• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

DATE=10/11/00

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ANGOLA - POLIO (L-ONLY)

BYLINE=Challiss McDonough

DATELINE= Luanda

INTERNET=YES

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The United Nations Children's Fund has launched a major polio eradication campaign in 14 West African countries. The agency hopes to immunize 70-million children against the disease. Polio is also a major problem in Angola, which is not one of the nations targeted in the new anti-polio campaign. UN officials say they are trying to eradicate the disease there, but the country's long-running civil war complicates their efforts. VOA Southern Africa correspondent Challiss McDonough has details from the Angolan capital, Luanda.

TEXT: The effects of Angola's battle with polio are clearly visible on the streets of the capital. A visitor to Luanda can barely travel three blocks without seeing someone whose limbs have been twisted by the disease. While some polio victims beg on the streets, there are many smartly-dressed men and women who make their way to and from work with the help of leg braces and crutches.

Polio is a serious disease, and the United Nations Children's Fund -- UNICEF -- is working with the government of Angola and other aid agencies to vaccinate every Angolan child. But in a country torn apart by 30 years of war, they have a tough task ahead of them.

Marie-Noelle Vieu is the project officer for child health at UNICEF-Angola. She says the agency simply cannot reach children in the conflict zones, or in areas of the country held by rebel UNITA forces.

// VIEU ACT //

Considering Angola, there is the problem of security, having access to all the children. And then in areas where there is security, the population is very scattered.

// END ACT //

Ms. Vieu says it can sometimes take days for health workers to reach a single small village. Often they have to travel on foot.

In other war-torn countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, rebels and government forces have declared brief cease-fires to allow the polio vaccination campaign to reach children living near the battlefields. But not in Angola.

Ms. Vieu says the nature of the conflict itself has changed recently, becoming more of a guerilla war with less clearly defined battle lines. She says it is hard to know who controls what area anymore, let alone negotiate a cease-fire for humanitarian reasons.

She says UNICEF has changed its tactics in recent years in an effort to reach more children. In Angola, the agency has re-evaluated the conditions it has to work under. Ms. Vieu feels optimistic that the agency is better prepared to battle polio than ever before. She says the government has committed itself to a five-year plan to eliminate the disease, and she is pleased with that show of political will. But she admits it is not likely that polio will be wiped out in Angola until there is peace.

NEB/CEM/TDW