Angola

Angola is recovering from 28 years of civil war, which has left a devastated country where basic services are absent in large parts of the country. In terms of poverty, 66% lives below the poverty line and 26% in extreme poverty (less than 0.75 USD per day). Only 33% of the population is literate. Internal migration from the capital (and provincial capitals) to the rural areas is in process and demands a rapid rehabilitation of health services. The national TB program has difficulties to cope with this situation. The national team is small and has not enough capacity to organize the whole country at once, prioritizing the most populated and accessible areas first, like urban Luanda. Local and international NGOs, including FBOs, are trying to fill the gap in several other provinces and municipalities.

Since October 2004 KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation carries out regular technical missions to the South of Angola, supporting the faith based organizations giving TB services, in collaboration with the National and Provincial TB programs. First contacts were established to give technical support to the TB activities on request of the ICCO/CORDAID consortium, which supports the FBOs in the 4 Southern provinces. After an assessment mission in 2004, recommendations and a plan of next steps was made. In the line of this plan a one week DOTS workshop was given to health and DOTS providers of Benguela, Namibe, Huila and Cunene. This included the principles of DOTS as well as HIV/TB aspects and community based TB control. The first steps were set to the formation of a network of DOTS providers, in collaboration with the provincial Huila TB supervisors. The main problems encountered in Huila were the deficient supply of TB drugs and the lack of funds for TB drugs transport (from Luanda to the Province), supervision and regular training (within the provinces).

To support the efforts of the FBOs and provincial TB programs, a CIDA project has been formulated by KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation , as part of a 6 country wide project, which has been submitted in 2005 and is still pending for approval. It is estimated that through this project approximately 10.000 patients in the whole period will be diagnosed and treated in the 4 provinces with a total population of 2 million people. DOTS expansion in these 4 Provinces could function as an example to the government, with a much higher overall impact on national level if close collaboration can be realized.