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Cyclone Kenneth

[Source: Bishop Manuel Ernesto, Bishop of Nampula - 3 May 2019]

Visit to Chimoio and Chiure to assess the aftermath

Muassite Miguel, is now the Missionary Diocese of Nampula’s Mission Co-ordina​tor. She is currently working in the field on the Diocese’s response to Cyclone Kenneth. Many in London will remember her from the Diocese of London 2017 Lent Appeal ‘Sowing Seeds for Tomorrow’ when we featured her long journey from Pemba to Lichinga for training to show why a dedicated training centre in Nampula is so vital.

​Here is news from Muassite’s visit to Chimoio and Chiure, where she is carrying out a post Cyclone Kenneth needs assessment. This is part of the Large Pemba pastoral area that is twinned with St Mary with St Alban & Ss Peter & Paul, Teddington. Revd Joe Moffat visited this area a few weeks ago after the inauguration of the new Missionary Diocese.

Muassite spent Thursday 2 May  in the community of Chimoio, in Chire District, Cabo Delgado, where, working with the priest and other community leaders she’s been conducting a needs assessment. Chimoio will be one of the Diocese’ main areas of action.

The community of Chimoio, has been badly affected by the cyclone but has not yet received any assistance from government or relief agencies. It’s a community in which the Diocese has had a presence for many years. It has an active church congregation, priest, church-run primary school and various Diocese-supported community development activities.

The people of Chimoio are almost all subsistence farmers living in thatched huts built of mud brick. The initial severe winds caused a lot of damage and then the heavy rain saturated the ground and soaked the walls of the huts, causing them to crack and then collapse. As the rains continued the River Lúrio, which forms one border of the community, broke its banks, sweeping away the huts in its path. People living in those huts lost everything.

By mid afternoon, when heavy rain forced the survey team to halt for the day, the survey team had already identified 49 homes that have been completely destroyed and a further 108 which have been so severely damaged they will have to be rebuilt but currently still have people living in them, using bits of plastic sheeting and straw mats to replace torn-off roofs and collapsed walls. The school and church have also fallen down. For lack of alternative accommodation families whose homes have been completely destroyed are sheltering in the least damage huts, around 15 people per hut, or sleeping out in the open air on the damp earth.

There is a serious lack of food. People are sharing the little they have but there’s an urgent need for more. Tragically the maize (the staple food of the area) was in the last stages of being dried for storage.

Now, following days of heavy rain, it’s rotting. There's no possibility of saving it so almost the entire harvest has been lost.

Lack of access to clean water presents the risk of an outbreak of diarrhoeal diseases. Malaria is also a threat.

Tomorrow 3 May the team in the village will continue the survey while Muassite travels to Acua, on the opposite side of the river, to do a similar needs assessment. Meanwhile another colleague will visit Chiure town, about 20 miles away, to investigate what food is available in the warehouses there for immediate purchase, with a view to making an initial distribution to the families in Chimoio identified as being most vulnerable and in need of assistance.

The region has two growing seasons. During the next few days the Diocese will assess if there is sufficient of the second growing season left, given the water-soaked soil, to allow people to get another maize harvest if they plant immediately. If there is then the Diocese will try to purchase and distribute seed as well as continuing to provide food as interim assistance.

If the Diocese can access mosquito nets and plastic sheeting it will make an emergency distribution of these.

In the medium to long-term rebuilding the church, school and the priest’s house will be among the Diocese’ priorities. The Diocese will produce a proposal for these important but less urgent activities once the most immediate needs have been responded to and we have a better picture of exactly what the greatest needs are and how they can be addressed most effectively.

ALMA Co-ordinator, Revd Sheenagh Burrell, adds that it is this re-building of churches, schools, and priest’s houses that will be the focus of the Diocese of London’s Pentecost Appeal for our three Mozambican partner Dioceses.