Street Children’s School - Benguela, Angola

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Street Children’s School - Benguela, Angola

National Institute for Children (INAC) made an investigation in Beguela and found 1500 children living on the street. This prompted ADPP in Angola to start a Street Children’s School in Benguela in 1993.

The war in Angola resulted in children being displaced in their own country. Families live in unhealthy conditions with no or bad water supply, over crowding and no sanitary facilities which results in the spread of diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and typhoid. Such conditions coupled with illiteracy, unemployment and lack of social services make it difficult for families to account for or take care of their children. Children often wondered off to fend for themselves on the streets. When these children grow up they are likely to turn to crime, drugs abuse, alcohol and prostitution.

The Street Children’s Schools are seen as a viable way to deal with children living on the streets or children who come from troublesome backgrounds. Since the children come from economic difficult circumstances, many of them do not get a good nutritious meal, which makes it difficult for them to concentrate at the activities offered at school. A good meal is offered to the children everyday on condition that they start intellectual development. The kitchen ladies secure the food, plan the meals, cook and serve the food under hygienic conditions. The school is in contact with the children’s families so that if there are problems at home, which disrupt the children from attending school, the School Official will deal with them.

Street Children’s School in Benguela enrols children aged between 12 and 18 years. Classes start from the 1^stgrade to the 6th grade. By the end of the 6th grade and the 4th year of the school program, young people should have a vision or idea about what they intend to do in future. Old students can finalise 1st to 6th grade in 4 years including vocational training.

The school teaches subjects that are part of the education curriculum in Angola. Subjects offered at the school are Portuguese, Mathematics, Science, History, Geography, Moral Education, Arts Education and Physical Education. Each of these subjects have their basic skills but they are headlines for other interesting topics that through deeper investigation students can learn a lot about the world and how to create living conditions for everyone. The theme for the first year of education s "The Community," second year is "Angola, the third year is "The world" and the fourth year is "The Future." In the morning the students are taught the subjects and in the afternoon they take part in clubs

Vocational skills are offered from the 5th grade and the program includes carpentry and sewing lessons that continue into 6th grade. Students can use the kills acquired from vocational training to get employment or start their own income generating projects.

The school is in constant contact with the community and its programs have an impact on the community as a whole. The school runs cleaning campaigns and malaria awareness campaigns. The cleaning campaigns are held regularly. Students pick up the garbage in the surrounding community and burn it. The activities and knowledge disseminated at the campaigns benefits the community. The school keeps the children away from the street and teach them to be responsible people, preventing them from engaging in criminal activities in the community. The school offers sports activities like football, basketball and volleyball and competes against other schools.

Teachers at the school are tasked with the job of teaching, inspiring, challenging and taking care of the students. The teachers bring the students in the process of development; they keep an eye on each one of them and know what sort of progress each student has made.

The school has a program to fighting HIV and AIDS. A special teacher called a Hope Teacher teaches HIV/AIDS class. The Hope Teacher is responsible for planning the lessons in all classes, organising and running the Hope Club and organising HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns at the school and in the community. The Hope Club trains students to be Hope activists. These students are at the forefront of organising HIV/AIDS campaigns in the community. The Hope Club at the school works together with ADPP Hope Project.

The Street Children’s School has its own library. Material for the library has been collected over the years. English language has proved to be a very popular subject at the school. English lessons are offered to all classes and the school’s Development Instructor teaches the classes.

The challenge for the future is to offer a full program at the school. The vocational program needs to be developed so that the students can run income-generating projects at the school while being trained. The school plans to introduce adult evening classes. There are plans to offer community centre activities such as teaching about the world, health, hygiene and showing educational films.

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Former Street Children empowered through education

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