In 2025, the Angola Humanitarian Mission, coordinated by the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), developed an expressive grouping of actions focused on the education, health, livelihoods, and communication in partnership with local institutions such as the Santa Isabel Children’s Charity (OCSI), the Jean Piaget University of Angola, the Children’s National Institute (INAC), the Dorothean Sisters, and the Family House; the mission continued with some work started in 2019, strengthening care networks and fostering human dignity.
During the first four-month period of 2025, fifteen volunteer humanitarian workers were directly involved in activities, developing projects that reached children, adolescents, youths, teachers, health professionals, and families. The activities were structured stemming from four main axis: Education Focused on Overcoming Trauma, Health and Self-Care, Livelihoods, and Communication. The proposition integrated educational, artistic, therapeutic and formative practices, respecting the local contexts and valuing the participation of the groups served.
In the field of Education Focused on Overcoming Trauma, art-education had a central role. Activities with design, painting, music, stories and contact with elements of nature were used as tools for expression, emotional self-regulation, and the redefinition of painful experiences. According to the report, “artistic experiences with colors, forms, elements of nature, and stories are used in aiding the expression of creativity, the expansion of self-confidence, and the redefining of painful experiences from the past.” That approach was applied both in group activities and during individual times, reaching children and adolescents in primary and secondary education.
Music stood out as one of the main languages for expression and care, especially after the revitalization of the music room of the Santa Isabel Children’s Home, transformed into an acoustic studio with recycled materials. The Alabanzas Project (Praises Project) involved children and youths in all stages of the creative process, from the composition of music to the recording and editing of video clips. For Domingas Loureiro, director of the OCSI, the impact was profound: “Music is one of the most beautiful expressions of the soul of the Santa Isabel Children’s Home. It is through this that children and youths express their deepest experiences and redefine their lives, their traumas.”
Besides the artistic activities, educational reinforcement was worked on as a space for strengthening bonds and building trust. Beyond the redefining of content, the coming together sought to create a safe environment for the meeting, the development of self-esteem, and a stimulation for learning. The environmental learning also integrated this axis, with activities focused on the care of animals, plants and common spaces, involving the children in practices of responsibility and healthy co-existence with the environment.
Another highlight of 2025 was the training carried out with students and professionals. The third edition of the course on Education for Overcoming Trauma, in partnership with the Jean Piaget University of Angola, brought together final-year Psychology students, and addressed the multiple dimensions of trauma and its impact on human development. The participants had contact with practical methodologies of care, both for those who suffered traumatic situations and those who are directly active in the care of other people. The student Isaac Monteiro reported: “With this course, I was able to see that, in reality, there are indeed various emergency situations here in our country, and that we, as psychologists, have the role of acting at a psychological level for intervening in those situations.”
On the Health and Self-Care axis, the mission was active in the direct support of the health team of the OCSI, with actions in prevention, training, and follow-up for babies, children, and adolescents. Individual and group therapeutic care was performed, activities in sensory stimulation in the nursery, and follow-up for children and youths with disabilities. Meetings with the so-called “Mothers” strengthened support networks, expanding the dialogue on basic care, emotional health, and daily wellbeing.
The support of Livelihoods was another relevant aspect of the work. Sewing, baking, handicrafts and maintenance workshops involved youths and adults in practical learning processes, the generating of income, and the strengthening of self-esteem. In the sewing workshop, for example, the report highlights that “they were spaces of self-care, strengthening of self-esteem, and the valuing of individual and group potential.” The bakery, active since 2023, became part of supplying the Children’s Home with weekly food, combining production, learning and an active participation of the children and adolescents.
In the field of Communication, the Alabanzas Project also contributed to the technical training of the young people, who learned basic photography concepts, video capture, text writing, editing and content dissemination on social networks. The Communications volunteer team of the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) participated in all stages of the process, ensuring technical quality and strengthening youthful participation in the narrative of their own stories.
External activities carried out during the whole year expanded the links between participants and volunteers, offering new spaces of co-existence, learning and exchange. Meetings in the Figueira Light-Nucleus in Angola, and institutional visits reinforced the dialogue within different social, academic and communal contexts. Those experiences, according to the team from the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) “give co-existing a different degree of relationship and strengthen the bonds among everybody, making the learning and caring processes unforgettable moments of fraternity.”
In quantitative terms, the Angola Humanitarian Mission directly took care of 175 people in 2025, taking into consideration children, adolescents, youths, teachers and collaborators. The data reflects the diversity of the range in ages and the scope of the activities, which included from babies to adults, with special attention for the specific needs of each group.
The work developed also reinforced institutional relationships, both in Rwanda and in Benguela, expanding strategic partnerships and creating the conditions for future activities with a broader reach. For long-term activities, the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) plans to begin projects in rural areas focused on sustainable development and the production of food, besides deepening capacity-building initiatives and moving forward in the institutional registration of the organization in Angola.
2025, the Angola Humanitarian Mission reaffirmed its commitment throughout to an integrated action, based on welcoming, selfless service, and the fostering of human dignity. The actions carried out demonstrate that education, art, health and work can work together in the building of ways of care, autonomy and social transformation, respecting the times, the stories and the capabilities of each person taken care of.
“Between the comings and goings of turbulent movements, the Angola Mission was experienced as a dive into unknown territories of ourselves, where each gesture became a learning experience and each reality encountered broadened our perspective. In the daily work, we gradually grew through the experiences shared and the challenges that presented themselves along the way.”
Be it with coloring pencils, needle and thread, bread dough, the ring games, the silences, the caring gestures, the hugs, the caring acceptance, or a simple being present, the Angola Mission revealed itself to be a transformative experience. A course that invited one into an expansion of consciousness, to the breaking of limitations and the experience of a profound caring, human and real, silently present in the relationships built day after day,” with these words, Mother Teresa, coordinator of the Angola Humanitarian Mission, expresses what she feels about the experience coming about through this mission.
Access the Report: https://bit.ly/4ply4Fm
