Lubango – The Higher Institute of Education Sciences (ISCED) in the southern Huíla Province trained 12 field technicians last January with the aim to work in the "Participatory Diagnosis of the San Community" project in the provinces of Huíla, Cuando Cubango and Cunene.
According to the head of the centre, Vladi Pereira, the initiative is run by the Centre for Research and Development in Education (CIDE) and funded by the Coordination Organisation for Economic and Community Development (OCADEC). Its aim is to train researchers with the necessary tools to conduct interviews and gather sensitive information about the San community.
Speaking to ANGOP, emphasised that ISCED-Huíla had to first work on creating a software tool that would not only enable to find out the way of life, but also the localisation of these groups, because many are not totally nomadic.
He said that after the creation of this instrument, a three-day training was given to the technicians on how to use it so that during three months they can work in the provinces of Huíla, Cunene and Cuando Cubango in the preliminary collection and treatment of data, which will be monitored by the university institution.
The official informed that a survey started already in Huila Province as technicians are working in the Cacula municipality, where the work is at 60%. Humpata is the next municipality at a process which takes into account a pre-analysis, due to the fact that they are nomadic peoples.
"The aim of this survey is to gauge the way of life of these people, from the number of people per household, the average age, the form of income, subsistence, their practices, biodiversity issues, the type of plants they consume, whether they have any knowledge of biodiversity and nature conservation," he explained.
According to the academic, with this study they hope to have a better picture of these populations and find ways to support these minority groups.
OCADEC also has other social support projects, with money and some agricultural inputs, as well as the delivery of animals.
The San community is part of the first peoples of Angola, before the Bantu people invasion at the beginning of the 6th century AD. Today the San are at risk of extinction, with their longevity in decline, due above all to the influence of eating habits alien to their culture, which used to be based on hunting and gathering wild fruit, activities now affected by climate change.
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