USAID / Angola - Success Stories

One hundred abandoned street girls between the ages of eight and 15 are helped at the Horizonte Azul Street Girls Center. World Learning, a U.S. non-governmental organization in partnership with an Angolan NGO, has created a community resource center for educational and professional training for abandoned female street children and teenage girls. The center offers standard primary classes from grades one to four, adult education, and extra-curricular classes in computer science, human rights, sewing, crocheting and health education.

This EDDI funded activity allowed USAID/ Angola to achieve some important steps in creating private-public alliances in Angola. Chevron-Texaco contributed $140,000 to the Horizonte Azul Street Girls Center to create a vocational training program. This program has been extremely successful, with 82% of its girls graduating after one year, and five girls being selected to attend an exclusive pate school.

Teachers at the Center benefited from training on children with trauma, children's rights and adult literacy education. These types of trainings prepare the staff to better understand and assist children needs and psychological demands in a proper manner. The project greatly contributes to reducing female illiteracy, alleviating poverty and providing greater access and opportunities for women in the development process. Until the problem of girls' education is addressed the human development of Angola will remain endangered. The program aims to alleviate poverty of abandoned girls while providing them opportunities to be fully integrated into society through literacy skills and professional training, increase the opportunities for empowerment of girls and remove them from the streets; to strengthen civil society through the establishment of a functioning non-profit center that represents the interests of disenfranchised girls; and, link civil society to government through networking with various ministries.

The project enabled the renovation of a community resource center that now supports exchange and networking activities of the target group with civil society organizations. This successful model can be replicated in other provinces of Angola.

While it is expected that the activities will be fully implemented by a non-governmental organization, through a community resource center, partners include Ministry of Women's Affairs and Family (coordinator); the National Institute of Children; and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

USAID/ Angola - Success Stories