Many institutions, governmental to civil society, participated in the seminar. Reflections centered on the issue of protection and assistance to minors at risk.
Adjaime de Freitas Cadete - Co-ordinator of the Salesian Network – addressed the topic "Understanding and helping to ennoble the lives of children living in the streets of Luanda." It illustrated what the children's living conditions are in the streets of the city, the reasons motivating them to leave their families, what the proposals of the Salesian Network are, always in the approach of Don Bosco.
Paulo Kalesi, of the National Institute for Infancy, then explained the "Child Protection System for Street Children" provided by the Angolan Government, with whom the Salesians have been working together for years. He reflected on the family situations which push children to run from their families. What emerged is that the primary cause lies in weak and fragmented family ties and relationships, often "recomposed", and characterized by an unstable economic situation; the conclusion reached: work in this field should be shared among the various institutions active in supporting minors - as the Salesian Provincial, Fr Victor Sequeira, said - and one must continue on the road to reconciliation and reunification between the street children who pass through the Salesian network and their families.
In the end, the protagonists were the same children welcomed by the Salesians through photographs and videos on Human and Childhood Rights - including the right to a family -, musical performances and testimonies of several teenagers residing at the "Casa Mamã Margarida", a welcome center for street children.
