Angola Coronavirus (COVID-19) 3 April 2020 – an update from Barnabas Coronavirus Emergency Network

From the director general of a seminary in the north-east

“In my view this is the situation of the crops and harvest: if the lockdown situation of COVID-19 continues it will affect the harvest of the year 2020 because there will be no people able to work in the fields. Because of the lockdown there is a shortage of work tools and transport to take the products from the countryside to the cities. Lack of transport also means people cannot get from the cities to work on their family land to gather the harvest.  And the products collected this year will rot in the field without further use. There will be a shortage of new seeds for cultivation in the fields in the next year.

“Regarding food security: I must say that right now people are consuming the product that they were reserving as seeds for planting in 2020-2021 after having sold the production collected in the months of December and January. Most of them have nothing to eat to sustain them in this period of lockdown isolation. I mean, a lot of people could die of hunger instead of being killed by COVID-19. Church intervention is needed in this regard in order to help the most vulnerable people and poor Christians…

“The call from the government directed to the churches to help in this situation cannot be fulfilled. The support that the government is providing in the Elderly and Children Centres is not enough and does not cover everyone in need at this time of COVID-19…

“Threats to the church: the closing of the churches and the cancellation of all church services of the Church; food insecurity; social isolation; lack of hygiene material for prevention and combat of COVID-19 etc, makes threats to the Christian Church here in my region, the north-eastern part of Angola.

“Encouragement: Christians continue to encourage one another in general by seeking to respect government orders and praying for God's intervention to stop this pandemic virus. The many individuals and philanthropic organizations dedicated to helping poor Christian and vulnerable people in providing emergency aid to save human lives in the face of this pandemic that is plaguing the entire world are a huge source of encouragement.”