We are collecting donations for the reconstruction and food supply in Mozambique. In spring 2019, cyclones Idai and Kenneth robbed thousands of people of their harvest. The consequences are long-term, as they now lack the basis for life.
Read here what is currently happening in our project area.
"It's clear that those who have had the least before are the most affected."
Jonas Wagner-Mörsdorf, our coordinator for Mozambique, visited the crisis area in Chimoio in June and told us about his impressions.
What are the impressions that you feel most strongly one week after the trip?
The contrast between town and country. In the city of Chimoio you don't see the devastation so much. Sometimes the electricity fails or there is no internet. But if you go to the countryside, where people live in mud huts, the hardship becomes more visible. It becomes clear that those who have had the least before are most affected. We met many families with single mothers. One was my age (29), but looked fifty. She was standing with ten children in front of a half-destroyed hut. One wonders how these people will survive and find food tomorrow. The fields are all destroyed, the food supplies destroyed and the harvest too.
How effective is the work of our partner organisations?
It's very ambivalent. Our partner organisations can help a great many people. That is of course great. In the two districts of Minas Gerais and Matica alone, we have reached a total of 1350 people. That is great! On the other hand, we cannot distribute food every day, but only from time to time. Transporting it there is extremely difficult. It is a transitional aid that cannot cover the huge demand for a long time. But it is extremely important.
What is the greatest need of the partner organisations?
Food is indeed the biggest issue. Because almost all of them have had their farmland or food supplies completely destroyed. You can see now again that the first seedlings have been planted again. But it takes time until the harvest, like in our country. This is for the future, not for today. That is why the transitional aid is so important. Especially for the most needy. Soon winter will come and the temperatures will drop. Many have very little protection against the cold. Together with our partner organizations we are thinking about distributing blankets. Then the big question arises how the houses can be rebuilt. This is clearly beyond our budget, as it affects thousands. It is a particularly urgent question among many young people because they are afraid.
What are they afraid of?
They worry about their livelihoods. Many young people have bought a small house and a bit of land with money they have saved up with great effort. Most of them had to go to their parents, relatives or neighbours after the storm because the cyclone made their little house uninhabitable. Now they are afraid that someone else will steal the land and claim it for themselves. There is no land registry office to document the land ownership and keep order here. That is why the question of how to rebuild your house as quickly as possible is very, very important.
Where does tdhs or the partner organisation contribute its expertise?
Our expertise has already been put to use. Our partners from Centro Alberto de Jesus told us that shortly after the catastrophe the children and young people needed someone to talk to. They lost everything they had bought with that little money. Everything was washed away. There was great fear for the future among many. Psychosocial support was very important. It is also important to offer a safe place to go. Lemusica has a small school class where the young people can go every day and continue with school. They also get food there and can get help if necessary. It is very important that our partner organisations are really close at hand so that the young people know where to find someone if they need someone.
More on the situation in Mozambique in this issue of our magazine
09.05.2019
Pictures from Mozambique
From Mozambique we receive some pictures of the distribution actions in Chimoio despite bad communication connections. Our partner organisation Lemusica provides whole families with food and school children with material.
Over 60 families have received relief supplies. The need of these approximately 650 people is greatest in Chimoio and was therefore selected for the aid. The campaign was accompanied by a LeMuSiCa advisor and four community representatives, who kept an eye on the fairness of the distribution of goods.
In addition, almost a hundred members of youth clubs - mainly girls and young women - received new school materials and uniforms that were lost in the cyclone. We would like to thank the community representatives for their support.
30.04.2019
Second cyclone plunges Mozambique deeper into crisis
Mozambique was devastated by a cyclone for the second time within a short time. After Cyclone Idai brought the country to its knees in March, the even stronger Hurricane Kenneth brought new devastation on Thursday. This time northern Mozambique was affected. For the second time, the winds have torn down entire villages, including palm trees, and with the cloudbursts come the floods.
The situation for Mozambique has worsened dramatically with Cyclone Kenneth. Within just over a month, the number of people affected rose from 1.7 million to 2.6 million because of the renewed disaster. These are the estimates of the media. Many of them are now homeless, have no income or crops and have no access to medical care. Humanitarian aid is now even more urgent. The country groans under the plight of these people.
23.04.2019
In Mozambique, the laborious and protracted reconstruction is underway.
Four weeks after the catastrophe, in which the events took place, Mozambique is still at the beginning of a slow and lengthy reconstruction process. Although the flood has drained away in many places, the damage to houses and transport routes has remained. In our project area around the town of Chimoio there is still a lack of basic supplies: Food is scarce as well as soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, sanitary towels and other hygiene products.
In some places there are still no emergency accommodation centres. Many families have been living in the open air since the storm. Our partner organisation LeMuSiCa is supporting three homeless large families: one of them has nine children, another one has 12 children and the third one has a single mother who has taken in her nephews and now cares for a total of 13 children. They urgently need help.
For the parents of even smaller families it is now important to know that their children are well looked after and kept busy. Only then can they concentrate on reconstruction. Because the schools have not been spared from destruction either, in some places classes are held under trees. In Gondola, for example. Our partner organisations have provided the class with school materials that were lost in the storm. Little by little, youth centres are resuming their services to support the families affected.
The situation is life-threatening for HIV/AIDS sufferers. Many of them lost not only their belongings in the storm but also all medical documents and even medicines on which they are dependent. LeMuSiCa is helping them to get the necessary papers back and start treatment. Psychosocial support is also important here, because in an illness such as HIV/AIDS inner resistance and lack of prospects often rob them of the motivation to undergo regular treatment. However, medication is the only way to keep the virus in check.
Even if the situation is now better under control, the consequences of the hurricane will continue to occupy the country for a long time to come. Every franc is needed to provide the population with shelter, food, medicines and, especially for children and young people, psychological support as quickly as possible. Many thanks for your contribution!
29.03.2019, 6 p.m.
Relief for parents and coping with trauma
Caring for food, rebuilding the demolished houses and at the same time caring for the children who are still traumatized by the storm - the situation in Chimoio in Western Mozambique is very stressful for families. Especially because it is difficult to transport relief supplies there and thus to obtain food for the population. Although the floods are also swelling in the flooded area around Beira, the masses of water are leaving debris everywhere.
We now know that two out of four support centres of our partner organisations need to be rebuilt. In the two intact centres, our partners now offer programmes for children and young people to relieve the burden on parents. Daily structures with games, talks and other activities are intended to distract the children from everyday life in the disaster area until they can go back to school. In this way the parents know that the children are well looked after and can take care of the reconstruction.
As in Zimbabwe, the boys urgently need psychosocial care and distraction from their traumatic experiences. Otherwise their thoughts will constantly revolve around the tragic events, which can damage their psyche in the long term. Our partner organisations work with a solution-oriented approach to mentally prepare the young people and children for the way out of the crisis. In most cases, this happens in group discussions and in the case of particularly severe trauma in individual therapies.
The partner organisations distribute school materials, as much of it was lost in the cyclone. They would also like to provide the children with food and drink. It is still unclear, however, whether the organisation will get any food at all. The situation is precarious, which is why violence is also becoming an increasing problem. Especially against easily vulnerable people, for example young mothers. The centre should also provide a safe place for them, otherwise they have nowhere else to go in Chimoio.
22.03.2019, 6 p.m.
We care for traumatised children and young people
The cyclone not only raged in Mozambique but also hit the east of Zimbabwe. Trevor Khrimambova, the director of our partner organisation MMPZ, was asked for help in the disaster area. He has many years of experience in psychosocial support (PSS) and in counselling youth workers. In the crisis area he is leading a team for psychosocial care. Many children and young people have had terrible experiences and are often traumatised. We were able to ask Trevor some questions despite the bad connection.
What is the situation in Zimbabwe? What can be seen in the crisis area?
The situation here is bad, especially because the crisis area is in the mountains. The roads are impassable, we are flown in by helicopter with the rescue teams and doctors. In the cyclone water masses tore down houses. Many people were buried. Many children and young people had to watch people die. Some lay beside their dead brothers and sisters and friends until they were rescued. And there are still people stuck. Teams are trying to get them out and recover the bodies.
What are the most urgent needs of the people there? What are the special needs of the children and youth?
The most urgent needs are food and clothing. The teams here distribute the most necessary. The traumatised children need psychological support and need to be kept busy so that their thoughts do not constantly revolve around what they have experienced. In the near future, psychological consequences of the trauma may occur. Parents and carers must be prepared for this. They need to know what they can do when they react to the trauma and where they can get help.
What concrete help can you provide locally?
We were asked to lead the activation of the youth and children in the crisis area as technical partners. For this we were given a team of social workers and project workers. Our team helps to assess the psychosocial condition of the children and young people. It is important to find out whether they need special help or immediate measures. We help to keep the children busy because the schools are closed.
We educate parents and families about how the children and young people might react to the trauma and how they can help with certain behaviours. We show them our PSS tools so that they too can later identify which young people need further help after the immediate intervention. It is also necessary to set up reporting points and information channels between psychological care and social services so that psychological help arrives at the right place.
What would be different if you and your team were not on site?
Without our contribution, the people will be saved and provided with the necessary care, but nobody cares about the psychological damage of the youngsters and children. For many boys, the silent cry for help would go unnoticed. This would have consequences later on, which would not be associated with the trauma today. Teachers, parents and caregivers would unknowingly re-traumatize the children again and again. This has unfortunately already happened here. An untrained organisation let the children tell their experiences. In trauma care this is a no-go. We advised against it immediately.
21.03.2019, 6 pm
Water causes diseases
After the destructive flood, the water masses now also cause medical damage: The first cases of cholera have been confirmed in Beira. The highly infectious diarrhoea disease is often fatal if not treated. The poor hygienic conditions are threatening a dangerous epidemic. This can only be prevented by a rapid supply of clean drinking water and food, because weakened people are particularly vulnerable.
In certain parts of Beiras the flooding is slowly subsiding. This means some relief, but only for these regions. In other places the water level continues to rise with the water from open dams in the mountains. The crisis is far from over.
More and more rescue teams arrive in Mozambique from all over the world. Their biggest challenge remains logistics, as the flood continues to make many land routes impassable and the persistent rain restricts air traffic. Along the coast, fishermen are using their boats to fetch people from their roofs. The airspace coordinator in the crisis area talks about 60,000 people who have to be rescued from roofs.
In the meantime we have also received the first pictures from our partner organisations in Chimoio. There the water has run off in many places. But the rudimentary houses and huts hardly offer any protection against the rainfalls that keep coming.
March 21, 2019, 4:30 pm
Radar image shows disaster
The University of Edinbrugh succeeded in penetrating the cloud cover with radar beams and taking a satellite image of the flooding. It shows how the sea now extends deep into the interior. It will take time for the water to recede.
20.03.2019, 6 p.m.
Young people stuck - without roof and food
Our partner organisation Lemusica reports that a group of young people are stuck in a remote training centre. The storm has destroyed the access roads and buildings. Now they have to stay outdoors and with every day food is becoming scarcer. However, the rescue from the air is not yet in sight. The people in the town of Chimoio, where Lemusica is based, are also badly affected. Several hundred young participants, their families and Lemusica employees lost their homes in the cyclone. And many local organizations lost their infrastructure. At one school, all the building materials used to build additional classrooms were washed away.
March 20, 2019, 5 p.m.
Emergency aid in Mozambique gets off to a slow start
As our National Coordinator Paula Macave reports from the meeting with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), aid from the emergency aid organisations is slowly getting underway. Due to the heavy rainfall in the region and difficult communication, it remains a great challenge to get important information.
In the meantime a national state of emergency has been declared, but the aid teams still lack an overview. The focus is now on short-term aid, as many people have to be rescued from roofs and trees. To prevent outbreaks of disease, people urgently need to be supplied with water. Due to lack of water, people drink contaminated water and can get dangerous diarrhoea diseases. It is also a big problem to accommodate the homeless in emergency shelters, as many buildings are destroyed or uninhabitable. Logistics are extremely difficult because of the destroyed roads and the overburdened airport in Beira.
The catastrophe is not yet over. The United Nations assumes that the situation on the ground will deteriorate because there will be further rainfall until tomorrow. It is also feared that neighbouring and equally affected Zimbabwe will soon open its dams to combat the flooding. This water flows through Mozambique towards the ocean.
20.03.2019, 11 a.m.
Third partner organisation reached!
We are relieved. Our National Coordinator Paula Macave was able to reach the last partner organisation. Fortunately, everyone is unharmed there as well. But the material damage is enormous, as everywhere else in the region. The young people with whom we are working have been hit particularly hard. Their families have lost everything within days. What little they had, their roof over their heads and their harvest. We fear that the destruction of the fields will trigger a serious humanitarian crisis. We are therefore supporting our partner organisations in the initial emergency aid and reconstruction. To this end we have set up an emergency fund for Mozambique. We are grateful for every donation!
19.03.2019, 3 p.m.
Still no contact with remote locations.
Our National Coordinator Paula Macave from Mozambique describes the situation
"The situation in Mozambique is very worrying and there are many deaths, although the full extent of the situation cannot yet be fully assessed.
Communication is very difficult. Yesterday I spoke with a member of our partner organisation. She reported that many people in the villages have lost all their belongings. At the other partner organisation we were able to reach, staff members lost their homes and many more were flooded. The villages where the partners work are cut off. Many access roads have been destroyed and there is no telephone connection. Therefore, contact with the remote third organisation is not possible. In the affected province of Manica it is still raining heavily, which makes rescue work massively more difficult."
Here pictures show the extent of the catastrophe!
19.03.2019, 10 a.m.
Devastation hardly assessable
With 160 km/h the storm winds swept over half a million inhabitants of Beira. Rain and sea flooded the streets and tore down even solid houses. The extent of the disaster is only slowly comprehensible, communication has collapsed in large parts of the country. But one thing is certain: the consequences for the population are devastating. Almost 90% of the city were destroyed. After a flight over the affected areas, President Nyusi speaks of over 1,000 dead.
The partner organisations of terre des hommes schweiz were also hard hit. From the coast of Beiras, the cyclone had made its way towards Zimbabwe and hit the town of Chimoio. Three of our Mozambican partner organisations are based there - two of which we were able to reach.
The good news is that, as far as we know, none of our partners' employees, relatives or project participants have lost their lives. But many houses were destroyed and flooded in the storm. The extent of the damage to our partner organisations is also difficult to estimate locally. The third partner organisation in Chimoio did not provide any information. It is cut off from communication.
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. Almost two thirds of the people live on less than two Swiss francs a day. "Idai" has not only destroyed houses and the few belongings of the people, but the cyclone also destroyed the entire harvest. For several hundred thousand people a serious humanitarian crisis is looming.
To enable our partners to rebuild quickly, we have set up an emergency fund for Mozambique. Thank you very much for your support. We will keep you informed here about the situation on the ground.
