Hunger increases the number of beggar children on the streets of Luanda

The number of beggar children in Luanda has been increasing almost every day. The loss of purchasing power by families is pointed out by sociologists as one of the factors. In the district of Zango, for example, due to poverty, residents resettled in the hovels of Zango 1 and Kitondo, many have their children on the streets, who have become beggars or repairers of road holes - a rudimentary job found by several teenagers and children, as a work instrument for self-sustenance.

Aged between 9 and 17 years old, mostly from the neighborhoods of Cajueiro, Santa Paciência and Kitondo, in search of bread, the beggar children in Zango ignore all the risks and, according to the children's own reports, due to starving, taking risks has never been a problem for them.

“My father was unemployed and so was my mother. My father now works as a cesspool cleaner and my mother is selling fuel. Life is hard for them too, that's why my brother and I came here on the road to cover holes, to ask for coins, to take bread home”, reported a 13-year-old teenager who said he was working as a filler. holes in Zango, almost 4 months ago.

With hunger tightening, due to the economic struggle that the country is going through for many families, in the centrality of Zango, garbage containers have become a source of food for many children who have nothing to eat at home.

Where, due to lack of food, rats have served as a solution for food for many families, poverty in that area of ​​Zango is even more pronounced in families with more than 5 members in a household, according to a of the elders heard by this portal in that neighborhood.

“Here in Santa Patience, hunger really entered. Our salvation has been the rats and the kisaca found in these woods. And in those houses where a person has more than 5 people, the solution has been, for the children, to go ask for food in the centrality or pick up food in the containers of the centralities, as it is close to here”, said the eldest, Paulo Jota, 69. years old, resident of Santa Paciencia for over 30 years.

Residents of the areas of Kitondo, Santa Paciência and the families resettled in the area of ​​Zango 1 in hovels report that, despite the black situation that some families in that district live, nothing has been done by the local administration to minimize the hunger that affects the families, and that has forced dozens of children to use garbage containers as a source of food.