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Testimonies of volunteers who went on outreaches...

One person who's life we believe we could save, was a young girl of about 25 with meningitis. She had heard of our planned visit to the area and came to the place, sleeping under a tree on a grass mat for two days while waiting for us to arrive. The need is great.

Unfortunately, some lives we lost.
They brought a boy to us with an intra-abdominal abscess that was continuously draining pus through two holes. He was just skin and bones and when his mother carried him into the church (where we were seeing the patients), they came in with a cloud of flies and the whole church was filled with the foul smell of rotting meat. His pants were covered in puss, his shirt was drenched in puss and he had an old dirty swab that was soaked in puss covering the holes. As she sat down one saw all the people moving away from her because of the smell. Whenever he cried the puss would ooze out of the holes. In her hand she had an old plastic bag with a clean shirt and pair of trousers. Unfortunately we could not do anything for him but to give him clean bandages and pray with him. I heard today that he passed away. To drain the abscess one would have had to do a laparotomy under general anesthesia. (Pity we did not have the mobile theatre yet, but then on the other hand, I doubt whether he would have survived surgery ‚ the disease had just progressed too far already)"

One day, I noticed a woman clinging to the back of a young man as they were waiting in the queue to receive the medical attention (which she desperately needed). Although they were both exhausted, their smiles showed their gratitude as they started making their journey back home. Unfortunately we received the news that she had since passed away, presumable because of AIDS.

Dr. Albu told me after one such a clinic, that some of the diseases they witnessed, they have only seen progress so far in their text books, but never in real life. This is due to the fact that they are easily treated in a first world country, where you have medical facilities at hand. In total approximately 900 patients were treated.

Kuito, the Latest
The Carte Blanche cameras captured the open and vulnerable face of 20-year- old Inacio Domingo, who walked 150km with his 74-year-old grandmother to flee Unita soldiers that had attacked their village. They walked solidly for five days in terror and arrived exhausted at the refugee camp in Kuito. As we started to film him, Inacio stood up painfully on his swollen feet and took off his shirt in a silent plea for help.

Inacio's system was so damaged by the malnutrition that it could not absorb the food he was given, and a week after we aired our programme he died.

Inacio's death will probably be forgotten, given that since we broadcast our programme on the 18th of March this year, over 300 refugees have died.

This week we received new visuals from Angola. The situation has deteriorated, and the degree of human suffering is unimaginable. The faces mirror their sense of bewilderment and despair.

It's not surprising that Gabriel, a blind refugee, is tired of the fighting. Since the war for independence in 1963, the Angolans have seen little peace - internal conflict has ravaged the country for nearly 40 years. After the MPLA, lead by Eduardo dos Santos, won the election in 1992, the worst of the fighting broke out - and one of the key targets that Savimbi's Unita wanted to capture was Kuito.

The bombing of Kuito began in 1992 and lasted 22 months, reducing the once- thriving city to what is now known as the Beirut of Africa.

A gutted building stands as a testimony to the impact of the bombardment the city faced. It is also the building that now houses the office where Faria Horacio works as a journalist for Angolan Television. He covered the siege of Kuito extensively, risking his life to expose the atrocities of war to the world. He says the war was very difficult, but that he "was determined to bring news from the horrific scenes".

Faria knows how easily he could have been a casualty of the war -100 people died in the streets daily. For fear of being shot themselves, the residents were too scared to move the bodies of the victims and they were left to rot on the streets. "We couldn't do anything Ö the dogs would come and eat the corpses," says Faria.

Even though 50,000 people died during the siege, Unita was unable to conquer the city, and 22 months later they retreated.

That was eight years ago, and while there is no longer fighting in the city, there are reports of clashes between pockets of Unita soldiers and government forces not far from here. In the meantime, Faria continues to work as a journalist and document the war.

On the outskirts of the city are camps housing 130 000 refugees ‚ or internally displaced people, so called because they are forced to flee their homes in search of safety in their own country.

With nearly a third of its population displaced by the continuing war, Angola is on the brink of a humanitarian disaster.

Paul Erskine is a South African trader who has been selling basic commodities to Angola for four years now. Little did he realise the impact a visit to the Kuito refugee camp would have on his life.

"It was shocking. I really couldn't believe how their bodies were so malnourished, the skin diseases they had, the stomachs that were bloated," says Paul.

Paul was so moved by what he saw that he started an organisation called the Angolan Refugee Crisis ‚ or Arc. This maize plant was one of the first projects that he funded and is beginning to bring a sense of purpose to the people.

"I wanted to put people back on their feet ‚ people who actually needed mind stimulation, needed to forget the war, who needed to forget the plight that they were living in ‚ that's when you see the sparkle in their eyes. They want to learn, they want to work, they want to be able to try and get out of this hovel and make something of their lives," explains Paul.

After the programme was aired there was a huge response to Paul's Angolan Refugee Crisis charity. Arc was inundated with calls from people offering anything from medication to second-hand clothes to frozen fish. To date, over R2-million worth of goods have been donated.

Paul says individuals reacted incredibly, but that the response from companies, government and churches was disappointing: "South Africa does over US$1,5-billion-a-year trade with Angola, but they didn't phone. Those are the people who profit out of Angola, but they don't put much back in."

One of Carte Blanche's viewers, Joy Grey, was shocked when she saw the desperate plight of the refugees: "I couldn't believe that these people are dying and they're right on our borders Ö I was devastated."

Joy says that she couldn't sleep that night and she felt that she had to do something to help them: "On Monday when I came to work, I rushed in and without putting my bag down said to my financial manager, ëDid you watch Carte Blanche on Sunday night?' He put his pen down and said, ëMy god, I didn't even know there was a war going on there. What do you want to do?' And I said, ëWe've got to send these people some food. How much can we send them?' And he said to me, ëHow much do you want?' and I said, ëAs much as we can afford'."

Joy's company, Greys Marine, donated 15 tons of frozen pilchards, and the other generous donations - including eight tons of Maize, four tons of rice, 20 tons of spaghetti, soya milk, clothes and medicines - were rushed to Angola.

The donated frozen food was canned for its long and difficult journey to Angola. The trucks left Cape Town, but because of torrential rain and renewed attacks by Unita, many of the bridges have been destroyed, and the progress of this desperately needed food has been stalled. In the meantime, the situation continues to deteriorate.

So frustratingly close, the trucks of food are stranded at a broken bridge in Huambo, a mere 185km from Kuito. To compound matters, fighting has intensified between the military forces in the province and more people are fleeing for their lives. A week ago aid organisations in Kuito were alerted to new refugee camps close by, with conditions that were thought to be the worst in the country.

The little Kuito has is also distributed to the nearby refugee camps. Faria, who you met on our first programme on Angola, continues to be closely involved with the distribution of food aid to these starving people.

Faria, with other aid organisations, visited a camp last week and was horrified when he saw the dire condition of these refugees. He immediately started a local media campaign to get provisions here as soon as possible.

Around a tiny grave, a loved one has placed flowers in the newly turned earth. Faria feels that many more people will die if they are not given urgent medical attention. And he says that they have been told that there is another camp 14 kilometres away, with about a thousand people who were too weak to walk here because they were so undernourished.

In the meantime, he is continuing his campaign on television and radio to urge his fellow countrymen not to let their brethren die.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.