News

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:

Immediate Needs

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.

Medium-Term Needs

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.

Long-Term Needs

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.

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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.

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We have reluctantly decided to cancel the Bible Teaching conference planned for May. The relief effort following Cyclone Freddy is going to demand so much of our time and resources that it will be impractical to proceed. Besides, many of those we were expecting to attend have been affected by Freddy too, and simply won’t have the means to travel.

As we have already bought air tickets for the speakers (David Williamson, Jim McMaster and me), we have decided that we will instead use the time for relief and Gospel work among the cyclone victims we have begun to help. Please pray that this will prove to be a good decision.

We are disappointed that we’ve had to make this decision. This is the 5th consecutive year our annual teaching program has been interrupted – twice due to a Presidential election, twice due to Covid, and now this dreadful disaster.

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Please pray for SALT’s small team of workers in Malawi. In addition to the regular pressure of working in a highly impoverished, dysfunctional society, each has experienced some personal loss or trauma in recent months. On top of this has come the additional pressure of the ongoing cyclone relief effort.

Please pray that each will be kept in good physical health, and that they and their families will be conscious of the Lord’s presence with them, and the prayerful support of the many around the globe who take an interest in the work.

The temporary camp at Lisao is home to 433 displaced survivors of the devastating mudslides and floods that swept so many to their death.

The partially decomposed body of one sister in the Lord was buried where she was found, some 15 Km from her home.

The camp has been mostly cut off and has received only one supply of food in the past 10 days – enough to last a 2 or 3 days at most.

Harold made a difficult, exploratory journey on motorcycle today to assess the needs there. The people are
hungry and afraid of a possibility of an outbreak of malaria, living as they are in open school classrooms with no mosquito nets. 

We have an early meeting tomorrow with the local village chiefs in our area to discuss how we can help there, and then Harold and I are going to try to get through with supplies in the afternoon if the road is passable. Please pray that it will stay dry overnight and that my ageing Land Cruiser (which has given so much trouble of late) will rise to the challenge.

Above all, pray that the Lord will overrule in these dreadful circumstances to bring glory to his Name, and blessing to the lost. 

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Harold writes concerning our network of literature distributors: “Most of them I can’t reach. Power problem but Mulanje ones are all alive but lost houses and crops.”

We give thanks that the Lord has preserved the lives of many of his people, but there are many reports of believers losing their homes and livelihoods.

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Please pray for Brother Stephen who has changed other travel plans to return to Malawi on Monday to help with SALT’s response to the Cyclone.

Pray for journeying mercies, and that he will be able to use his experience to make a meaningful contribution to the effort, and be able to encourage the team on the ground. They have come through a very difficult week, on the back of several difficult months.

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Please pray for the ongoing rescue and recovery mission following the cyclone last weekend.

Malawi’s emergency services have very limited capacity, but several international teams are converging on Blantyre to assist with the search.

Malawi was already suffering from its worst ever cholera outbreak prior to the cyclone, and the flooding will make this problem much worse.

Brother Harold reports that they are still experiencing periods of heavy rain – pray that the country would have respite from these extreme weather conditions.

Anna says, Give thanks for some positive news: We started Bibletime with the little kids today.

Note: After so much negative news in the past week, it’s wonderful to see the spiritual work resuming at Saidi.

ENLIGHTEN | ENCOURAGE | EMPOWER