Africa-Press – Angola. The Onzo Yetu Social Center lacks a little bit of everything. Located in the Social District, in Caxito, Bengo province, the institution receives children, adolescents and adults in vulnerable situations.
The centre’s supervisor, Fernando Coelho, said that most of the people who were taken in do not know how to correctly explain where they came from, especially children. “They arrive here through third parties and they can’t always tell us where they come from,” he said.
Regarding the difficulties that the center faces, Fernando Coelho explained that, for example, when there is no food, the employees make a small contribution to meet the needs of the inmates.
“We don’t always receive donations and the Provincial Social Action Office sends us what they can”, he said.
He stressed that the institution has a partnership with the Provincial Health Office, to ensure medical and medication assistance for all needy people living in the centre.
According to Fernando Coelho, the Onzo Yetu Center is associated with the Lwini Foundation, which is responsible for training in the area of Sewing, especially for people with physical disabilities. “I hope that the competent bodies pay more attention to the center, so that, in a short space of time, its structure is rehabilitated and expanded, to allow other services essential to human life to be created”, he appealed.
Unpaid Employees
A former student of the sewing course at the Onzo Yetu social center is now one of the trainers. Master Manuel Gomes teaches the profession, free of charge, to all people with physical disabilities who express an interest in training in the area.
“I graduated right here, where I’ve been working as a trainer for four years. We need support to buy material and improve electricity. Trainers have no salary and students pay absolutely nothing during training.”
One of the center’s security guards, Carlos Paciência, a father of eight, told our report that he has worked at Onzo Yetu for five years and claims eight months’ wages. “I need to be paid my wages. To survive, I depend on the money that comes from the rents of the house I have in Luanda”.
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