While seeds and tools hold the promise of providing for needs 6 months from now and commodities provide for immediate needs, these people have other pressing needs. World Vision has set up feeding centers for those that are worse off. A month ago, Malange was registering three to four deaths a day from starvation. UNITA had been shelling the city continuously since the war started anew in November 1998. Cut off and unable to escape, people survived on leaves, roots and whatever they could find in a tight circle around the city. As more people fled to Malange, the numbers outstripped these traditional survival mechanisms. Feeding centers have been unable to meet the demand. Children and the old are the worst off. World Vision has been opening feeding centers and kitchens in Malange for the last week. While helping, the need is great. Now discussions are underway about returning to general food distributions to all people in Malange, something that had not existed since 1995.

		Water is another area where World Vision is helping. For the community of Marimba, now being settled 7 kilometers from the edge of Malange, their closest source of water is an open stream one and a half kilometers from their temporary home. 6,851 people from Marimba depend on that stream for water for cooking, drinking, washing clothes and bathing. Across the road from them, another 6,140 from the dislocated village of Kunda-dia-Base also depend on the same source of water. Conditions are ripe for epidemics. World Vision’s water and sanitation team is there and responding with bore-holes and latrines as well as sanitation education messages passed on through puppet shows, songs and theatre. However, the needs are greater than their capacity to respond. Another threat awaits the Angolan people, lying dormant in the ground. Angola has the second highest number of landmines in the world. There are an estimated 12 million landmines planted in Angola, one for every man, woman and child in the country. This threat has resulted in 100,000 people losing limbs from landmine related accidents, 8,000 of those have been children under 15. Countless others have not been so lucky and have died. World Vision has been active in raising the awareness of people living in these areas. Working with UNICEF and the government agency in charge of land mines, INAROEE, World Vision has been recently trying to institutionalize the mines awareness message into the school curriculum and training teachers as well as traditional leaders on the danger of mines. With the end of US government funding, this program has been greatly reduced, but the need is still there. As the war continues, more unexploded ordinance is out there where farmers and children can come in contact with it as well as the efforts of both belligerents to continue re-mining strategic areas. What the Angolan people need is more of the same interventions. However, traditional donors and partners are struggling to maintain their commitment given the pessimism about Angola’s future. All the while, reports are coming out of Angola stating that the people are suffering, and according to Catherine Bertini, director of the United Nations’ World Food Programme, Angola is now the “worst country in the world to grow up in”. World Vision needs support in order to reach more Angolans. The agriculture, commodities, water, health and mines awareness programs are all struggling to continue while all along more demands are being placed on World Vision staff to respond. Quite frankly, the situation in Angola is not going to change any time soon. For the general population, without a quick response, things could potentially get much worse. For the people of Marimba, it may be a long time before they can cross the 300 kilometers and rebuild their lost town.