On the sidelines of the "National Conference on Natural Resources: Hunger and Wealth", Cecília Quitombe, member of Action for Rural Development and the Environment (ADRA), an Angolan non-governmental organization, recalled that hunger continues to affect hundreds of families in the country, lamenting the existence of citizens who cannot even eat one meal a day.
"How can a country as rich from the point of view of natural resources as Angola continue to have people who don't have or don't eat three meals a day and now people who can't even eat one meal? This should make us reflect," she said to Lusa.
For Cecília Quitombe, hunger in Angola persists not because of a lack of political will and sensitivity on the part of those in power, but because of a lack of a "strategy and attitude".
The ADRA leader highlighted that the country will not advance, in the field of combating hunger and poverty, "if it continues to have several actions in an unfocused manner and without strategic actions of national scope".
"We have several things happening in the country in a very unfocused way, when we all already agree that the first problem to be debated is hunger, but we are doing little about hunger, we do have programs, but these at the moment are not strategically thought out and do not cover our territorial scope", she lamented.
"We need more inclusive and robust programs (...), because the Angolan who goes hungry is not just those who don't have a job, but even those who have a job with a salary without purchasing power go hungry," she said.
The general secretary of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola (CICA), Vladimir Agostinho, who presided over the opening session of this conference, lamented the existence of thousands of citizens in the country in a vulnerable situation which, in his view, "contrasts" with the resources that abound in the country.
"Today in a country with many natural resources we still see a number of hungry men and women", he noted, remembering that CICA, as a partner of the Government, has an advisory stance aimed at social justice in favor of the poorest and most vulnerable.
It goes in favor of the most vulnerable so that, he continued, everyone truly feels that natural resources are "a blessing in the lives of all human beings, because God offers the sun to everyone and it is important that everyone smiles".
Asked about the paths to reversing the hunger situation in Angola, Vladimir Agostinho said that the solution lies not only in the public policies that are implemented "but also in loving one's neighbor".
"When we recognize that where we are placed we are at the service of God, we will recognize the importance of others and respect their needs", concluded the CICA leader.
This conference, organized by "Tchota Angola" – a national platform of civil society organizations on the approach to the management and exploitation of natural resources – will run until Thursday, in Luanda.
