Tapiwa Gomo in Luanda
The Angola Red Cross, with support from the International Federation, is among the key players who have been on the ground since the beginning of the cholera outbreak. On May 22, it had already affected 38,422 people and claimed the lives of 1,374 people. The Angola Red Cross has so far trained 415 of its volunteers to carry out health education countrywide.
Cazenga is a busy district of Luanda, the capital of Angola. It is home to nearly one million people, many of whom fled to Luanda during the civil war looking for security. But there is no security now in Cazenga. Panic and fear have gripped the local community since the beginning of the cholera outbreak in February. 32 people have already died and 2615 cases have been reported so far in this district alone.
Cholera, which is caused by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has a good chance of spreading here in Cazenga. Entering the community, you are greeted by the stench from uncollected garbage. In some places, the garbage is heaped in trenches that stretch for nearly half a kilometer. These garbage trenches are filled with fetid water. Women and children fetch water from these dirty pools.
The same water is splashed and flows all over the streets or to the nearby ponds. Children scavenge in the unsafe rubbish dumps and swim in the dirty pools. This is the reality for many children in Cazenga.
Next to the unsafe water and garbage heaps, there are busy markets where all sorts of food are sold. People buy and eat food, especially fruits, without washing their hands or the food. “I have been selling food here for more than five years now and that’s how I make money to look after my family,” says one vendor. “This is how we have been doing it for years and I don’t think cholera is caused by this. Maybe there are other causes.”
But some have changed their attitude. Mariana almost lost her mother to cholera and she has now changed her mind. “We need to improve our heath situation here, otherwise more people will die of cholera and many other diseases,” says Mariana. “The Red Cross volunteers have changed the way I view things. I will make every effort to boil water for domestic use to avoid any form of disease. I don’t want to lose my mother,” she adds.
Although the government is currently clearing the waste, the refuse removal company cannot cope with the large mountains of garbage accumulated over the years. The situation is made worse by the “drainage system,” trenches in which water sits from the rain, with nowhere to go, and stays until it evaporates in the dry season. This makes the communities more vulnerable to water-borne diseases like cholera, other diarrhoeal diseases and malaria.
The majority of the population gets their water from a huge fleet of water trucks that collect water from the Bengo and Kuanza rivers. It is then distributed all over town at a considerable profit and sometimes for resale at the market. In many cases, the water is not treated, but treated or not, the poor cannot afford to buy it.
The situation is starting to change in Cazenga. People of all ages often gather around an Angola Red Cross vehicle where volunteers give them health advice and distribute chlorinated water.
“People here need clean water urgently. The water that they are getting here is not clean,” says Raimundo Maquengo, an Angola Red Cross volunteer. “We are therefore giving out bottles of bleach and instructions on how to effectively add the bleach to their domestic water. Just five drops of bleach in a liter of water will make the water safe to drink,” he adds.
Raimundo also points out that the health and hygiene information that they are giving out has greatly changed people’s attitude towards hygiene and sanitation. “When we started very few people were willing to listen to us, but now the demand for information and bleach is high here in Cazenga and our door-to-door campaign has been well received. We only hope that we will be able to cope with the demand,” he says.
Raimudo and many other volunteers are busy carrying out community health education and distributing pamphlets in the affected communities. He is happy to note that the number of cases is currently decreasing. “We are distributing more than 500 pamphlets a day, and have been assisting with first aid and many other activities in the communities and cholera treatment centres.”
“Our volunteers have been carrying out community health education, distributing pamphlets and bleach, delivering first aid and providing oral rehydration solution (ORS) in the affected communities. More volunteers are undergoing training before being deployed. With more resources, the social mobilisation exercise will change the lives of many people in Angola,” said Alexio Goncalve, the Secretary General of Angola Red Cross.
On May 18, the International Federation launched an emergency appeal seeking 1,206,656 Swiss francs to reinforce local capacities in social mobilization, to provide safe water and adequate sanitation as well as relief supplies such as oral rehydration solutions (ORS), protective clothing, jerry cans and disinfectants.
A Field Assessment and Coordination Team (FACT) has been deployed to assess the situation and make recommendations for medium to long interventions. The team, which has health, water and sanitation and logistics specialists, will further assess and support response activities on a larger scale.
“Based on the team’s findings so far, the preventive activities such as community mobilization and education coupled with relevant material and equipment and further cholera-specific training of the Angola Red Cross staff must be increased,” says Jyri Rantanen, the FACT team leader. “Given the poor state of the water and sanitation infrastructure in Angola, we need to build the capacity of the communities and the Red Cross organization to lessen the impact and severity of any future potential cholera outbreaks,” he concludes.