#081
ANGOLA:
CHILDREN OF
STREETS
Jul 02, 2009 by
Stéphane Lehr



©
stéphane lehr
Estima-se que mais de 5.000 crianças vivem nas ruas de Luanda, a capital de Angola, sobrevivendo a roubar, a lavar carros ou até mesmo prostituindo-se. Vítimas da pobreza e das consequências dos sucessivos conflitos civis, habituaram-se a viver
snifando gasolina, cola e outros solventes, o que as torna mais vulneráveis às doenças e aos abusos continuados.
Angola has the natural potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa, but for nearly four decades the majority of
angolans have known nothing but war and conflict. During this period, though, more people have died from malnutrition, disease and a lack of clean water and sanitation than as a direct result of the fighting. There are thought to be over 10,000 street children in Angola, of whom an estimated 5,000 are in Luanda, driven to the urban areas by both poverty and the civil war over the past eight years.
Conditions in Luanda are appalling. In the past 40 years a city with a population of 300,000 has become a sprawling mass of squalid slums with a population of over three million. There is no electricity, sewage removal or clean water in these shantytowns surrounding the central city.
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