Participation of Angolan Refugee women in Aid programmes at Maheba refugee settlement (19815-1997)

This is a study of the participation of Angolan refugee women in relation to their male counterparts in aid programmes at Meheba Refugee Settlement. It examines the types of aid programmes designed for refugees at the Settlement. The study also investigates the level of refugees' participation in aid programmes.Furthermore, it analyses the benefits obtained and problems faced by refugees in the different aid programmes.This study had a number of sources of information. First, the refugee women and men who formed the majority of the sample were the main source of primary data. Second,the officials dealing with refugees at both Meheba Settlement and the Lusaka Offices also contributed greatly to the primary data. The secondary data on the other hand came from various sources as well namely: books, magazines, published and
unpublished articles and reports. The general findings of the study at Meheba Refugee Settlement were that there were a
number of aid programmes designed for refugees. The findings however demonstrated
that most programmes at the settlement were for men and a few were for women.
Furthermore, most aid programme for men had more benefits than those aid programmes for women. Of more concern was the observation that none of the aid programmes designed specifically for women benefited them financially. There were
also more gender-related problems that affected or hindered women from participating fully in the various aid programmes at the Settlement. The findings from Meheba therefore called for not only for new programmes but more on the gender sensitisation programmes among the programme facilitators, donors, and also the refugees
themselves in order that they may appreciate the value of improving women's
participation in development programmes.