JRS EDUCATION PROJECT IN CAZOMBO

JRS EDUCATION PROJECT IN CAZOMBO

Wars, whatever their kind, have negative impact on society. In this article Fancois Chanterie, S.J., draws upon his experiences in Cazombo, Angola. He highlights how the war in that region has affected the socio-economic structure of society and how the Jesuit Refugee Service tried to improve the situation through provision of education. Despite its sad ending, the story has many lessons for the future.

Judging from the destroyed houses, shops, hotels and other offices and from what remains of the great agricultural machines and the many burned out coaches along the roads, Cazombo was probably once, before the break out of the Civil War in Angola, a flourishing and industrious city.

Situated between the Zambian border and Zambezi river, it still has a key geographical position, if it were not for the fact that the bridge over the Zambezi and the roads to the Zambian border and to other urban centres have been destroyed.

Salesmen are not coming and going to Zambia anymore. After the rainy season fishermen are still going to Zambia to sell their fish (kapenta) but no longer return with consumer goods for the local market. Nothing is left of the once very productive rice plantations in the shanas (moor land), nothing is left except the various broken and rusty agricultural machines which are eloquent silent witness of what was a flourishing enterprise 30 years ago.

The small Benedictine convent with its church, hospital, schools and offices was destroyed. What the soldiers were not able to do was afterwards completed by the local poor people in search of firewood, or by the termites and the rain.

However, the majority of the Cazombo population fled to Zambia. Exact figures of those who fled are not available. There are now about 40,000 people in the Maheba refugee camp in northwestern Zambia. But many more have found refuge in Mwinilunga and the neighbouring villages along the border without difficulty, because they belong to the same tribe, Luvale and Lunda. One can estimate that about 30,000 people are waiting for peace in order to return to their homeland in exile. Those who did not flee are still living in small villages along the mighty Zambezi river around Cazombo.

When the Lusaka peace agreement was signed in 1999 by the MPLA and the UNITA, the GURN was installed in Luanda. This indicated that the civil war was finished and that there was a fair chance for the installation of a peaceful organised society.In order to promote and facilitate the return of the refugees, the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) sent a team to Cazombo to set up pastoral care, and a structure for public health education.

The team met people who had been totally abandoned for many years, full of fear, terrorised by the political party, harassed by soldiers, scared by everything. Young men immediately fled into the bush and older people who could not run so fast hid themselves in their huts as soon as a single gunshot was heard or the eventual arrival of patrolling soldiers was rumoured.

There was no money in the region. Trade was done by barter: two ducks for a T-shirt, a bag of maize for a pair of shoes, etc. The year by calendar was no longer in use. People were living from day to day, cultivating a few crops, just enough to feed the family. To assure that they could work properly, the JRS contacted the local authorities of UNITA who gave them permission to move freely in the region, to bring together the catechists and to assist the people wherever they could.

The JRS began restoring the Benedictine convent, which it made its centre. The team considered its work as a ''sacrament of peace''. They showed the people by small symbolic gestures that war belonged to the past and that ''normal life'' finally returned. That peace again created the possibility of a structured life with working days and Sundays, without fear of soldiers and without a return of intimidation by the political party.

With help of the people there, the hospital and church were restored; the cemetery was cleaned; some trees were cut down and others planted. Those who died received a funeral, the new born were baptized and weddings were registered. The catechists had their regular training meetings, etc. About twenty young men who helped in the reconstruction of the buildings received, besides their allowance, training as bricklayers or carpenters.

The nurses visited two villages a day weekly to attend the sick. They started a preventive campaign against malaria, trained four ''assistants'', had meetings with the pregnant women, brought clothes to the poor who no longer had any family, improved the nutrition of the babies by distributing vitamins, assisted at difficult births as midwives and did so much more.

Pastoral care and public health had already started in 1995. The education project began a year letter. Only after an observation period of three months was an education project written down and given to the local authorities of UNITA for approval. JRS took its time to analyse the socio-economic situation of the young people living in the villages. It is hard to imagine that a whole area had not seen a single book, a newspaper or an exercise book for more than 25 years.

A few men were able to read and write, but the majority could not read and write anymore. The official language was still Portuguese, but was only spoken by the ruling caste. The people were speaking Luvale or Lunda and did not use the Portuguese language anymore except for some words. Apart from the concrete reality of figures (2 ducks, 5 fingers, 5 goats), adolescents and adults had lost any notion of mathematics.

An education programme should start from scratch. A little market research made it clear that people wanted the education and the literacy course to be given in Portuguese. They were eager to learn Portuguese again because Portuguese means an entry to the city.

Male adolescents were used to accompanying their fathers to the shanas for fishing during the rainy season (May-June). Therefore, to avoid absenteeism it was decided the academic year should start after the fishing season in July and end before it in February.

The traditional strict separation of boys and girls would mean making different classes for the two groups. The curriculum for girls should be modified according to their specific needs and be on a more basic level. Most of the young women are already married and have a child or children, so they should be allowed to have their babies with them during classes.

The villages are stretched out over 40 km. The organisation of a learning centre in a central place is not possible. Each village had to have its own centre and only those villages where one of two adults was found who could read and write would be invited into the project.

If there was still a kind of social network in the villages, it was thanks to the Catholic Catechists and local traditional chiefs (Soba) who were Catholics also. Therefore the Catholic community would be responsible for the learning centre but all the adolescents of the village would be welcome and could be enrolled.

There was also in the very centre of the Cazombo region five government primary schools. Officially they were controlled by the regional inspector for the Alto Zambezi municipality (UNITA) who behaved as if these schools were functioning normally. He had registered the teachers and numbers of pupils and he could also show documents with exam questions. But that was only on paper. In fact the schools (of which the buildings had recently been restored by the Lutheran World Federation) were not functioning at all.

The teachers went fishing because they were not paid; there were no school books available, no didactical material. There were only children playing around the school. JRS could eventually support these schools with didactical materials without interfering in the real school organisation. They were aware that the school material would disappear for other purposes. To avoid conflicts or difficulties with or any control by UNITA, it was better to set up a parallel community based school system for the many adolescents (between 13 and 22 years old) who had never gone to school and will never go to school.

The training of these adolescents would have an important social effect: it would prevent them being marginalised in the future, facilitating their integration in social life once the refugees in Zambia were able to come back in large numbers. The adolescents in the refugee camp of Maheba (Zambia) went to school and were feeling themselves superior to the ''locals'' ruled by the ''Savimbi guys'' back in Cazombo. The local adolescents needed first of all a good literacy course, followed by an intensive programme during a period of two years. This would enable them to receive a certificate of the primary school education.

After several meetings with the local UNITA authorities, the JRS finally received permission to realize its project. The JRS deliberated with the communities from March until June 1996 on how to set up a learning Centre where a literacy course for adolescents could be given. The traditional chiefs applauded and supported the initiative.

The communities appointed two or three tutors who were invited for an introductory training course at the JRS central office in Cazombo for two weeks. Once back in their village they continued studying and began enrolling the students. July and August were months in which the communities were thinking about how to organise their Learning Centres.

Eleven communities had built a small two room learning centre from mud blocks. JRS assisted with timber and iron sheets for the roofs. Most of the construction material had to be brought in from Zambia. The literacy programme started in September.

More significant than the absolute figures of students is the fact that about 85 per cent of the young people between 13 and 22 years old were enrolled. Each learning Centre had two or three tutors. Each tutor was responsible for a group of approximately 25 students. There was first of all the introductory training course for the tutors. Afterwards each trimester began with a workshop or seminar, training the 37 tutors in one week. The aim was to improve their knowledge (reading and writing) of Portuguese.

Even tutors were very limited in their intellectual skills. Reading and writing fluently was for all of them a skill still to be learned. Teaching skills were also included. The tutors received a monthly allowance of US$ 20.00. The communities appointed a responsible person who monitored whether the school was starting and finishing according to schedule, the tutors were effectively working, and students were satisfied.

In their enthusiasm four centres enrolled very young boys and girls, who were not yet ready to attend even primary school. We were forced to set up a pre-school programme for about 150 children under the age of 13 years. In three months all students could read and write Luvale and Portuguese. In the next trimester they had to learn the basics of Portuguese and Mathematics and therefore they received a reader specially designed for them.

The learning centres were doing so well that a local academic director was appointed. The teachers elected a colleague to support the functioning of the centres, to assist them in their teaching and to distribute the school materials. The politico-military situation, as the misery provoked by the conflict of MPLA and UNITA soldiers was called, did not favour the normal functioning of the schools. UNITA started the forced recruitment of young men again in June 1998, a few weeks before the first school year would take an end.

These actions created fear and uncertainty among the people and had a repercussion on the learning Centres. The youth did not stay at home overnight any more and were afraid to come to school. In order to stop confusion and start the next school year properly an agreement was made with the UNITA administrator of Cazombo. Students who regularly visited the Learning Centres would be released immediately when they were detained.

In spite of these difficulties, the second academic year was able to start again. Two Learning Centres situated in villages where there was great tension had to be closed. A workshop for the young people was started on Sunday afternoons, pupils could visit the library, and smaller children received materials and guidance for drawing games. On 15 November, the last Sunday before JRS left the place, 120 children visited the library!

As we did not know that the civil war would start up again brutally in November and because the Learning Centres were really doing so well, we took another initiative. This went beyond immediate help and was designed to improve the whole education structure in the region.

In order to contribute to a structured and regular life in the villages, the JRS suggested organising five primary schools financially and didactically in the buildings previously rehabilitated by the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), suitable for about 1200 children.

The local UNITA authorities accepted the proposal even after the JRS underlined the fact that the schools were not UNITA schools and the teachers not UNITA members. It was agreed that the schools belonged to the municipality of Cazombo ruled at that time by UNITA and that the UNITA party would not force either the teachers or the pupils to participate in any party activity during school hours. The UNITA authorities kept their promise during the following months.

The JRS paid the teachers US$ 35 monthly, the directors US$ 40 and the Municipal Director US$ 45. After a short training course of the 41 teachers, enrolment of the pupils was organised and five primary schools opened their doors on 1 October. The schools received school materials (pens, chalk, exercise books and the official text books of Maths and Portuguese used in government schools of Angola).

But a week later, 16 November, two unidentified MIG bombers dropped two bombs near the airstrip of Cazombo in mid- afternoon. After this bombing of Cazombo, any education work was impossible. People fled into the bush. Teachers and students disappeared to escape forced recruitment. This brutal and unexpected event put an abrupt end to all the wonderful work. The JRS decided to withdraw temporarily because the security of teachers, pupils and the JRS team was no longer guaranteed.