Anna writes,
-The translator is almost finished with the next phase of BES translation!
-The Bibletime participants seem to be enjoying the booklets. The group of teens is slowly but surely growing, and I’m encouraged by some who are very consistent.
The acute crisis concerning food insecurity in Malawi is being made worse by the ongoing rains.
Many crops (such as our own – pictured) were flattened by the cyclone winds, and these are now starting to rot / germinate as the rains continue and villagers don’t have the means to store and dry them.
Please pray – it’s clear than this humanitarian crisis is set to become worse and worse.
Wati writes, “The team visited the evacuation camp at Pa Mchenga on 31/03/23. A short gospel message was shared, and some food items were given. We can pray for the families there who all listened attentively.”
The other work is ongoing, Bible studies (kids and adults) Sunday meetings.
We are doing a little more finishing work on the msasa (plastering etc)
Please pray for Anna (and her family) on the homecall of her Papa.
Bereavement is all the more difficult when family are separated, so please pray that all will know special grace during their time of loss.
Anna says, “while we are grieving the loss of him as a special person, we are all so happy he is with the Lord and very much at peace.”
Our efforts to help in the present crisis are being frustrated by continued adverse weather.
Heavy rains are continuing from time to time, resulting in further damage to already difficult roads. On Saturday, we tried to purchase 400 x 25Kg bags of maize flour, but were unable to get them to our storage facility.
Some of the evacuation camps remain very difficult to reach without serious 4×4 capability.
The road to our site at Saidi has been blocked for a couple of days by this vehicle stuck in the mud.
Please pray for an improvement in the weather so that the roads may be passable.
Tropical Cyclone Freddy claimed the lives of thousands, while hundreds of thousands more have been displaced by the flood and mudslides. SALT is working to relieve need and share the Gospel among a few of them in the Zomba and Chiradzulu districts. We shot this video during our visit to Lisao Camp, approximately 10 days after the cyclone struck.
It seems like every day we hear fresh stories of desperation. We thank the Lord for moving his people to give so that we are able to respond to some of those most in need.
You can read here about SALT’s interim incident response plan.
Reliefweb report: https://reliefweb.int/report/mozambique/southern-africa-tropical-cyclone-freddy-flash-update-no-7-14-march-2023
We have committed to try to supply food aid to 3 camps for people left homeless by Cyclone Freddy. We would love to be able to do more, but have only limited resources.
An improvement in the weather towards the end of last week allowed Stephen & Harold to access the Lisao Camp to distribute desperately needed food aid.
It’s now two weeks since Cyclone Freddy began to wreak havoc across Southern Malawi. We have been trying to come up with an appropriate incident response plan.
The body count continues to rise. However, it is doubtful if we will ever know the true number of people who perished. Many were washed away by flash-floods or buried in the devasting mud-slides which ripped through the slum townships in Blantyre and elsewhere. A Christian worker known to us through a mutual friend, knows of an entire family of 10 who all perished under one roof.
The need is overwhelming. We have only limited resources.
There are at least three categories of need, and we have decided to respond to each as follows:
In the village group of which Saidi forms a part, around 230 families have experienced total or partial collapse of their homes. Many are still living in what remains of their houses. Some are living with relatives, while others are housed in one of nine camps (mainly in school buildings vacated for the purpose). Some of these camps are in remote areas and very difficult to reach.
We have decided to help two camps in our area, plus a further one in Chiradzulu District, known personally to Brother Harold. We estimate the total number of people to be around 600-800 in total.
Already, we have distributed 30 x 25Kg bags of ufa (maize flour) to Lisao Camp (Chiradzulu), enough for 5KG / family. This will probably be sufficient to survive for 4-5 days. With resources to hand, we believe we can manage to supply a similar amount to the three camps, once every two weeks until the beginning / middle of May.
With greater resources we would be able to make more frequent supplies. We could even include other essential items, like blankets, kitchen & cooking utensils, mosquito nets, and water sanitising tablets. However for the time being, this is what we can manage.
We also plan to assist those affected in our immediate community with a one-off supply of a similar (5KG) quantity. Not much. But something.
This does not take into account the needs of many of our literature distributors who have been affected.
It’s impossible to do anything right now about repairing / rebuilding damaged or destroyed homes, as the rainy season has not yet finished. However, by May, people will be starting to think about rebuilding.
The needs will be immense and we will not be able to help all, or even most. Nevertheless, we will try to assist those who are most vulnerable, especially widows and others with no reasonable expectation of help.
Right now, we have no funds to help with rebuilding, as our priority is to feed the hungry. Experience tells us that we can build a simple house to an acceptable standard for around $1000 / £800. That means with cement mortar / plaster instead of mud. How many people we are able to help will depend on what funds are available.
It’s clear that there will be many survivors who have experienced life-change physical and psychological trauma. For example, we are aware of one lady who lost everything, including her husband and children. She was presumed dead, but was dug out alive from the mud. She is in hospital, the skin scraped off the front of her body, needing multiple fractures repaired. The state provides no care for people like that. When she is discharged from hospital, she has only her frail, elderly mother to care for her. We have undertaken to provide for housing and living assistance (and will be happy for any benefactors willing to partner with us in caring for her). There will be many, many more people with similar needs. For a very long time.
Cyclone Freddy is reckoned to be one of the strongest and longest tropical storms on record. People in Blantyre recount how the cyclone settled over the city, dumping torrential rain, non-stop for three days.
Seasonal rain, sometimes heavy, has continued on and off for the last week or more since the cyclone passed, complicating the relief and recovery effort. We have certainly had difficulty coming and going to the site at Saidi, and many people remain cut off from help for that reason.
Please pray that we will have no more rain and instead have a good period of sunshine to enable people to harvest what remains of their crops and for the long and difficult task of repairing the damage to begin.
