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Rewrite the Future - Blogs

Carlos in Angola

Carlos Mezenga

Journalist Carlos Mezenga reports from Angola, November 2007

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Week 7: "Understanding is improving day by day" - Child Rights

Teenager Carlos Mezenga spends his spare time informing other children about their rights. In this space, you can follow Carlos's blog, writing about life in Angola.

Angola_Children. Nsimbita, 13, is one of the pupils who will benefit form a new school being built by the people of Bula in northern Angola. She has missed a number of years of school. Her family had to live in the bush for a number of years after they fleed from the soldiers. Although Angola's 27 year civil war ended in 2002, it has huge debts, sporadic unrest and ranks as one of the worst places for children to grow up. The government has to spend much of its budget on food and health, leaving little for education. Save the Children are working with the Angolan government to increase the number of children, especially girls and the poorest children, who can go to school and complete a good quality education. (Copyright: Louise Dyring Nielsen, Save the Children Denmark)Hello there, I am back as usual, always your friend, Mezenga.

Today's topic is violation of children's rights. In Angola , especially in Uíge province, we are star­ting to talk about children's rights. The understanding of children's rights is improving day by day.

Maltreatment of children has been on the wane, although some people are still cruel to children.

Physical maltreatment: This is the most widespread violation of children's rights. You often see parents and teachers hit the children, for instance at home when they disobey, don't eat, get poor marks at school, lose money, make noise at school, and much more.

Sexual abuse: Although many children are afraid to talk about it, and many don't know it's illegal, sexual abuse is common in our province. It happens at home (within the family), at school and in the streets.

Psychological maltreatment: This kind of cruelty is also common, and many think it's fair enough when adults go around badmouthing children with expressions like ugly, dumb, monkey, beast, witch, and so on.

Some of the less frequent types of maltreatment are when children are abandoned, threatened or neglected. We hope for your support so that children can receive care, be treated decently, and so on.

I will wind up for now, but next time I want to tell you about a child who was maltreated both physically and psychologically.

Bye-bye, so long.

 

 

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"Back to school" is the children of Angola's first wish for their future. "A roof to sleep under" is the second wish. To attend school they need to be registered. To be registered they need a home. Pencils and books cost money. It may not be much to you, but it is an enormous amount to the street children of Uíge.
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