Quoting UN statistics, the Fund said one in every three Angolan children
died before the age of five, one mother in every 50 died while giving birth,
42 percent of all Angolan children were underweight for their age and less
than half ever went to school.
"Nationwide, 50 percent of men and 70 percent of women are illiterate.
According to OCHA, 3.7 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance
of whom 1.5 million are internally displaced persons (IDPs), displaced in
their home country due to the war. It's estimated that 34 percent of
households in Angola have ready access to potable water and 44 percent to
basic sanitation," the report said.
"Thousands of children and their families do not have accessible public
services and cannot afford to pay for private care. In numerous locations,
the government has largely abandoned healthcare provision to
non-governmental organisations and churches. Just 5.7 percent of the annual
budget was directed towards health and sanitation," the report charged.
In the next year, SCF plans to invest additional resources to establish a
response to HIV/AIDS. The national HIV sero-prevalence is estimated to be
between 3 and 5 percent in the adult population.
It was critical of the government's response to the humanitarian crisis in
the country, echoing criticism levelled against the Luanda authorities by
other humanitarian organisations earlier this year. "The government, despite
oil revenues of around US $3 billion, blames the war for the failure to
invest in social services and infrastructure. A substantial proportion of
government revenue, meanwhile, has gone into buying arms.

SOURCE: IRIN Plus News HIV/AIDS Service, 7 November 2001