Floods in Mozambique wipe out homes, livelihoods

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 19 February 2000

AKRON, Pa. Heavy rains have flooded southern Africa (see sidebar). In Mozambique, some 100,000 people were left homeless, without supplies. "We would like to emphasize that we have never seen such flooding," wrote Christine and Harold Wenger, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Mozambique representatives, in a February 10 email message. Drinking water was scarce. Roads were under water. The MCC night watchman walked through water up to his shoulders to get to the office, reported the Wengers.

MCC has given $33,000 Cdn./ $22,000 U.S. to assist flood victims.

MCC worker Cheryl Delaplane lives in the village of Marracuene, situated on a bluff overlooking the Nkomati River. Floods there destroyed 21 homes, leaving 80 people homeless. Fishermen's boats are buried under the sand and farmers cannot cultivate their flooded fields during this crucial planting time. "There will be much suffering in Marracuene," Delaplane predicted. "It will take people a long time to recover."

In a February 10 email, Delaplane wrote: "Have you ever seen anyone carry all their belongings in a bucket? I was walking with Maria Alice, my colleague, surveying the damage. We met her cousin coming up from the river. She was wearing a ripped T-shirt, skirt and was barefoot, carrying a bucket with two empty coke bottles, a plastic water jug and two unmatched shoes. That is all she owns now. She told us her whole house was washed away."

Some $3,000 Cdn./$2,000 U.S. of MCC's money will go to the 21 families in Marracuene who lost their homes. "I want to thank MCC for helping," wrote Delaplane from Marracuene. "It is so hard to be in an area where people already have a difficult life and then see more suffering heaped on. I don't understand it but I thank God that no lives were lost here and that people are working together to help the homeless."

The remaining $30,000 Cdn./$20,000 U.S. will go to the Christian Council of Mozambique's relief efforts.

Christine and Harold Wenger are from Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania, and are members of Elizabethtown Mennonite Church, Pennsylvania. Cheryl Delaplane is from Ames, Oklahoma, and is a member of New Hopedale Mennonite Church in Meno, Oklahoma.

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org