Angolans are rejoicing that after 27 years of war, there is a real chance for peace. But taking your family home can require a huge leap of faith when it means leaving behind shelter, schooling, healthcare and clean water.

More than 9,000 Angolan refugees in the Divuma Refugee Camp in the Democratic Republic of Congo have registered their desire to return to their homeland as part of the UN Refugee Agency's organized return program.

Yet when families board a UN Refugee Agency truck for Angola, they will be leaving behind in the camp many necessities of life. These include: a house, a primary school and bursaries for secondary school (funded by the UN REfugee Agency), a health clinic that saves their children from disease, a maternity ward and a nearby hospital.

The infrastructure in Angola, on the other hand, is in pieces. Roads, bridges, schools, healthcare facilities, water supplies, sanitation - almost everything has been destroyed. So why are 145,000 people currently sheltering in neighbouring countries voting with their feet for peace and hoping to return in 2004?

Repairing infrastructure means people can settle

The anser can be found in a walk around the village of Chiongo, outside Luau in Angola. Here the UN Refugee Agency has been organizing repairs to facilities that are fundamental to enabling returning refugees to settle.

Schoolteacher Binguinbo Samuel explains: "This used to be a big village. During the war, there were only about 15 men and women left. Now people are returning, many with the help of the UN Refugee Agency. It is like we are all new. Most have nothing when they arrive, apart from a few who bring a goat or sheep."

"Everyone is given plastic sheets. This makes their first house, whiley they build something permanent for their family. Each one of us in working hard to be self-reliant in food, and we are being helped also with seeds and tools."

Before leaving for Angola, families are often waiting for news of schools being repaired and teachers being appointed. Many refugee children have been in school in neighbouring countries and are eager to return to the classroom in Angola.

Chiongo has such a school, refurbished by the UN Refugee Agency.

Mr. Samuel is the only teacher, though the school needs three. "When I arrived, the school had no windows, doors or desks," he says. "Now we have that, but I need books, pencils, pens, colour pencils, books for the children to read, and as a teacher I don't have a syllabus guide for myself. I am just using my experience to prepare on a daily basis."

Mr. Samuel is proud to tell you that before the war 10 of his students went on to become doctors. He is passionate about the need to restore the education system: "For our country to develop, we need more schools."

However, as he says, community life in Chiongo is still tenuous: "We don't have clean water yet." All the more worrying then that the village also has no health clinic yet - the closest is 9km away, a huge distance on foot when you or your child is ill.

People are throwing themselves into restoring their community, and welcoming new people whose own areas are still inaccessible. But, having had clean water and healthcare when sheltering outside their country, families need at least the equivalent in Angola. When thousands more refugees return this year, it is going to be vital that they don't have to wait too long for schools and clinics to reopen, and for clean water to be established. If they do, they may have to leave again simply to keep their families alive in a country where the average life expectancy is 45.

That is why the UN Refugee Agency is working hard to build up this infrastructure on the ground. It is the backbone to community life. When it is there, you take it for granted, but when it is not everything collapses. We must not let that happen.

TOP: The voluntary repatriation of Angolan refugees from Zambia's Meheba and Mayukwayukwa Settlements (seen here) began in July 2003. By the following year they were returning from all over the country. © UNHCR/L.Taylor

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