Decrease in malnutrition and back to school programme benefiting children

Angola's children are finally beginning to enjoy the fruits of the end of the country's long civil war with back-to-school-campaigns, free birth registration and a decrease in malnutrition rates. A report by the UN children's agency, UNICEF, said for most provinces the nutritional situation of Angolan children had shown the lowest numbers of lean-season admissions to therapeutic feeding centres recorded in three years. The improvement was most striking in Bie province, in the central highlands, with a 68 percent decrease in the number of admissions to the centres. However, there was still concern about children in Kuando Kubango in the south, Huambo in the centre and some parts of Benguela province in the southwest of the country. Remaining challenges were to ensure that quality treatment for the malnourished was maintained in resettlement areas, which were often in remote locations. While NGOs started reducing or closing their operations, UNICEF had supported the National Nutrition Programme in training over 260 health technicians and 40 doctors in malnutrition screening and the management of malnutrition. Under the back-to-school campaign, 250,000 children will return to school in Bie, and Malanje province in the north, and the education ministry and UNICEF have formalised the training of 4,000 new teachers. This was in addition to refresher training for an equal number of teachers already working in these two provinces. Up to 1,300 classrooms have been rehabilitated and learning materials, chalk and blackboards made available. With these facilities the number of children attending school is expected to increase, UNICEF said. Donor support of US $2.8 million is still needed for this programme. The national free birth registration campaign, supported by UNICEF, has so far enabled over 1.8 million children to have their births registered, making them eligible for their rights as citizens. Special attention was paid to securing the citizenship rights of children in gathering areas before they closed. Children can also use nation-wide family tracing and unification services which have so far reunited 1,300 of them with their families, while another 2,236 separated children are currently registered for reunification. UNICEF estimates that 5,000 schools and 60 percent of all hospitals were destroyed in 30 years of war in Angola.