Friday, January 25, 2013

Emergency Appeal - Floods in Mozambique - Friday pm Update


Chokwé
The water level lowered slightly in the area but the day got off to a bad start, with reports only improving towards the end of the day. Our Local Partner in SVP Sister Neuza suffered from very poor health and was evacuated to Maputo. Our local technician and uni student Hilario spent 3 days on the roof of his house, wounded after saving people from being dragged by the heavy waters. His sister, alongside him on the roof, was finally able to fetch some fresh water as the water level started lowering. Despite the acuteness of his wound and all our efforts, at the time of this report it had still been impossible to bring him medical assistance through either water barges or air support.


Orphan Centre CRPE
It was an exhausting day for our UPG Volunteers on the grounds supporting the local communities. Control over water supply and distribution of foodstuff remained the priority.  It is still not possible to arrive to the Chinavane area.

Santa Luisa Marillac
We received the first reports from SLM, where our Local Partner Sister Lidia and the other Sisters were out of contact for 2 days. They have taken refuge in the Carmelo Hospital as SLM school was completely submersed. Tomorrow they will try to reach Manjangue and the SLM school area to assess the damage inflicted by the floods and start their support to the community.

Brother Licinio from CRPE
Brother Licinio continues indefatigable in his attempts to provide relief to the population who has sheltered at the CRPE centre. He procured water, green beans and other foodstuff as well as fuel in the city. His efforts have been fruitless given the travel situation as most roads remain shut and no access has been possible to the Chinhacanine area. We have been notified he will attempt to deliver this cargo again tomorrow but the remaining open roads are either closing or completely blocked with heavy traffic.

Xai-Xai/Escolinha do Andre
Sister Beta has been able to access part of our Emergency Funds already. Her team has been looking out for children since Wednesday as many have missed school to help their families take the water out of their houses. In our Escolinha do Andre school, meals are under constant preparation for the children attending school. The Sister is also preparing a small shelter centre with makeshift beds for the families of the children under ALG’s programme that are currently sleeping in the street.
It is early days to assess the damage to the school and the families but Sister Berta has undertaken to visit all the refuge hubs to find the children from the Escolinha and help on an individual basis.

Our sister charity UPG is making efforts to redirect their local volunteers in Chongoene towards the areas with more urgent need of support, over the next days and once the travel situation improves.

Update on ALG Emergency Appeal
A Little Gesture UK and our sister-charity Um Pequeno Gesto Portugal launched yesterday an urgent appeal for emergency funds. Together we have raised £3’000 towards our Emergency Appeal.
We thank you for your efforts and continue to ask for your support in raising awareness and donating funds towards this catastrophe.

Local Support and Donations
Our network of ALG Friends in Maputo is currently getting organized to donate foodstuff and essential supplies locally. We are in the process to arrange a reliable transport route as soon as the travel situation is more stabilised. We will keep you posted on this subject and how to help locally should you have a presence in Maputo.

Help our emergency appeal by making your donation here

Every Little Gesture Counts!

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