SFCG Angola: October 12, 2011 (também em português)

Angolan Students Engage in School Parliament

The school parliament in Angola began in 2009 as an initiative of Search for Common Ground (SFCG) to work with youth in a strategic, appropriate, and sustainable manner. The main focus of this project was aimed at the creation of a new generation of young Angolan leaders. At the beginning, SFCG and the participants worked with adolescents and youth facing problems of delinquency, and also with members of street gangs who were responsible for acts such as theft, smoking illegal substances, street violence, prostitution, and rape in some cases. Then in 2009, SFCG with IASED (Instituto Angola de Sistemas Electorais e Democracia) established the first school parliament, in order to attain the objective of creating a young generation of leaders.

In January 2010, with funding from the EU Delegation in Luanda, SFCG continued the School Parliament project to empower Angola's youth. SFCG works with young Angolans from 50 secondary schools in Luanda and 25 in Cabinda in a series of interactive activities engaging them in civic education. The School Parliament provides opportunities for youth to debate current issues and make policy decisions, providing first-hand experience in the process of governing and responding to constituents. The concepts of democratic principles and constitutional processes specific to Angola are introduced and then combined with practical experience. The Parliament is linked with weekly radio programs, which highlight different project themes and share them with youth all across Angola.

The project aims to promote greater and more positive youth engagement in Angola's future, in response to the many young people who have grown up in Angola with little or no opportunity for civic participation. The parliamentary elections in 2008 were a good example of democracy and were among the first steps in a long transition to a democratic culture that is more open, participatory, and accountable. When SFCG surveyed the level of awareness among School Parliament participants, the students were unanimous in their belief that it is important to participate in the program in order to learn how to voice their opinions. Most students believe that School Parliament activities allow them to gain more knowledge about citizenry and leadership.

How it Works

The students, who form the parliament deputies, were elected by the schools they represent using the same rules and regulations of the National Assembly of Angola. The members of the parliament and the deputies are elected on a yearly basis, which corresponds with the school year. The parliament has a president elected by its peers. The school parliament president has a one year term, renewable only two times in a row, so as to instill the idea of succession. The deputies are organized in parliamentary thematic groups, called "commissions," which are responsible for submitting resolutions to the parliament for future vote. In the schools, the 5 deputies, who lead different commissions, discuss subjects and themes that have been decided in collaboration with SFCG and IASED. Together a resolution is drafted and circulated among all the deputies for input and feedback. When the draft is finalized, the deputies meet in a full session, called a "plenary session". During this session, the parliament can vote to accept or refuse the resolution presented by a commission. In the picture above we can see the president of the Women Commission presenting a resolution on how to assist sex workers and provide alternatives to the prostitution problem in Luanda.

Finally, when the resolution is adopted by a majority, following the rules of the Angola National Assembly, the resolution is passed. SFCG and its partner IASED then make contact with local authorities and when a meeting is granted, the members of the school parliaments, who presented and defended the resolution to their peers, meet with the local authorities for a sincere and open debate. In the photo to the right, we can see a Commission meeting with a Senior Police Officer for School Security. The commission presented the recommendation of the School Parliament for the challenge of School violence in Luanda. The police accepted the recommendation and have included it in a proposal that the police will present to the ministry of Interior at the National Level. The police also have mentioned its intention and will to collaborate with SFCG in other municipalities as well. SFCG will continue to bring students and government officials together, and is committed to engaging young people in the democratic development of their nation to ensure a future of increased government transparency and accountability. The school parliament has 50 members representing 10 schools of the metropolitan area of Luanda. In Cabinda, the school parliament has been established as well with 25 members representing 5 schools.

Visit from the National Children's Parliament from Guinea-Bissau

Search for Common Ground invited the National Children's Parliament (NCP) from Guinea-Bissau to Angola for an exchange experience with School Parliamentarians. During the visit, both groups met and discussed a variety of issues related to youth and shared ideas on the role of student government organizations like the School Parliament.

Among the various topics discussed were the implementation of the eleven commitments to children, which protect various children's rights such as the rights to a healthy life and physical and social security, the applicability of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the problem of child labor and street children. According to them, some of the biggest problems facing youth and children in Africa are the lack of education, poor health care, poverty, and the refusal of governments to protect the rights of children. Hussainatu Mendes, a member of the NCP, pointed out the inconsistency of governments on children's rights saying, "The African countries also signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but they are the ones that break it." One conclusion reached by a member of the group was that government support is essential in promoting children's rights, but that children and youth also need a voice in solving their own problems.

During their stay in Angola both groups visited various organizations that deal with children's issues, including the National Institute of Children, the United Nations Fund for Children and Childhood, the Angolan Institute of Electoral Systems and Democracy, the National Assembly, and the National Council Ministry of Children, Family, and Promotion of Women.

Laurindo Vipipili, President of the Angolan School Parliament, said the Guinean delegation gave them the idea to create a National Children's Parliament in Angola as well. Overall, representatives from both groups said they learned much from the experience and from what the other group had to share.

The Team - Angola

The Team in Angola just finished filming 15 new episodes in Huila province. In the new season, issues of women's empowerment take center stage, including sexual violence and domestic abuse. This season delves into the women behind many of the male characters and demonstrates the barriers and catalysts to women's empowerment. The new season puts a significant emphasis on the need to have women involved in decision-making processes in order to improve the status of women in Angola.

In Angola, the characters are part of a football team based in Lubango. Filmed by Oscar Gil, the issues of the Team were developed through consultations with members of civil society and members of local governments in five different places, culminating in a curriculum summit in Luanda. The intended outcomes and core messages were derived through workshops with civil society leaders and local government officials in five locations around the county. Through a participatory process, SFCG and its partners were able to identify the major issues that needed to be addressed and articulate clear objectives and messages for the show.

These messages were put into a storyline focused on a football team, presenting the social issues facing young people and showing how these problems are resolved in a different way than would be normal in reality in Angola. With the help of student associations from each school in the school parliament program, A Equipa will be presented to students at 15 schools in Luanda and Cabinda. Screenings will be accompanied by a facilitation manual to further discuss and develop the issues. The intention is to also undertake outreach sessions in Lubango, Huambo, Cabinda and Luanda, with partners of SFCG involved in civic education work.

One of Angola's leading newspapers, Jornal de Angola, recently ran a story on the new season, bringing more publicity to the already popular show. The article praised the new season saying, "The storylines, the material resources used, and the high level of performance by coaches and players are, from the start, reason to consider that the public viewer will be entertained by the high technical and artistic quality" of the show.

The success of The Team builds on the inspirational role that soccer plays around the globe. The game provides the framework and the setting to engage a mass audience in promoting positive social change. In each country, the players manage to resolve the inevitable conflicts that arise, and they discover that the commonalities that join them are far deeper than the differences which threaten to tear them apart. Characters demonstrate cooperative behaviour, which is essential both to winning at soccer and to peacefully resolving the pressing problems that their country faces. Indeed, the mega-metaphor is that each country needs to come together as a Team, not as a collection of individuals or ethnic or political groups, and that cooperation is essential for development.

To maximize the effect of the show, SFCG Angola will develop a set of peacebuilding activities around the program, aimed at creating relationships between people from across dividing lines, and at catalysing action, tied into the program's messages. Activities include soccer tournaments, mobile cinema screenings, leadership and peacebuilding trainings, in-school civic education curricula, and peace campaigns using SMS and new media technology. These involve a host of organizations and groups in the activities to ensure that they are rooted in society.

The Team — Angola is one version of the award-winning project created and produced by SFCG and aired in 16 countries around the world. Through the television and radio program, SFCG aims to change adversarial attitudes in countries that have experienced conflicts by presenting diverse football teams, who understand that success on the field comes only with cohesion, tolerance, unity, and respect for others off the field.

Our new project: Engaging youth for community based change through Conflict Resolution Centers

This current project, financed by BP, builds on gained experience and fosters the participants to further engage their respective communities while using the lessons learned. The project aims to initiate a progression from identifying key issues in society and learning how to address them, to actually carrying out concrete activities in response to these key issues. The project aims to promote ownership of the role of youth in Angolan society and to increase the confidence of youth leaders to engage in their communities with the purpose of fostering change.

This project supports a peaceful future for Angola through supporting youth as actors in peace building and community engagement. The project builds on the foundations of the SFCG Angola project School Parliament to continue promoting youth development while empowering youth to take ownership of their community level initiatives. The project has the overall goal of promoting greater youth engagement at the community level in determining Angola's future. This project is guided by two specific objectives, namely the reinforcement of skills of Angolan youth in civic education and life skills, including leadership, conflict resolution, collaborative problem-solving, and advocacy, and the interaction through dialogue between various youth actors and groups.

By building conflict resolution centers, or Njango, the project seeks to invest in a structure that will allow for a systematic transfer of knowledge between students. Using the school parliament handbooks and other literature provided to the centers, the initial investment in the project will provide the students with resources for the future sustainability of the conflict resolution centers. Building off the relationships made with Parliamentarians, the students will be able to keep alive and further strengthen these ties, as well as the dialogue between youth and government in general. SFCG and BP seek to build capacity within local actors and to provide resources that are left at the disposal of the participants to sustain the results of the project. The conflict resolution centers will act as a platform from which inter youth and community wide engagement can take place, with youth leaders at the forefront. Such centers will also act as a meeting place from which other initiatives can take place. SFCG aims to broaden the involvement and buy-in from the community by extending the lessons and experiences of the project activities to the overall public via radio programming. By using community radio as a vehicle to reach a larger audience, the project will generate larger involvement by youth to utilize and refer to the conflict resolution centers. The project has been launched in a public ceremony held at the Hotel Alvalade on August 24, 2011 and the first training of trainers took place at the INAC from August 29, 2011 to September 2nd, 2011.

Radio Production of Studio N'Jango

The studio of SFCG in Angola is located on the office premises in the Kilamba-Kiaxi municipality. Currently, the studio works full time with 4 youth reporters and a media specialist. There is a production meeting every week, generally on Friday, where the subjects and themes are selected. Then, the work is distributed among the different youth reporters who bring back the audio material that has been collected in the following week. So far, the studio has produced more than 30 radio programs over the past quarter. These radio productions cover a variety of subjects such as school safety, parental abandon of children, prostitution, the use of drugs amongst youth, early and unwanted pregnancies, umeployment, youth violence, sexual harassment in schools, participation of youth in the democratic decision-making process, public probity of elected leaders, decentralisation, domestic violence, the role of youth in the actualisaiton of the electoral register, the right to citizenship and to basic social living conditions, women’s rights, the Leadership of women in Angola, the Women and their financial autonomy, etc. The radio production called “Baza Madie” uses several formats, including the roundtable, interviews, vox pop, magazines, and presentations. It is solely produced by the youth reporters.

Snapshot on the people of Angola: the Mumuílas

The Mumuilas are not a well-known people. We do not hear much about them. Even among Angolans, there are many who are unaware of their existence. Its population suffers from the rejection of modern society because of their dress, eatting habits, and work. The Mumuilas are sheperds and are settled in the Huila and Namibe provinces. Selling livestock and dairy products is their main source of income and livelihood. These people have quite unique characteristics in relation to other peoples of Angola. An example is their habit of bathing with milk and with dried cow feces as an exfoliant. When they come to town to trade, their products grab everyone's attention because of their dress and unfamiliar culture. Nonetheless, this tribe has given to Angola many great monarchs and queens in the ancient times. We offer a picture of a women of this tribe who graciously posed for our team whilst in the field.

All of these results would not be possible without the support of: