Save the Children is calling on the international community to commit additional resources to the emergency relief efforts in the wake of Cyclone Idai and Cyclone Kenneth.
UPDATE FROM THE FIELD: Mozambique in the aftermath of Cyclone Kenneth
I write this message from Pemba in Cabo Delgado, Northern Mozambique. Myself and four colleagues have been here since Cyclone Kenneth made landfall.
We need your help.
Cyclone Kenneth has almost completely destroyed a 60 km coastal strip of Cabo Delgado province with the districts of Ibo, Macomia and Quissanga being worst affected. The cyclone eye was narrow but extraordinarily destructive. ,Yesterday our assessment team visited Macomia and observed 80-90% houses totally damaged and families still reeling in shock some 36 hours after the storm passed. The Government estimates that 160,000 people are seriously affected across these districts with some info still to come in from hard to reach places. Before this disaster Cabo Delgado was the worst province to be a child in the whole of Mozambique.
Yesterday we were able to deliver over 1,200 tarpaulins in Macomia district (from COSACA consortium stocks).
Today the window for continued delivery closed.
The rain has been torrential since midnight and the flood situation has become serious. Assessment teams travelling to affected locations generally had to turn back as flash flooding engulfed infrastructure. Flooding is up to the roof of houses and people are fleeing their homes in the hundreds and possibly thousands. It is too soon to give good data but this second disaster will drive up the numbers in need, flooding accommodation centres, causing further displacement and causing us significant access problems. The same concerns we faced with Cyclone Idai are on the horizon. Mass displacement, Malaria, Cholera, mass disruption of children’s lives.
The situation across humanitarian agencies is difficult. Like us, most agencies have been struggling to optimize the major relief operation in central Mozambique following Cyclone Idai some six weeks ago. Agency resources are tapped. Search and rescue teams equipment is worn out and expended. We find ourselves facing impossible choices.
We now might only have a narrow window of a few weeks to access these communities. We need your help to make this happen. Please consider making a donation so we get help to these children and families so desperately in need.
You can save the survivors
Save the Children is doing whatever it takes for children in Mozambique but we need you.
Donate today to make sure children and their families get the vital aid they need.
- Shelter: Tents, tarpaulins and blankets to keep families who have lost their homes safe
- Hygiene: Essential hygiene items like soap, buckets and jerry cans to help prevent the spread of deadly diseases
- Reuniting Families: Identifying children who have been separated from their families and helping to reunite them
- Child Friendly Spaces: Setting up safe places where children can recover, play, and receive emotional support to overcome this traumatic experience
A smiling Save the Children volunteer carries a package of WASH supplies during a distribution at a resettlement site in Manica province in Mozambique. All of the families living here, including the volunteer’s lost their homes during Cyclone Idai and are trying to build new lives.