Orphans in Angola grow up 'in hands of church'

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

MALANJE, Angola (UMNS) - Agnalda Miseria Mutale No Bento wants to be a doctor.
The 18-year-old sees one up close every day at the United Methodist East Angola Annual (regional) Conference center next to the orphanage where she has lived since she was 12.

Dr. Laurinda Quipungo is a good role model. The bishop's wife serves as the health coordinator for the conference, runs a clinic at the conference headquarters, works part-time in the Malanje Provincial Hospital and serves as public health coordinator for the province. She also personally cares for each of the 24 orphans living in the orphanage.

Bento is one of the older children and helps orphanage director Rita Luis Simao Gregorio with the younger ones.

Gregorio says the children are "growing up in the hands of the church." The oldest is 20 and the youngest is 3.

The orphanage is a collection of shelters connected by a sloping, tin-covered sidewalk. In the girls' bedroom, 12 bunk beds with painfully thin mattresses are neatly lined up against the back wall. Plastic purses, small bottles of nail polish, lotion and other personal items are carefully laid out beside each child's sleeping space. A blonde-headed doll sits on a shelf among some books. Sheets strung across the ends of the bed give the girls some privacy.

Looking down at the girls from the cracked yellow walls are shiny posters of Jesus the Good Shepherd, singer Britney Spears, pop group Westlife and actress Charlize Theron.

The boys have their own bedroom, with posters of NASCAR racers and rock bands on the walls. A large, gnarly tree outside the orphanage is littered with little toys, and its big roots and limbs look like nature's version of a jungle gym.

The dinning hall is a dark, dank room with a few sticky tables. A yellow puppy is disturbed from his nap under the table when a delegation from the United States stops by. The delegation is led by the Rev. R. Randy Day, top staff executive of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and includes staff from his agency and from United Methodist Communications.

Big dreams
Bento says her father was "assassinated during the war." Her mother tried to care for her but couldn't. When Bishop Jose Quipungo invited children to come live at the church, her mother was happy to accept for her daughter.

"It was for the best for me to come here," Bento says. She has been appointed to the Department of Working with Children by the bishop. She rises at 6 a.m. and does domestic chores at the orphanage, then goes to work in the office from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. In the evenings, she comes back and helps bathe, feed and get the children ready for bed.

She says she enjoys working with children and teaching them about the church.

Becoming a doctor is a "big dream," she knows. She has been a good student, but she has gone as far with her education as she can at the local level.

Surrounded by smiling faces of children trying hard to get her attention, Bento says, "I would like to progress in other places; I would like to go to college.

"I am praying for my dream," she says. "It would be a miracle if it could come true."

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.