Home for Christmas

Many Angolans used to fear the 25 December. It marked the anniversary of the first major military attack by Unita, one of the warring factions in the civil war that devastated the African nation for 27 years.

This date was one of many when violence flared up. But today, three years after an historic peace agreement, Christmas Day can be celebrated by Angolans once again.

Christmas is now a time when Angolans think of home, and thousands travel for up to ten days to be with their families.

For many, home was a distant dream during the long years of war. Almost five million Angolans, more than a third of the population, were forced to flee from their villages to avoid being caught up in the fighting.

Many sought refuge in the harsh bush and the overcrowded cities. Today, Luanda, Angola's capital, is home to nearly four million people, of whom an estimated 600,000 are internal refugees.

Christian Aid's partner organisations in Angola, many of them churches, are now helping people to go back to their communities and rebuild their lives.

Through training, they are also supporting those who have not been able to return home by helping them develop new skills.

Twelve-year-old Servina Marta is one of the thousands who have been helped by Christian Aid's partner organisation Associação Cristã de Mocidade (ACM).

Her family returned to their village after ten years to find it completely overgrown. At first, they scraped a living by gathering firewood.

'I had to cut firewood and take it to the city to sell,' recalls Servina. 'I used to go nearly every day. I carried the firewood on my head. It's very heavy.'

But the family can now grow the food they need, thanks to ACM, who gave them seeds to plant and tools to work their land. It also provided basic kitchen equipment and blankets to help the family set up their new home.

'I don't have to go [to the city] every day to get money for food because we have food now,' says Servina. Instead, she is able to go to school each afternoon, and only occasionally makes the six-hour trip to the city.

'Now I only go if I need to buy something like an exercise book. I want to be a teacher,' she says.

'There was a lot of suffering when we first arrived. Now we are taking our first steps to make things better,' adds Domingas Noguera, Servina's mother. 'If ACM hadn't come to help us, we'd be dead.'

As Christian Aid's partners bring help and hope to families like Servina's, they are beginning the process of building a new and peaceful future for Angola.

'The war finished in 2002,' says Julio Luhamo of ACM, 'but building the peace takes much longer. That is what we are now doing. More trust is growing between the different groups. Step by step we are becoming more united.'

Just £20 could provide a family like Servina's with tools, seeds, blankets and basic kitchen equipment. To make a donation to Christian Aid's Child of Africa appeal this Christmas, call 08080 006 006, visit www.christianaid.org.uk/give/angola or use the gift envelope to contribute to the church collection.