1) The author visited 3 villages near Waku Kungo in Angola and found the general situation to be worse than in 2014 due to economic crisis. Villagers listed their top priorities as education, health, and food production. 2) A baseline study needs to be conducted focusing on livelihoods, food and nutrition security, health, water and sanitation, and education. The household approach developed in HEA should be included. 3) The author wonders why the villages lack access to funding while surrounding commercial farms are well funded. ACM is well known in the villages and can build on their previous successful project in Pambangala to develop a new program based on the baseline study results.

1. Visit to the villages in Waku Kungu in Angola!
We visited today 3 villages near Waku Kungo. We worked here in 2003 and helped with the
reinstallation of the internal refugees or IDP (internal displaced persons). In September 2014 I came
back tosee howthe situationwas.Nowagainand specially thereforewe calledourvisita “Walalepo”
visit.That meansin Umbundu “how are you?”.The general situationwas worse than it was in 2014.
The economic crisis did also impact the villages because all prices went up such as oil, sugar, soap,
medicinesetc. When we left in 2014 we promised to take care for a school. I was happy to see that
there wasnowaschool built.Thankyouministerof education Dr.PindaSimao!Iaskedall thevillagers
whattheirprioritiesof needswere.Inallthe villageswe heard:education,healthandfoodproduction.
ACMcan do a lotof work buttheyhave to findthe funding!Ialsoaskedwhethertheyget oftenvisits
like our visit. Never was the answer. A lot to do! These people needs help!
To start the work ACMhas to start to do a baseline studyconcentratingonlivelihoodsandfood and
nutritionsecurity.Alsothe care for health,WASHand educationmustbe included.Special attention
has to be paidto the householdapproachsuchashas beendevelopedinthe HEA.In2004 we trained
a group of ACMworkers and also experienced a special baseline study in the same villages.
What wonders me is the presence of the many commercial farms around in the area. These owners
have funds to invest while the villages did not have access to any funding. Why?
What can ACM do?I thinka lot. Theirname iswell knowninthe villages.There isconfidence inthem
and that is a positive point. ACMdeveloped a good project in Pambangala with financial support of
Bread forthe Worlda German faithbasedorganization.Usingthe Pambangalaexperience andadda
special householdandgenderapproachmustbe feasible.Startwithagoodbaseline studyinorderto
detectthe real problemsandbasedonthe resultsdevelopaprogramme.Call it“We shall overcome”.
Aart van der Heide
Waku Kungo
The 20th
of August 2016!