Social exclusion and violence:
Education for social cohesion

ONJILA PROGRAM: EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT

ANGOLA: Luanga/Bengo, Benguela, Huila and Malangue

The Onjila Program tries to respond to the needs of school-aged children of the less favored social sectors of both rural and inner city areas, in a context where there are serious problems caused by the war. Its aims are: to assure the right of all Angolan children to education, especially in those areas with no development projects; to build pedagogical and didactic models adapted to the different realities and promote school and extra-school activities, community development activities, establishing a better rapport between school and community. Onjila is an Ubundu word (national Angolan language spoken in the central and southern parts of the country), which means "road", road to development. The project also contributes to the reinforcement of the civil society by promoting the communities' active participation and civic conscience, tending toward change processes at a social level.

The Onjila Program is conducted by the ADRA (Action for rural and environmental development, NGO), benefiting 43,200 children, 1,053 teachers and approximately 25,000 parents and people in charge of education in 61 schools. It also implements different intervention strategies based on the teachers' permanent in-service training and the use of participatory methodologies that involve teachers, directors, local organisms of the Ministry of Education and Culture (MEC), students, parents and the whole community. Actions are also implemented to recover and build schools' infrastructure and the production of pedagogical support material (methodological guides, texts, teaching file cards, and systematization of information on program interventions and teachers' experience). From the community point of view, the project promotes and trains parents' commissions to facilitate their better participation in the management of the school life. It also backs up the creation of school kitchen garden and small animals breeding, choirs, theater and dance.

Currently, Angola suffers from the consequences of war through a deep political, economic and social crisis. The population in general and children, in particular, are affected by a state of physical and emotional deprivation. The human, material and financial resources have been significantly reduced, which directly affects the educational sector. Because of this, the Angolan educational system shows difficulties of access, high desertion and failure rates, lack of equipment and didactic material, and lack of teachers' motivation and training, which obviously generates low quality education. By integrating education into its development projects, ADRA intends to contribute, through its program, to the reinforcement of the country's processes of democratization and stabilization, in order to achieve social cohesion and struggle against inequality.

Ms. Luísa Filomena Mendes de Araújo
General Coordinator of the ONJILA-ADRA PROGRAM
Praceta Farinha N° 27-1st Dt° - CX. Post, 3788 - Luanda - ANGOLA
Tel./Fax: (204 02) 396663/395132
E-mail: adra-ang@bonetnet
Web site: http://www.adra-ao.org/

Institutional Partners
Provincial Delegations of the Ministry of Education (MED), Ministry of Social Reinsertion (MINARS), National Institute of the Child (INAC) of Angola.
UNICEF, Christian Children's Fund (CCF)
Financial Partners
Inter-churches Organization for Cooperation and Development,
The European Union,
MISEREOR (Germany),
ARO-Afrika Grupperna (Sweden)

Luanga/Bengo (1995); Benguela (1995); Huila (1995); Malangue (1997)