Sergio Pitocco, a VIS representative, explained that this new emergency center was created by reorienting several activities of the "Vamos Juntos" program, a project funded by the European Union and other benefactors, which aimed to reintegrate street children into their families.
The benefactors "have opened a new emergency center to offer street children a community where they can live during this period, away from the dangers that are always present on the street," said Pitocco.
The VIS representative then explained that in these days of social deconstruction, the children of Angola "are exposed more than ever to the risks of the street, to diseases, to the possible contagion of Covid-19, to the lack of sources of subsistence and to the violence by adults and often, unfortunately, also by the police."
According to Pitocco, many of the 50 children and adolescents, including 10 girls, welcomed in the refuge of the Salesian center "St Domenico Savio" in Luanda, responded positively.
In this center, children and adolescents receive the attention of social educators and volunteers who provide them with protection, food and hygiene, and above all "help them organize their daily lives, to learn and respect the rules of hygiene and prevention, and to be responsible," said Pitocco.
On March 24, the Angolan government declared a state of emergency, with effect from March 27, to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. Since then, the end of the state of emergency has been extended twice; the last extension was decreed on 10 May.
To date, at least 45 cases of Covid-19 infection have been recorded in 12 major regions of Angola, 13 people have recovered and two have died. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Angola ranks 174th in the world for Covid-19 cases.
"We are trying to transform this emergency into an opportunity to carry out more accurate work of accompaniment and empowerment of children and adolescents in the street situation and, in the future, to prepare the way back to their families."
To date many initiatives have been put in place to help street families in Angola, Ethiopia and Sierra Leone thanks to the Salesian missionaries, the Salesians of Don Bosco of the United States and the members of the Don Bosco Religious Institute founded by the Italians 161 years ago.
