Camacupa - One hundred and twenty people with albinism registered in the municipality of Camacupa, Bié province, are being assisted from this week under the Social Strengthening and Protection Program (kwenda), ANGOP learned.
The information was released by the director of the Local Development Institute (FAS) in Bié, Rizoni Costa Chivembe, who said that this is a comprehensive process for this fringe of society, with which it is expected to spend 15 million 840 thousand Kwanzas.
Albinism is determined in a genetic and hereditary way, with an absence or significant decrease in the production of melanin – a pigment that defines the color of the skin, eyes and hair.
He recalled that 41,666 vulnerable families, also in the municipality of Camacupa, have already benefited from the first phase of payment of the social cash transfer component of the Kwenda program, in the amount of two billion 825 million 790,000 Kwanzas.
Each household received 66,000 Kwanzas, corresponding to a semester, at the rate of 11,000 Kwanzas/month and the families, and these benefits will run for 24 months.
Operated by FAS, Kwenda is a program of the Angolan Executive that aims to create policies to support families in vulnerable situations.
The program includes three components, namely productive inclusion, municipalization of social action and strengthening of the single social registry.
It should be noted that Kwenda started in May of this year, with the payments of the 4th and 5th phases in the municipality of Andulo, with the forecast of covering 46,954 families, distributed in 426 villages.
In Andulo, the locality that hosted the launch of the program at the level of the province of Bié, on April 29, 2021, 51 thousand 800 households are registered so far, in the municipal headquarters and in the communes of Cassumbi, Chivaúlo and Calussinga.
Of the 46,954 beneficiary families, two thousand 393 live in the seat of the municipality of Andulo.
Throughout the province of Bié, more than 195 thousand families are registered, where more than 171 households already benefit from the money in the municipalities of Andulo, Camacupa, Cuemba, Chitembo and Nhãrea.
The municipality of Cunhinga, which has already registered more than 23 thousand families, remains to be paid.
Initially, the value was set at eight thousand and 500 Kwanzas/month, and in 2022 the value rose to 11 thousand, in which each household is receiving 33 thousand quarterly.
As for the productive inclusion sub-project, also part of KWENDA, it has already supported 103 cooperatives in the municipality of Andulo, in fertilizers (fertilizers and ammonium) and improved tomato, onion and cabbage seeds.
The action aims to encourage the promotion of agricultural production in the communities, embodied in the promotion of seed banks, distribution of goat and pig cattle, as well as the creation of community funds, where ten groups received money for credits.
Kwenda plans to assist one million 600 families throughout the country, having already covered families in the provinces of Zaire, Huíla, Cunene, Malanje, Cuando Cubango, Cuanza Norte and Bengo.
It is valued at 420 million US dollars and is financed by the World Bank, with 320 million dollars. The other 100 million come from Angola’s National Treasury.
The province of Bié has approximately two million inhabitants, distributed in nine municipalities, namely Andulo, Camacupa, Catabola, Chinguar, Chitembo, Cuemba, Cuito, Cunhinga and Nhârea. JEC/BAN/ALH/DOJ
