Cyclone Idai Emergency

Cyclone Idai: One year on, communities are still suffering

Posted by: Alice Dawson

Cyclone Idai made landfall on 14th March 2019, destroying livelihoods and homes across southern Africa. Today, hundreds of thousands of people in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are still suffering the consequences of one of the worst cyclones to hit Africa.

family taking refuge under temporary shelter
Maria, 31, with her six children with their only belongings sheltering from the rain by the side of the road. Photo: Elena Heatherwick/Oxfam

A new Oxfam briefing, After the Storm, reveals that thousands of people in Mozambique and Zimbabwe are still living in destroyed or damaged homes and makeshift shelters, with an estimated 8.7 million people in desperate need of food as a result of extreme weather events and localised conflict. Critical infrastructure including roads, water supplies, and schools remain in disrepair, making it even more difficult for people to access vital services or get back to work.

A toxic combination of factors – including an intensifying cycle of floods, drought and storms; deep rooted poverty and inequality; a patchy humanitarian response; and the lack of support for poor communities to adapt to changing climate or recover from disaster – have increased people’s vulnerability and made it harder for people to recover.

flooded shops and homes in Mozambique
Flooded shops and homes in Lamego district, Mozambique as of February 2020. Photo: Elena Heatherwick/Oxfam

Virginia Defunho, a farmer who lives in Josina Machel village in Mozambique with her husband and seven children, lost everything in the cyclone - their home, crops, chickens and most of their possessions. She replanted her fields in December, but her crops were damaged by another severe flood this January. Oxfam’s partner Kulima is providing Virginia with tools and seeds to plant again on a rented plot on higher ground.

“The hardest thing now is the lack of food. Sometimes I go to bed hungry. The child cries, wanting something to eat, and it makes me feel angry sometimes, because the child is crying because he wants food and there is nothing to give.

friends join together to adapt to climate change
Amelia (right) and Virginia (left) have been neighbours since 1996. They cannot farm where they live any more because of frequent flooding so they are renting plots on higher ground to grow crops using the seeds provided. Photo: Elena Heatherwick/Oxfam

“Idai has destroyed my mind. I have a child who has succeeded to grade ten, but I don't have the money to pay for him to enrol back at school. If life was normal, I would have some crops to sell and I would get some money and my child would be back at school.   

“We are worried about the future because we don't know if the weather is going to be like this or if it will change back to normal like it was before. We worry about another cyclone coming. If it comes a second time, what will our lives be? How is it going to be?”

Oxfam raised funds to assist people across Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe in the aftermath of the cyclones. With our partners, we provided emergency assistance such as food aid, blankets and hygiene kits; installed latrines and water pumps in temporary camps; and helped raise awareness of issues such as gender-based violence - which often spikes after a disaster. In the long term, Oxfam is working with communities to help them adapt in the face of a changing climate – for example by helping smallholder farmers diversify their crops and adapt their farming techniques.

Cyclone Idai is just one of many extreme weather events to have hit southern Africa in recent years. Despite the escalating climate crisis, poor communities are not getting the help they need to adapt, and world leaders have failed to ensure a dedicated global fund to help countries rebuild from the loss and damage caused by climate fuelled disasters.

Donate now to support Oxfam’s work in southern Africa and beyond.

Please give now

Posted In:

Oxfam community activists help prevent cholera after Cyclone Idai in Mozambique

Posted by: Oxfam International

In the aftermath of the Idai Cyclone In Mozambique, Oxfam and the Ministry of Health have trained more than 60 community ‘activistas’ in Mozambique to promote public health advice to help stop the spread of cholera.

 

Cholera is easy to treat and prevent

“The tragedy is that cholera is actually easy to treat and simple to prevent.” Dorothy Sang, Oxfam’s Humanitarian Advocacy Manager in the devastated city of Beira, said. “But, if it really [takes] hold, it will flare [up and get] out of hand and the response will be that much more costly – both in terms of lives and the resources needed to stop it. We must get clean water and decent sanitation to people and [urgently promote the fact] that simple things like soap can keep cholera at bay.”

“We need to bring in far more supplies and fast, particularly to ensure clean water and safe waste management… the people [need to be prioritised and we need] to step up public health promotion in the heart of the affected communities.”

She went on to say that while the international response had been good, “the overall appeal remains just 17 percent funded – incredibly low for what the UN has described as ‘one of the worst weather-related disasters in Africa.”

Jose Arnando wades through the highly contaminated waters inside Tica village. His house can only be reached through the water. Photo: Micas Mondlane/Oxfam

The Mozambique government is working fast to set up cholera treatment centers

Cholera treatment centers are being set up in the city of Beira, Mozambique, where the threat of a cholera epidemic is high.

Six people have died from the acute diarrheal disease and the number of cases is soaring, now over 3,000. The government began oral vaccinations for 900,000 people on April 3rd.

These vaccinations need the support of a massive community outreach campaign to help people learn how they can protect themselves against cholera.

With the help of Oxfam supporters like you, 64 ‘activistas’ so far have been trained to reach local communities with vital health information, including what to do if they suspect family or friends are infected. We will also distribute water purification liquids.

Janete Luciana, is getting information on hygiene and sanitation to prevent Cholera. Volunteer Felix and supervisor Lin are handing out bottles of chlorine to disinfect contaminated water in Mozambique. Photo: Micas Mondlane/Oxfam

More community ‘activistas’ are needed to help prevent cholera now

We now need you to help us scale up this programme, and fast. To get more than 1,000 community activistas working ASAP so local communities get the health information they need in time to prevent more deaths. And so we can carry on trucking clean water, building toilet facilities and distributing water containers, buckets and soap.

You can help us save lives.

To prevent a further health emergency, we need the international community to step up funding to organisations now on the ground to rapidly scale up the response to contain and stop the spread of the cholera.

The crisis is still unfolding

The full scale of the Cyclone Idai crisis is still unfolding. Many thousands of people are still isolated in difficult to reach areas. The scale of destruction means that reaching people is costly and requires fast and flexible funding.

Oxfam’s Humanitarian Program Manager, Ulrich Wagner, led an assessment team by boat to Buzi, one of the hard to reach areas prioritized for the vaccination campaign.

“What I saw there was shocking, the perfect breeding ground for cholera. Just by looking at the side of some of the buildings you could see the flood waters had come up to way above my head,” he said.

“People were cleaning out what was left of their houses or trying to construct new shelters with any debris they could find. Toilets had been destroyed and were overflowing. We must assume all wells are contaminated but people are forced to still collect water from them. I was told that in some areas people were digging holes in the ground just to find a water source.”

Survivors of Cyclone Idai in Beira, Mozambique, face water and electricity shortages and are at risk of waterborne diseases carried in contaminated flood water. Photo: Sergio Zimba/Oxfam

Oxfam is in Mozambique

In Mozambique, Oxfam is trucking clean drinking water to more than over 8,000 people living in displacement camps and distributing buckets and soap working as part of a collective of charities and with local partner AJOAGA.

A crucial next step in averting health hazards is to build toilets.

Last week (3 April), we shipped 38 tonnes of water and sanitation equipment to Beira: the shipment included over a thousand pieces of building material for constructing emergency toilets, over 20 large water containers to collect and store fresh water, 10,000 smaller water containers for people to use to carry and keep water clean and safe, three desludging pumps with generators, and over a hundred tap stands.

Thank you for your continued support.

Donate now to Oxfam's flood response

Top photo: Julia Pedro (right), a hygiene promotion volunteer for Oxfam. Julia’s family home collapsed and they are living with an aunt now. But still she wants to volunteer because, “these people do not know enough about dangerous diseases like cholera. I want to help them and save their children.” Julia is doing household visit and chlorine distribution in in Praia Nova, a poor area in Beira that has been hit hardest. Credit: Micas Mondlane/Oxfam

Posted In:

4 things you need to know about Cyclone Idai

Posted by: Ben Clancy

A man looks at a washed away bridge along Umvumvu river following Cyclone Idai in Chimanimani, Zimbabwe March 18, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo

Cyclone Idai has caused widespread flooding, landslides and destruction and left communities in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi in urgent need of life-saving humanitarian assistance.

Here are four things you need to know about Cyclone Idai right now

1. The full impact has taken a while to hit the news

Communications and infrastructure were very badly affected, making it hard to see the sheer scale of the disaster and level of devastation caused at first. Cyclone Idai hit landfall on the night of 14-15 March causing extensive damage in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique with homes and agricultural land completely wiped out in some areas.

2. It could become one of the “worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere”

The exact impact is not yet known and the numbers continue to rise but millions of people have been affected by what the UN’s weather agency is suggesting could be “one of the worst weather-related disasters ever to hit the southern hemisphere.”

More than a thousand people are feared to have died, thousands more are missing and millions of people have been left destitute without food or basic services.

A family dig for their son who got buried in the mud when Cyclone Idai struck. Photo taken in Chimanimani about 600 kilometres south east of Harare, Zimbabwe, Tuesday, March, 19, 2019. Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP/REX
 

3. It’s a race against time

Oxfam teams and local partner organisations are already on the ground in all three countries and will be responding with clean water, toilet facilities, shelter, clothing, food and other essential items. In some of the most challenging conditions imaginable, Oxfam is working around the clock to make sure this vital work happens as quickly and effectively as possible. It is a race against time, you can donate to help us save lives right now

Donate to Cyclone Idai

4. A longer-term response will take some time to evaluate

With an estimated 2.6 million people affected across the region, Oxfam aims to reach up to 500,000 initially – hopefully more – across the three countries, including in partnership with other international and local NGO partners. In Mozambique, where 2.1 million people are affected, Oxfam is planning to reach people through COSACA (a consortium of Oxfam, Care and Save the Children) as part of a programme to restore several basic social services including access to healthcare, education and water. In Malawi, Oxfam is looking to help 200, 000 people and in Zimbabwe 50,000 people.

You can help save lives by donating to Oxfam’s Cyclone Idai appeal now.

Donate to Cyclone Idai

Posted In:

Oxfam issues urgent appeal to help 775,000 affected by Cyclone Idai

Posted by: Oxfam Media Team
  • Families in Malawi report losing their homes and all source of income

Friday 22nd March 2019

Oxfam and partners on the ground in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe are urgently supporting families who have lost everything, including their food, shelter and only source of income as a result of Cyclone Idai.

With an estimated 2.6 million people affected after a cyclone, heavy rains and severe flooding devastated the southern African region, Oxfam is scaling up their response. They aim to reach 775,000 and have launched an appeal to meet the immediate needs of those affected by the disaster.

Daud Kayisi, Oxfam’s Communications Coordinator in Malawi, has been meeting with people in the Phalombe district, one of the worst affected areas in the country.

David said: “I spoke with a couple in Phalombe, Agnes and Alfred, who told me that their house has been entirely washed away. Now they have nothing. They don’t even have enough plastic sheeting to build a shelter where their home once was.

“In another village, Maria and her six-year-old daughter Grace told me about what happened when the water started rising. They thought that it would go away but it didn’t, and Maria’s house was washed away along with their livestock leaving them with no food, no clothing, no animals and no home.

“Maria used to keep 26 chickens and four goats to provide food for her family but to also cover the cost of her children’s education. This family and hundreds of thousands of others are now trying to survive but without any food, shelter or livelihoods.”

Oxfam Ireland’s Chief Executive Jim Clarken said: “People are not only trying to survive after essentials like food and shelter were washed away but they are also facing into rebuilding their lives from nothing – our teams on the ground are meeting people who have lost everything, including their livelihoods and sole source of income after the devastation of Cyclone Idai.

“We’re there and responding to immediate needs first. One priority is to distribute water purification kits and hygiene supplies to stop the spread of deadly disease – we’re extremely concerned about the overwhelming amount of water that has collected on land which makes it difficult to ensure safe sanitation.

“We will be providing essential aid, including shelter packs and ready-to-eat food to 525,000 people in Mozambique, 200,000 in Malawi and 50,000 in Zimbabwe.

“We’re urgently appealing to the public to be generous by donating at oxfamireland.org, or in any of our local shops. Every single donation will go a long way to providing vulnerable people with life-saving support. Thank you.”

To donate to Oxfam Ireland’s Cyclone Idai Appeal, visit: https://www.oxfamireland.org/cyclone-idai

ENDS

CONTACT:

Spokespeople are available in the region and in Ireland.

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Alice Dawson-Lyons – alice.dawsonlyons@oxfam.org / +353 (0) 83 198 1869

Notes to the editor:

Please see a selection of multi-media content here: https://oxfam.box.com/s/8o75oqt78l22v3qxlhoq1p8pr48tb62o  (Please credit: Oxfam)

 

 

Posted In:

Oxfam launches emergency appeal as cyclone leaves hundreds of thousands homeless in southern Africa, with many feared dead

Posted by: Ben Clancy
  • Cyclone Idai made landfall on Thursday, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes
  • Oxfam issues urgent appeal to help 775,000 people affected by the disaster

Please donate to our Cyclone Idai Emergency Appeal

Wednesday 20th March 2019
 
Oxfam and partners are scaling up their response to urgently reach hundreds of thousands of people after a cyclone, heavy rains and severe flooding devastated regions in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
 
Cyclone Idai made landfall on Thursday (14/03/2019) close to Beira City, in central Mozambique, forcing thousands from their homes and has destroyed much of the region’s infrastructure, making access extremely difficult for those providing humanitarian relief.
 
Oxfam teams are assessing the needs of people who have been reaching internally displaced persons (IDP) camps by land via boats and the international agency will be prioritising shelter and sanitation in response to the large-scale evacuation.
 
A longer-term response will take some time to evaluate, but with an estimated 2.6 million people affected across the region, Oxfam is aiming to reach 775,000 people across the three countries. Oxfam is looking to help 525,000 people in Mozambique, 200,000 in Malawi and 50,000 in Zimbabwe.
 
Oxfam has launched an emergency appeal to meet the immediate needs of those affected by the disaster, with Oxfam Ireland urging the Irish public to donate to its Cyclone Idai Appeal.
 
Oxfam Ireland’s Chief Executive Jim Clarken said: “The full scale of this disaster is still not known and we need to act now. Oxfam is scaling up its response to reach people with essential aid including shelter packs, ready-to-eat food, water purification kits and hygiene supplies to keep people, who have been forced to flee their homes from devastating flooding, safe and healthy.
 
“Anyone who has seen the distressing images and videos coming from southern Africa in recent days will know that this is a major disaster and we’re expecting the death toll to rise significantly. The overwhelming amount of water that has collected on land gives us great concern regarding shelter and sanitation as disease will inevitably spread, putting people at an even greater risk.
 
“In response to what has been described as one of the worst weather-related disasters in the Southern hemisphere, we’re urgently appealing to the public to be generous by donating at oxfamireland.org, or in any of our local shops. Every single donation will go a long way to providing vulnerable people with life-saving support. Thank you.”
 
ENDS
 
Spokespeople are available in the region and in Ireland. For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:
 
ROI: Nyle Lennon, Oxfam Ireland: nyle.lennon@oxfam.org or +353 (0) 83 197 5107
NI: Phillip Graham, Oxfam Ireland: phillip.graham@oxfam.org or +44 (0) 7841 102535

Please donate to our Cyclone Idai Emergency Appeal

Posted In:

Oxfam responding to devastating Cyclone Idai

Posted by: Ben Clancy
 
Following on from the devastating impact of Cyclone Idai in Southern Africa, Oxfam’s local humanitarian teams have been assessing the damage caused by this deadly weather event.
 
The most affected countries include Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, with estimations of 1,000 casualties at this early stage. This figure is likely to grow significantly as the real scale of the destruction is understood.

Please donate to our Cyclone Idai Emergency Appeal

Mozambican flood victims have said that they had to pay to make the trip by canoe. Those that did not have the money remained behind.
 
People trudge through a muddied path to safer ground in Chimanimani, about 600 kilometers southeast of Harare, Zimbabwe. Credit: Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi/AP/REX
 
These rising numbers of people to internally displaced persons camps are already putting a strain on limited water supplies. 
 
There are additional concerns that sanitation will soon become a problem and food assistance will need to be brought in to provide extra immunity to the people affected.
 
Oxfam teams are assessing the needs of people in all three countries. They are reporting extensive damage to homes, crops, roads and bridges, and communications. 
 
Some areas have been rendered inaccessible because roads, bridges and phone lines have been washed away.
 
Oxfam teams will be prioritising shelter and sanitation as part of a large-scale evacuation of the worst affected areas. 
 
We urgently need your help to reach people in Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe who have been affected by Cyclone Idai. Please give what you can today. 100% of your donation will go to our emergency response.
 
The coming hours and days will be absolutely critical to our life-saving efforts. 

You can help

• A donation of €50/£40 can give a month's supply of clean and safe drinking and cooking water for families in need
• A donation of €100/£90 can provide a hungry family with enough money to buy food for 3 months
• A donation of €125/£100 can give sanitation to 120 people to stop the spread of life-threatening diseases.

 

Please donate to our Cyclone Idai Emergency Appeal

For more information , please contact:

Posted In:

Cyclone Idai leaves trail of death, destruction and homelessness in southern Africa

Posted by: Oxfam Media Team
 
 
 
Oxfam will be responding with water, sanitation services, food and other non-food items to people affected by Cyclone Idai that hit Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe on March 14-15. Scores of people have been killed, several hundred more are still missing and almost a million have been left destitute and in need of aid and basic services.
 
Winds of up to 140 km/h destroyed farmlands and damaged houses, some beyond repair. Damage is likely to run into millions of dollars. The Presidents of Zimbabwe and Mozambique have both declared a national disaster. 
 
Oxfam teams are assessing the needs of people worst affected in all three countries. They are reporting extensive damage to homes, crops, roads and bridges, and communications. Some areas have been rendered impassable with roads and bridges and phone lines having been washed away. 
 
“We are still gathering data from the field. It’s clear that three provinces of Zambezia, Sofala and Tete have been hit particularly hard. Information is still trickling in. It is likely that Oxfam will respond in Zambezia and Beira at least,” said Lyn Chinembiri, Oxfam Zimbabwe's Humanitarian Manager in Mozambique. 
 
Oxfam has activated its new “Emergency Response Team” of water and sanitation, food and livelihood experts to assess the chaos. They too have been hampered by broken roads, communications and continuing bad weather.
 
In Malawi, the United Nations estimates that 739,000 people have been affected, exacerbated by floods that hit the country two weeks ago. Oxfam teams are assessing people’s needs in Phalombe and Mulanje districts, which were hit hard by floods.
 
Oxfam with support from the UNICEF in Mozambique and utilizing its emergency funding in Malawi, is initially planning a three month-long response in water, sanitation and hygiene work, including the provision of purifying tablets, buckets and hygiene kits as well food aid to vulnerable households.
 
In Mozambique, Oxfam is part of the COCASA consortium (with CARE, SCF and Concern) that is being led by the General Director of the National Institute of Disaster Management. COCASA is focusing on emergency shelter, water and sanitation services and other provisions and public service support.
 
Oxfam’s Southern Africa Regional Director, Nellie Nyangwa, said: "We regret the loss of life, and the first few days were difficult days as official agencies focused on saving lives and trying to assess the impact of the floods in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. We expect that there will be over a million people affected in the region. We are already beginning to focus on work that will help recover people's livelihoods, prevent water borne diseases, and protect displaced people, with a key focus on women and children."
 
For more information , please contact:
 
ROI:     Nyle Lennon on 083 197 5107 / nyle.lennon@oxfam.org
 
NI:        Phillip Graham on 07841 102535 / phillip.graham@oxfam.org
 

 

Please donate now to help save lives

Posted In: