“I Don’t Want Anyone Else to Suffer What I Have Suffered”: Domingas’s Story

In 2010, while still a girl, Domingas stepped on a landmine while playing with friends near Gabela, in Angola’s Cuanza Sul Province. Neither she nor the surrounding community knew that the area was contaminated. She lost her foot and spent around two months in the hospital. Her accident led to the discovery and subsequent clearance of the contaminated area.

Now 28, Domingas lives in the Bela Vista neighborhood of Quilenda. Despite the continuing physical and financial challenges she faces, her strength and resilience are unmistakable. She works the fields and styles hair to support her children, while remaining determined to resume her education and rebuild the small trading business she once ran.

APOPO plans to clear the minefields around Quilenda in 2027, helping to protect Domingas’s community from the danger that changed her own life. In the meantime, our Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) team is providing local communities with information about the dangers of explosive ordnance and how to avoid accidents before clearance begins.

Read Domingas’s story in her own words:

The Accident

In 2010, I was playing with my friends. We were picking the little flower-like heads from a wild plant we called vassoura. I did not realize there was something there that could hurt me. I only felt myself being thrown far away. After that, I did not see anything else. I came to when they had already taken me to Sumbe. I asked, “Where am I?” They began to tell me that we had been playing together and that I had stepped on a landmine. It had exploded immediately.

By the time I was taken to Sumbe, I had already lost my leg. I stayed in the hospital for around two months, if my memory does not fail me. I still remember the doctor who gave me my medication. He used to sing a song to encourage me: “The doctor is coming to cure me.” I still remember that.

The community did not know there were landmines there. After my accident, they realized there were still things in that area that could leave other people the way I am now. The deminers came and cleared it, and the area is now safe. People can conduct business there and hold activities without any problems. But whenever I go to Gabela and try to pass that place, I imagine many things. It is very difficult for me. Sometimes I prefer to go another route to avoid that area.

After the Accident

After the accident, I felt very bad. It was as though my world had ended. I had been complete before, and then I was like this. I was thinking of killing myself, to tell the truth. But, thank God, my family and my cousins gave me courage and strength.

My father, who had supported me, also died that same year. With the desperation of becoming disabled and the desperation of losing my father, I gave up studying. From that time, I was no longer interested in continuing. But then I realized that my world had not ended. I stopped and thought that God must have a purpose for me. Being disabled does not mean that I cannot work. I realized that my world had not ended. As long as I am alive, I know there is still something God will do in my life. I would still like to study. I am 28 years old. I am still young, and I still have time.

Working to Support My Children

I have lived here in Quilenda for two years. I came here because of my husband, but unfortunately his behavior changed. He does not support me or concern himself with our two daughters, so I have had to struggle for myself.

I had been living in a rented house near the road. I spoke to my uncle about my situation, and he was moved to help me. He allowed me to live in this small house, which has one bedroom and a living room. I live here with my daughters and continue to struggle on my own.

Last year, I sold things at the market here in Quilenda. I worked hard and, thank God, I managed to buy a secondhand motorcycle because my business needed transport. I gave the motorcycle to someone to work with, but whenever it broke down, he came to me for money to buy the parts, but never brought me the money he made by using it. Eventually, I took it back. It is now standing at my mother’s house because it needs parts and cannot be used.

I also invested the little money I had in a cassava business. My husband went behind my back and told his family that I had ordered them to sell all the cassava and collect the money to give to him. That was not true. He spent all the money, and that is what brought me down to my current situation.

Now I do not have the funds to begin selling again, so I depend on farming. When I work in the field, I have to sit on the ground and drag myself through the soil like a snake. There are days when I really feel it. If I do this, it is because I do not like to remain idle. If I sit still, no one will give me anything. I am not afraid of work. A person can give you a hoe and show you the land, but that person cannot continue giving you food every day. Tomorrow, when they have nothing to give you, you will suffer.

Farming and Hairdressing

The advantage of living in Quilenda is that we can plant corn and beans twice a year. If I do not harvest anything during the shorter rains, I can plant again during the longer rains. Thank God, this benefits me. I no longer need to buy corn, flour or beans. I only buy the things I do not produce, such as palm oil, charcoal, tomatoes, and other food. I planted sweet potatoes, beans, corn, and cassava. From the beans I harvested during the longer rains, I kept seeds and planted them again. I then kept part of that harvest to plant during the shorter rains.

I also thank God for giving me the talent to braid hair and create many different hairstyles. I can sew in wigs and Brazilian hair, both sewn in and strand by strand. I know how to do business. No one can beat me in that area because I really know how to trade.

When I had my market business, I sold tomatoes, onions, charcoal, palm oil, and other things. When a hairdressing client came to me, I used the money from doing her hair to buy dinner. That meant I did not have to take money from the business, so the business would not go down.

The difficulty in Quilenda is that a hairstyle that should cost 2,500 kwanzas may only earn me 1,000. Some styles take a long time to complete. But when you need the money and have nowhere else to get it, you have to accept the work whatever it pays.

If I received a complete hairdressing kit, support for farming, or capital for a small trading business, my life could move forward. Within two months, I could show the results of the support I had received. I do not like to remain idle. I like working, and I am proud to work.

I need my two children to study. I would also be proud to continue my own education. I have the strength to study, but an empty sack cannot stand upright. I can have this dream because it is not wrong to dream, and dreaming is not forbidden. But there are things for which I need someone to help me move forward again. If someone makes themselves available to help me, I will show them the strength I have and the work I want to do.

Why Landmines Must Be Removed

Before my accident, I did not know what a landmine was. I do not remember receiving any education about mines. If they had discovered earlier that there were landmines in that place, I would not be like this. They could have put up a sign saying that it was forbidden to pass, or the deminers could have dealt with the danger before my accident.

I did not know there were still landmines around this neighborhood in Quilenda. It is important that APOPO comes to clear them next year because I do not want what happened to me to happen to another person. I don’t want anyone else to suffer what I have suffered.

For me, landmines have no value. If landmines did not exist, I would not be disabled now. I would still be complete, as God formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank God that I am still alive. In the same year as my accident, a man from Gabela stepped on a landmine in another place. He was completely blown apart.

If someone has money to pay the people who understand how to do this demining work, I advise them to make that money available. They should help the deminers clear any place where this danger exists because a landmine is a danger. If this is truly a time of peace, we do not want to continue living with the consequences of war. People should be able to walk freely without worry.