|
Angola Diary
6th - 12th Octorber 2003
|
My name is Silvio Chiwale, I am of the Umbundu tribe. I was born on 1st August 1979 in Lubango, Huila Province. My father, Jorge Chiwale, is a teacher at Ondjiva Polytechnic Institute. My mother's name is Balbina Chionga. I have a certificate in Public Administration and book keeping. In 1998, I got employed by MINARS, Ministry of National Assistance and Social Reintegration. My job was to teach orphans. When MAG came to Cunene in 1999, I opted to resign from MINARS because the salary was very small and joined MAG. I enjoyed my course in MAG, but the thought of working in a mine field always made me feel quite uneasy. However, after our practicals, I developed a very strong confidence. Since then, I have been enjoying my work.
While I appreciate very much the services that MAG is doing among the affected communities, I would like to point out that the conditions offered in terms of salaries need to be seriously reviewed. Ever since I was employed, I have never had any salary increase. I, like other deminers, do very risky work and it is for this reason that our salaries should be motivating enough. Otherwise, we do a very good job and all the communities among which we have been working appreciate MAG's activities.
My dream is to have a sponsor who can give adequate financial support to my team so that we are able to acquire the most sophisticated demining technology to speed up our work. Our manual demining system is extremely slow and sometimes demoralizing. According to available statistics, Angola still has millions of mines and other types of unexploded military ordnances. If this is true and the demining technology continues to be what it is now, none of us deminers will ever live long enough to witness the great ceremony that would be, when our president would stand up in front of Television cameras to declare a job well done for the total eradication of mines in Angola.
Therefore I would like to appeal to our sponsors, Japanese Television Broadcasting System to double its efforts for additional funding and also to solicit on our behalf other sponsors, so that we can increase our demining capacity. Any additional resources always make a difference if used appropriately.
Wishing you a happy Christmas and a prosperous New year.
Silvio Chiwale
Deputy Team Leader, MAT 3
|
|
|