Angola

There are moments one inevitably asks oneself about “the whole point”. So what’s the point of trying to build a small health centre in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the forest of South-Eastern Angola? What’s the point, if this tiny drop in the ocean won’t certainly solve the dearth of Angola’s health situation? What’s the point of trying, when difficulties are endless and for one solved problem there are another 15 to appear?

There is an incredibly complex answer and one that’s extremely easy: both lie in the eyes of a 17 years old mother who holds her tiny premature child and doesn’t know what to do about the child’s diarrhoea. Not only does she have no idea about what might have caused it and how she could have avoided it, but there is also no place to turn to for advice and help. The nearest medical centre is a 14 km walk away and is tended by only one nurse who often doesn’t even get any medical supplies from the city.

So the easy answer is: one must help, simply because of being human and having a heart; one must help, because there is this girl who needs help and who has incredibly sad eyes. And then there’s a whole load of more complex reasons which stem from the idea that there is a fundamental injustice in all of this. It can’t be right, nor economical as a matter of fact, for babies to be born and die after only a few months life. So even if it won’t be possible to help all 17 year-old mothers, it is necessary to start somewhere, to make one step even if it’s tiny, to sow seeds of hope.