Luanda, 05 May, 2020 / 5:07 am (ACI Africa).
In an effort to shield street children in Angola from COVID-19, the International Volunteering for Development (VIS), the Non-Governmental Organization of the Religious Institute of Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB), has opened a new emergency center in the Southern African nation’s capital, Luanda.
The center was developed with funds redirected from the European Union-funded "Vamos Juntos," a project for reintegrating street children back into their families.
“They've (EU and other benefactors) opened a new emergency center where the street children can be offered to live this period in a community and in an organized way, far from the dangers of the ever more present street life,” Agenzia Info Salesiana has quoted VIS Country Representative in Angola, Sergio Pitocco as saying.
The Angola-based official added, “These kids, in these days of social deconstruction, are more than ever exposed to the risks of the street, to diseases, to the possible contagion of COVID-19, to the lack of sources of subsistence and to the violence of adults and often, unfortunately, also of law enforcement.”
According to the Country Representative, at least 50 children and adolescents among them 9 girls and one baby girl have responded positively to the initiative.
