00 26 40

Girl sitting in a bed

That is the case for Alexandrina. She is 16 years old and has a daughter who was born here.

00 26 43

Int.: Alexandrina

R: Did you want this baby?

A: No, I wasn't expecting it.

R: What happened?

R: Was it in Bié?

A: Yes.

R: What happened there?

A: (silence)

R: It wasn't your decision?

A: No...

R: You were forced to do things?

A: Yes.

R: Was it by a man?

A: Yes.

R: Was it someone you knew?

A: No, I didn't know him.

R: Was he your age, or was he older?

A: He was older than I.

R: Much older?

A: No

R: And he was from Kuito as well?

A: Yes

R: And how did you get hurt in your leg?

A: I was in the project, in a shelter, and suddenly there was an explosion and my leg was blown off.

R: You were in a shelter?

A: Yes.

R: In Kuito?

A: Yes

R: Did you go there very often?

A: Yes.

R: When that happened to you, did other people get hurt?

A: I was the only one left. All the others died. There were seventeen of us. Sixteen died.

00 28 26

Alexandrina with baby

She is still learning how to look after her little Luzia.

00 28 38

End of part one.

00 28 48

Music. Boy cleaning the windscreen, children playing.

00 29 28

Children speaking in chorus.

Children: Angola is a rich and beautiful country and it is part of the African continent.

00 29 34

Music, children playing, boy in a skateboard.

In the African continent there are little engineers who can create wonderful machines from nothing, weaving dreams with bits and pieces of reality. 29.49 And with their imagination they soar to beautiful heights. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

00 30 01

Images of houses hit by bullets.

And in the eyes of those who live in Kuito, the city is now very beautiful. During the third Angolan war, Kuito was one of the most devastated cities in the country. You couldn't find a part of the town which hasn't been affected. The madness started in January ‘93 and lasted for most of ‘94. UNITA forces and the Angolan government forces fought here, in each street, in each home, with no restrictions on the carnage.

00 30 38

Int. : Luisa

L: My relative is here in this grave. He was inside the house. The bomb went off quite far from here, but the splinters reached him, he was in the corridor and the shell hit him there.

R: Was he an adult or a child?

L: He was a 12-year-old child.

00 30 56

Music, church

Those who are alive do not stop thanking God. Because they are alive and also because the war is over. It doesn't really matter if no one believes that this is a lasting peace.

00 31 26

Child walking towards a wall

All the orphanages that existed in Kuito were destroyed by fighting. This children's home used to be called Vamos Brincar, ‘Let's Play'.

00 31 38

Int.: Evangelista Chamala

E: This Home used to have 120 children but after the war escalated even the staff fled. Everyone had to fend for himself in order to survive. The kids scattered as well, one by one, in all directions. Some were killed by bullets, some were eaten by dogs, some were kidnapped when they went out looking for food. The bodies of some of those that died never turned up. Others turned up, but much later. Of the children here now, only a few have been here since the Home opened.

00 32 17

Images of a child, yellow top

After the most recent fighting, the orphanage changed its name. It is now called Heroes of Kuito. There are 92 heroes.

00 32 28

Int.: Evangelista Chamala

E: Some of the children arrive here as babies. They suffer less because they have never known their father or their mother. But for the older ones, the ones that became orphans when they were a bit older, they feel the loss keenly, they need their parents' affection. Even though they are with us, the warmth of a father's love is essential to a child.

0032 52

Children singing

The children of Kuito are recovering slowly. They have a disarming innocence. 33.05 These little heroes just a few of the 50 thousand orphans in Angola. They have never had a normal meal and it's no secret that they survive on the aid of international organisations.

00 33 21

Int.: Evangelista

E: The problem that we have with the babies is the lack of baby milk.

R: How long has it been since you had milk here?

E: For the babies, we never had baby milk. The milk we have came from the UNICEF. But it has been a month since we had any. Today, we received some biscuits, but for babies milk is much better, don't you think?

00 33 49

Evangelista has never left Kuito. She saw her husband and her brothers killed by falling bombs. She has left two daughters and a sister whom she admires greatly.

00 34 01

Evangelista.

She was the one who would go out, even under gunfire, she jumped over the dead bodies and went to the marketplace to  get one or two kilograms of  corn or wood flour, that we would cook. The children would be able to eat.  We could make porridge. The last months were very difficult, we had no resources left, we really were desperate, if the situation had gone on, we would all have died.

R: Of hunger?

E: Yes.

00 34 31

Bare feet. Music.

In an attempt to escape the massacre, many people started walking towards the nearest village, Kunge. But soon the fighting spread over the whole area and the 7 kilometres between the two villages became a hell-hole. Despite the fighting, children and adults would still go out looking for food.

00 35 05

Music. Man walking.

In Kunge, all the marks of violence remain. Children play at war. They have inherited a military bearing and fashion themselves improvised guns out of cane.

00 35 56 

Child with sad eyes. Girl covering her mouth with a hand. Music

Germana thought Kunge would be a safe haven. She managed to escape Kuito.

00 36 05

Int.: Germana

R: When did you become separated from your family, from your parents?

G: During the war.

R: How did it happen?

00 36 15

G: When my mother died.

R: How did your mother die?

G :She walked over a landmine.

R: What was your mother doing when she walked over the landmine?

G: We were on our way to Kunge.

R: You were trying to escape?

G: Yes.

R: Were you with your mother?

G: No, I was already in Kunge.

R: What about  your little brother?

G: He was with Dad.

R: And then because of the war, you stayed in an orphanage?

G: Yes.

R: Was it in Kuito or in Kunge?

G: No, it was in town, in Vila Miséria.

R: And when did you meet your dad again?

G: In January, they came over.

R: Did you know that your father was alive?

G: No.

00 37 09

Children in corn fields.

Her father was going to follow later carrying the little one on his back, but a landmine cut short his adventure! Now, at 12 years old, Germana has to provide for her father and her brother.

00 37 22

Germana cooking

When there is no food, Germana goes out begging. She is shy, frightened by the war. For two whole years she had no idea whether she had any family left.

00 37 35

Group of children

A few metres from Germana's house, in the Bairro Cantiflas, sits a 500 Kg bomb. The children don't even notice it anymore. And the corn fields will soon grow over it. The neighbourhood is full of victims of the landmine: the  point-blank soldier who never  eats, sleeps or misses. In Angola 20 thousand people have been maimed by landmines.

00 38 00

Int.: Jovete

J: I haven't forgotten, I will never forget in my whole life.

00 38 04

Child in crutches

Jovete was looking for sweet potatoes, or corn, or yam, or anything else that could lessen his hunger.

00 38 14

Int.: Jovete

When I see the others going for walks, riding a bike I think I will never do the same, I will never ride a bike.

R: Are you able to sleep properly?

J: No, I am not.

R: Do you have nightmares about what happened?

J: Yes. At every moment, at every hour, I think about it. It will always be in my heart. I never wanted to hurt my leg.

R: But now you have a false limb?

J: Yes, but it is damaged now.

R: How did it get damaged?

J: By walking.

R: Do you think you'll get a new one?

J: I am not sure.

00 39 06

Jovete crying

00 39 15

R: What do you do during the day?

J: Nothing.

R: Would you like to study?

J: I will never again think about studying.

R: If you were given a present, what would you like it to be?

J: What?

R: If you were given a gift what would you like to get?

J: Yes, I would accept it.

R: But what would you want to get?

J: Anything. Whatever I would be given.

R: But with what do you dream about? What is it you really wanted to have?

J: I never had any dreams because it is not easy.

R: Why is it not easy?

J: Because it is not easy to have what we wish for.

R: And what is it you wish for?

J: What?

R: What is it you wish for?

J: Many things. I need clothes, shoes, there are lots of things I don't have.

00 40 23

Jovete in crutches walking in the corn fields

Jovete's companions are scarred by the same war. Rufino, Lucia, Tete and Madalena were also maimed by landmines or hit by shrapnel. Even though the war is over the danger of landmines is ever present. In Angola there are an estimated 15 million landmines, five for each child.

00 40 50

Children playing and singing

In Kuito, people flock to the Nutrition Centre. More than 60 per cent of children fall prey to malnutrition. Some come from areas where they were cut off from humanitarian aid. These children arrive with lasting problems.

00 41 16

Woman holding a child.

Clarissa: This child had three different symptoms: listlessness, and two types of tuberculosis.

R: How old is the child?

Clarissa: He is 10 years old.

R: How much does he weigh?

Clarissa: When he was admitted he weighed very little.

R: Roughly how much?

Clarissa: 5.5 kg.

R: 5.5 kg?

Clarissa: Yes, 5.5 kg but he has now almost reached 10 kg.

R: 10 years old and his weight is 10 kg?

Clarissa: Yes.

00 41 49

Music. Child lying in bed with flies on his face.

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Child on a drip.

Malnutrition doesn't just affect those from the countryside. It's the illness which affects most of the patients in the country's biggest childrens hospital in Luanda.

Often parents have no idea of the seriousness of their childrens' problems and when they arrive at the hospital they too are fragile. Statistics show that 36 per cent of child patients will eventually die.

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Child lying in bed

Lito is a 2-year old, he should weigh at least 12 kilos but doesn't even weigh six.

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Pacy's mother is frightened.

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Int.: Deolinda

R: What is the matter with her?

D: She cried a lot and for three months, starting this January, her skin peeled off.

R: And do you know what is wrong with her?

D: No.

R: You don't know what is the matter with her?

D: No.

R: What did you feed her?

D: I gave her tablets.

R: But what did she eat?

D: She used to eat yam.

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Int.: Leopoldina

L: This child has been admitted due to extreme malnutrition.

R: The children that arrive here with malnutrition problems, do they all come from Luanda?

L: Yes, they do, the majority come from Luanda, they live in the  suburbs of Luanda, and some of them come from the provinces.

R: Do they have other illnesses associated with malnutrition?

L: Yes, usually malnutrition is accompanied by diarrhoea, by bronchopneumonia and lately, quite frequently by tuberculosis.

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Bed

Malnutrition is not only the reason why most beds in the hospital are full, but is also the main cause of children's deaths, along with meningitis, malaria and tetanus.

In this hospital, they need doctors, medicine, x-rays, and labs that are properly staffed.

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Face of woman

One of the doctors at the Children's Hospital lives in a room in the old Faculty of Medicine. Here she has made room for her four children from whom she was separated for more than two years. Just before the war resumed, Rosalina came to Luanda to finish her degree. Her children stayed in Huambo with her husband.

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Int.: Rosalina

R: I insisted that he came with me, we could find a little place with the kids, but in his innocence he said it was not necessary, there was no point. And then things happened. The war happened, I stayed here, he stayed over there, I think it was for 2 weeks, and during those two weeks my husband was killed.

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Child playing

For a long time, Rosalina lived in despair not knowing what happened to her children. They took refuge with relatives after their home was destroyed.

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Int.: Vadinho

V: We were in the sitting room, and suddenly my Aunty, Aunty Dita said that a man came over asking where my father was. Because Aunty Dita did not know who the man was, she told him, he was at some neighbour's house and he went over there to meet him. I don't know whether they recognised him or if they called him over.

R: And did they take him away?

V: Yes.

R: Did you ever see him again?

V: I saw him again when they took him and shot him.

R: You saw that happening?

V: Yes, we did.

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Children singing

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Children singing

The psychological scars that the war left on Angola's  children, only recently became the subject of a detailed study. 200 children were chosen arbitrarily from Huambo, Kuito and other provinces. The results amazed even the interviewers.

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Int: Carlinda

C: 94 per cent of the children interviewed were exposed to fighting or raids on their villages, 82 per cent were witnesses or were exposed to air raids, 89 per cent were exposed to bombardments.

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Drawing, music

The brutal impact of the war is visible in the drawings of the children, with unusual details that reveal the degree of suffering the children they went through.

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Carlinda

C: 66 per cent saw people being killed, and seeing people being killed is not normal. To see a dead person is normal, because death is part of the process of living, but to actually see someone getting killed is one of the things that marks a child the most, due to the violence of the war itself.

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Drawing of fighting between UNITA and MPLA

Lodged in the memory of this child, who witnessed the fighting, is the proximity of the two armies and the intensity of the conflict.

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Written sentence: even if the war ends, I want to be a soldier, so that I can kill those who killed my uncle and his family. Z.F. 14 years old. Music

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Drawing, music.

Those who saw their relatives being taken away in the turmoil of the war still carry terrible pain, as shown by one  11-year old girl.

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Sentence: I want to wear mourning dress for my mother.

C: She used to say: ‘Every day my mother whispers in my ear:"Why didn't you wear mourning dress, why didn't you wear mourning dress?"'

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Drawing of man with a gun.

The study revealed that the level of traumatic stress suffered by the Angolan children is unacceptable.

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C: There is a series of symptoms that characterize thes sorts of problems: for example, suddenly it seems  like the whole event is happening again, for example, this noise...it sounds like shooting sounds. Also  smelling  death, smelling gun powder, smelling blood, these were all signs that were often described, as well as bad dreams, nightmares.

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People walking in the street.

Those who undertook the study hope that it was not in vain. But infant mortality in this country has reached a world record. Every day, 94 children die.

In Angola, life and death walk hand in hand and survivors cannot believe they survived so much war.

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Int: Frederico

F: Every day, there were more than a thousand missiles. No one could sleep during the night,  no one could rest. If today we can see the city as it is, the province of Bié full of people, that for me is a miracle. It is wonderful. I never thought that I would see the province of Bié with so many people again. I thought there would be no one left.

R: Did a lot of people die?

F: Many, many people died. Millions and millions of people. People were eating the roots of banana trees, roots of sugar cane, they were chasing dogs and then there were no more dogs left. They would chase the cats, and then there would be no more cats left. There were no ways left of getting food, short of eating each other.

The things that happened here, they cannot be told, they are too frightening. To be able to talk today like I am doing, it is wonderful. God is great. I can't even tell you what went on in this place.

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Music, people

And even the children are slowly beginning to dream, but their ambitions are humble.

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Int.: Angolan children

Child: To be a mechanic.

R: A car mechanic?

Child : Yes. I would like to do this.

R: To be a typist: to typewrite?

C: Yes.

C: I want to be a journalist.

C: I would like to repair alternators, I would fix loudspeakers, I would fix machines.

C: I would like to be a Karate expert.

R: What for?

C: So that I could beat them up better.

C: I wanted to be a joiner.

R: A joiner? Why?

C: It is my father's job.

R: And what would you like to do as joiner?

C: I would like to build a bed, a table and chairs for my house.

C: When I grow up I would like to be in an office.

R: And what would you do in an office?

C: In an office? I could do lots of things. I could write letters to other people.

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Images of two girls, music

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Reporter: Candida Pinto

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Camera: Victor Cladas

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Editing: Agostinho Ribeiro

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Graphics: Ricardo Espírito Santo

00.54.47

ENDS