Huambo 1. Various of ruined buildings 2. FAO truck with farming implements supplied by Japanese and US funded emergency projects 3. Local people loading truck Ekunha Supplementary Feeding Centre, (approximately 45 km west of Huambo) 4. Various of FAO training session and distribution of farming kits (vegetable seeds, hoe, knife, machete) 5. Beneficiaries walking home with farming kits 6. Truck with people aboard on road from Ekunha to Huambo 7. Joaquim Domingos, FAO beneficiary, transplanting cabbage seedlings grown from seeds distributed in April, from community seedbeds to his own patch of land 8. SOUNDBITE: (Portuguese) Joaquim Domingos "During the war there was nothing to eat. When there's war you can't do anything. People were really in a bad way. Nobody could work or do anything because of the war. There was so much suffering I can't put it into words. But God is all powerful. We always found something to eat, even though it was never enough. There was so much suffering. We couldn't plant anything in these fields, because every day, from one moment to the next, we would just have to run and hide in the mountains. Because of the war." 9. Wide of village. STORYLINE. A ceasefire agreement signed in April this year brought peace to Angola, a country devastated by almost three decades of conflict. It also freed thousands of hungry, bewildered people in remote rural areas from years of isolation. As soon as security curfews were lifted, emergency operations began providing 300-thousand families with the basics for survival - the means to grow food. In the province of Huambo, a former UNITA rebel stronghold, these cabbage seedlings were grown from seeds distributed immediately after peace was declared. The aid projects - funded by Japan and the USA - distribute seeds and tools to needy farmers, but also provide crucial training in how to get the best results. Simple farming kits mean these women won't see their children go hungry next year, but they will need to work fast to get the seeds in the ground; the rainy season is coming, and with it, the end of the planting season. But there are thousands of internally displaced people for whom seeds are not enough - what they need, first of all, is access to land. 'Quartering areas' like this one, for demobilized UNITA soldiers and their families, provide only temporary shelter, so many people are unwilling to cultivate land. After all, they may have to move on before harvest-time.But all relief efforts are hindered by the consequences of war on Angola's infrastructure. Many communities will once again be completely cut off until next spring. Aid organisations are calling for 12.7 (m) million US dollars to fund emergency agriculture operations in Angola next year. Because major investments are needed now, to help consolidate peace and to speed up the transition from emergency projects to the laying of foundations for sustainable development; Which means giving Angolans - the majority of whom have never before known peace - the chance to build a future. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/11d98421a41bf29fd0c16aa649fc63ed Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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