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The war which has been escalating and deescalating in Angola for the past 26 years is one of the longest ongoing conflicts on the African continent. Complete devastation of towns like Kuito, civilians living in terror, hoards of refugees flocking towards the interior of the country, hunger, disease and death have come to characterise daily life in many regions of a resigned, unconscious population. Children in Benguela (Angola) with their new "acquisition" - Photo: SOS Archives Peace agreements negotiated time and again between the government and rebel troops of the UNITA (União Nacional para a Independêcia Total de Angola), which are just as often broken, have turned hopes for a new, peaceful tomorrow into utopia. According to a UN report (edition: 2000), one million Angolans rely on food programmes, the fate of a further 2,5 million people depends on humanitarian aid, the civil war has until now cost a million deaths and an estimated 2 million homeless people are living in the most degrading conditions in refugee camps. Relief organisations constantly have problems even trying to reach those in need because of the often intense fighting. SOS Children's Villages has been trying for the last nine years to offer the weakest direct and indirect victims of the war safety and care in and around the two relatively safe locations in Lubango and Benguela in Africa's seventh largest country. Even before construction work could be completed on the SOS Children's Village in Lubango, the capital of the southern province Huila, a rampant meningitis epidemic demanded fast action. Hundreds of children in and around the town fell victim to the epidemic, and thousands of others were at risk. 40,000 vaccinations were purchased in South Africa and a far-reaching vaccination campaign was launched within the framework of an SOS Emergency Relief Programme. Helping the weakest - emergency relief in Lubango (Angola) - Photo: SOS Archives Three years later, further relief measures were implemented which continue today. To begin with, around 400 children suffering from malnutrition and subsequent illnesses received a meal every day. The food programme was extended in 1998 in response to the huge increase in the number of refugees and a second food distribution centre was established. Food rations were given out to children, pregnant women and to elderly and disabled people every day in a local mission, which offered use of the kitchen, in the slums located around 10 km from the SOS Children's Village Lubango. An escalation in the conflict between UNITA and government troops at the end of 1998 forced 100,000 people to abandon their homes in the province of Huila alone. The two food distribution points were providing on average 600 refugees with a meal every day (in 2000: 1,000 people every day), at the same time the SOS Medical Centre became the location for a national polio vaccination programme, while a vaccination programme against meningitis was also carried out. In addition, SOS Children's Villages also provided two tonnes of medicines and medical material for vaccinations and for the local hospital. Following the decision to build a second SOS Children's Village in the harbour town of Benguela on the west coast of Angola, a second SOS Emergency Relief Programme was launched in 2000. The already existing "Deolinda Rodrigues" day-care centre for children was renovated and given extensive support. Because of the desolate situation, the day-care centre is not full - in June 2000, 70 to 80 children between the ages of three and seven attended this centre. Renovation work was started on the building, rails to guard against break-in were fitted on the external doors, windows in the two classrooms and bricks were replaced, holes in the wall filled in, walls repainted. The children were given paper and felt pens: before there weren't any games or drawing materials, as well as not enough food, no cutlery. Three tonnes of food including cornmeal, cooking oil and beans were delivered to the centre and each child was given their own plate, their own spoon, their own cup. 400 items of second hand clothing were also given out, each child got at least one pair of trousers or a skirt and a shirt or a jumper. Little by little, the quality has been improved, the daily nutritional requirements met, the children can have their own little bit of "privacy" and the play facilities have been expanded. The SOS Emergency Relief Programmes are still running today. Angola, even if it does only usually get a brief mention in the international press, is once again struggling to find the path of peace. Much of the population, one or even two generations have grown up in the "normal reality of war" and do not have first-hand experience of what a peaceful reality is like. If this tormented land should ever start to move towards understanding, it will mean that the people in Angola will be able to breath a different kind of air - and no longer have to live in revoked peace.