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"There are just so, so many people displaced," says CWS Mozambique partner
A woman displaced by recent flooding in Mozambique constructs a temporary shelter for her family.
Photo: Christian Council of Mozambique
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By Chris Herlinger
Church World Service
NEW YORK -- Calling the current humanitarian situation in Mozambique a "very serious problem" that has not yet received the international attention it deserves, an official with a Church World Service partner agency responding to the worst flooding in the southern African country in nearly a decade has underlined the need for expanded international support in responding to the floods.
Continued and massive displacements of people, as well as outbreaks of cholera and other diseases, are among the problems facing areas of Mozambique that are flooded, Jorge Samuel, the national program director of the Christian Council of Mozambique, CCM, a long-time CWS partner, said in a recent telephone interview.
"There are just so, so many people displaced," Samuel said of the situation in which the Mozambique government has estimated that 258,000 people affected by flooding and heavy require food aid, water and sanitation assistance.
He underlined the need for international non-governmental organizations like Church World Service to support partner efforts in Mozambique, noting that his agency, for example, "is in the field, doing work wherever we work, trying to respond to this situation." He also stressed the importance of CWS constituencies supporting the CWS appeal for the response to the Mozambique flooding, which is supporting the CCM efforts, part of a joint response by CWS partners and Action by Churches International alliance members.
A report last week by the Ecumenical Committee for Social Development, another CWS partners in Mozambique, also said that emergency assistance is going to be required for several months given the extent of damage to homes, other property, crops, and national and regional infrastructure.
The report quoted the National Institute for Disaster Management as saying that as of Feb. 14, 2008, an estimated 102,486 persons (roughly 21,555 households) have evacuated to resettlement centers as a result of the current floods.
Such high numbers of evacuees, however, tell something of a success story, Samuel noted. The evacuations mean that fewer people are in harm's way from the floods. About 60 people have died in the current flood season as opposed to the approximate 700 lives lost in floods during the 2000-2001 rainy season -- and flooding in some parts of the country is worse now than it was in the earlier emergency, he said.
Samuel, interviewed Feb. 27, said he believes the evacuations--done as part of concerted local mitigation and preparatory efforts by CCM and other agencies--"have helped us keep casualty numbers down." Samuel also praised improved coordination efforts among agencies for evacuation efforts, which has resulted in fewer flood casualties.
Even so, he said, response efforts have been impeded by the floods themselves, making delivery of assistance difficult in some areas. He also said there is a wide-spread feeling that the national government should have declared a national emergency sooner, which would have speeded needed international assistance.
For its part, Church World Service is supporting the work of a joint Action by Churches Together response among partners in Mozambique. CCM, CEDES, Lutheran World Federation Mozambique, and the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique are active in the effort, which is expected to last through July. Efforts by CCM include a partnership with the World Food Program in distributing food and implementing a food-for-work program.
The joint CWS-supported response includes assisting 55,460 persons, or some 10,575 families, all of whom are members of rural farming and fishing communities in river basins and islands. CWS-supported work is focused on providing water, sanitation facilities, shelter and protection, and future food security.
Contributions to support this emergency appeal may be made online, sent to your denomination or to: Church World Service, P.O. Box 968 Elkhart, IN 46515.
Media Contact:
Lesley Crosson, CWS/New York, 212-870-2676;
Jan Dragin, 781-925-1526;
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