BSS was officially launched in July 2017, but three months after the start of activity there was a standstill "due to technical issues following the reforms in the Angolan state," justified an official source.
According to the consultant to the office of the Angolan Minister of Social Action, Family and Women's Promotion, Américo Tarcísio, the current steps, after the relaunch of BSS on December 19, 2020, aim to "avoid a further paralysis" of this initiative.
Américo Tarcísio was speaking in Luanda, on the sidelines of the meeting on BSS between the minister of the sector and religious leaders, which aimed to create the technical group and the committee of honor for the operationalization of the scholarship.
Contributing to fight poverty and vulnerability of social groups, through the implementation of solidarity actions and the promotion of volunteering values is the general objective of the Social Solidarity Grant.
Stimulating solidarity actions in favor of vulnerable social groups throughout the country, encouraging and supporting the creation of food banks in all provinces, increasing the creation of community kitchens are some of the specific objectives of the entity.
At least 80,000 people in extremely vulnerable situations, including the elderly, the disabled and families in need, are already registered by the authorities as part of its Social Action System and are included in a database.
"The database already exists and the intention is that this database will migrate to a single social registry database, so what is going to be done is that this database will only be a database," he stressed.
The operationalization of BSS should count with contributions from a technical group and an honor committee, which will be composed of leaders of different religious denominations of the country aiming at "safeguarding ethics and transparency in the process".
According to the leader, the "scepticism" of many has contributed to the inclusion of the churches in the process of operationalization of BSS in order to guide the "suitability and ethics that they [the churches] have.
"It is good to say that in the end the attributions of the ministry in collaboration with the provincial government are more of a coordination, because what we want is this solidarity movement that already exists", he emphasized.
"Every day we have these actions, it's exactly intended to be coordinated so that there is no waste and with the churches we intend that there are no deviations, hence the component of the church and what the technical group will do is accompany," he justified.
The Social Solidarity Grant, which has already catalogued 88 benefactors, among supermarket companies, foundations, associations and others, "does not have a fixed budget and should operate on the basis of the Volunteer Law.
The Minister of Social Action, Family and Women's Promotion, Faustina Alves, pointed out, on the occasion, the importance of BSS stating that it should "optimize the social support to be distributed, avoiding double benefits to the same recipients and waste.
In addition to the aid, noted the governor, BSS also aims to "generate income within families with professional training and insertion of people in situations of vulnerability and poverty with capacity to work in socioeconomic projects.
