Micro-credit scheme gives disabled a chance

Pedro "Mr Roi" Rosario powers his wheelchair past piles of garbage on the streets of Cazenga, a densely populated suburb of the Angolan capital, Luanda, in search of new material for his shoe shop. Scavenging for discarded but still useable old shoes from the neighbourhood helps him keep his repair costs down. On a good day he earns up to 3,000 kwanza (US $37), but usually his income is around $10. Rosario was aged five when he contracted polio and his legs turned numb. Now, at 28, he is one of the lucky few who have both a wheelchair and a means to earn a living in a society that gives the disabled few opportunities. He got in touch with a local charity association, El-Shaddai, and Handicap International a year ago. Since then life has treated Rosario well. He was enrolled in a vocational training course run by the Ministry of Social Assistance and Reintegration (MINARS), with the support of Handicap International. For seven months he trained to be a shoemaker and showed great skill. After the programme, MINARS gave him a professional kit and Handicap International supplied him with a $200 credit to get a business started. Thanks to the money and his hard work, he has made a go of his small enterprise. Whenever he is out of raw material to work with, he takes to the streets to search the garbage in the neighbourhood. "It has been hard to find good fabrics lately, but I always find a way of getting it. I have learnt to look for things that can be used - I have developed a sense for recycling," Rosario told IRIN. Polio, landmines, war and poverty have left Angola with a large and visible population of physically challenged people. Not everybody is as fortunate as Rosario. Local and international organisations campaigning for the disabled argue that the government should do more. Two years ago, the international community helped the government draft a new law to strengthen the rights of the disabled. The fourth draft is presently being discussed, but to a large extent the disabled have to rely on themselves, their families and NGOs to survive. Handicap International conducted a survey in Cazenga not long ago that shed light on the scale of the problem. "We went from door to door... It was alarming. At some houses five disabled people waited to be interviewed," Valerie Breda, head of Handicap International's project for socioeconomic integration, told IRIN. She estimated that up to 10 percent of the Angolan population are physically challenged, a figure 15 times higher than the government's estimate of 80,000. "The physically disabled are excluded from Angolan society. It is hard to get a wheelchair or a tricycle. In some communities few have even heard of the ministry that is supposed to help them [MINARS]," Breda said. Rosario showed a black sole he was working on. He had discarded the rest of the shoe, found in a rubbish pile, and was now sewing on a new upper made of denim. The finished item will be a pair of sandals he will sell for $10. A young girl looked through "Mr Roi's" window grill as he worked, and cooed over the sandals on display. They are slick, with a modern touch. Rosario is aware of fashion and proud of his work. "I can make 10 shoes in a day," he said. He considers his income of $10 a day a decent return, but he has to support two children and pay back the loan with the money. He does not live with his family - it would be too far for him to travel every day - and instead sleeps about 500 metres from his shop. Even that is quite a distance to negotiate in a wheelchair. Lakes of green and brown sewerage water, mountains of garbage, plastic bags, abandoned cars and sticky mud are all obstacles he struggles to get through. "It will be better when I can buy a chair or tricycle with an engine. I think I can buy one eventually – if I work hard. It will probably take me two or three years," Rosario said. The El-Shaddai association, a church-based charity, supplied him with the space for the shop. The association was funded by four men who returned from the Democratic Republic of Congo in the early 1990s. "We recognised that there were many poor and disabled people that needed help in this area. We wanted to do something for them," the administrator of El-Shaddai, Fernando Nsiamfumu Bisi, told IRIN. He and his colleagues have been working in Angola since 1994 and are, according to Handicap International, one of the few humanitarian organisations doing an effective job in Luanda's rough suburbs. They train physically disabled people in sewing, informatics and electronics. El-Shaddai also runs a small health centre and a school for war orphans and disabled children. Most disabled children are victims of polio, even though international organisations and the government have worked hard to eradicate the disease.