According to Diogo Sebastião "Quintino", a member of the steering committee of the National Union of Artists and Composers (UNAC), the basic baskets began to be distributed on Monday and, "despite being insufficient, come to reduce the difficulties of many".
The process has the support of the governor of the province of Luanda and the president of the Administrative Commission of the City of Luanda (CACL), who supported the calls of UNAC-SA to support the most needy artists.
"This was processed due to the difficulties we are experiencing, the activities of the artists are of agglomeration, we were the first to be removed from the activity and I believe that we will be the last to start over", said this Thursday, in statements to Lusa .
At least 60 food baskets were made available to UNAC by the governor of Luanda, Sérgio Luther Rescova, and 80 percent of the goods have already been distributed to artists mainly resident in the capital.
This Thursday, according to "Quintino", a well-known Angolan guitarist, the president of CACL will deliver another 50 food kits to UNAC for the continuous support to artists, who without fixed income "are unable to work".
"UNAC is not being selective and we cover all artists who pay or not quotas and this distribution is made after a screening and we know more or less the possibility of many", he stressed.
Artists and cultural producers warned, in April, that they have "difficulties in surviving" in this period of social confinement and canceled cultural activities, due to the covid-19 pandemic, defending support from the authorities and "urgent application" of copyright.
According to the executive director of Nova Energia, producer of artistic and cultural events, Yuri Simão, the moment remains challenging for all players in the sector because "it is very difficult to survive in a situation where companies do not work".
"In our case, we had productions in progress and we had to stop everything with costs already built in," he said, speaking to Lusa, admitting the possibility of "migrating to small and medium-sized companies and from there absorbing state support".
In turn, the singer Selda Portelinha also considered the current situation of artists, "mainly of people who live by art" to be difficult, defending an "urgent search" for alternatives to fill the lack of income.
The member of the UNAC steering committee said that "despite difficulties" that the new management of the institution faces, "with a series of programs conditioned by the covid-19", the public utility "continues to seek support to help the class" .
"We appreciate the support we received, however, we recognize that the need, especially in Luanda, is greater, and we need to launch calls for some entities to show solidarity with the artists," he said.
UNAC also urged the country's authorities to define "inclusive policies" to assist artists in this phase of the pandemic, recalling that in this period "difficulties are widespread because there were three extensions of the state of emergency".
"And that even starts to make it difficult, hence our call for the support of artists, especially the most needy", he concluded.
