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Emergency Aid in Mozambique |
Mozambique is one of the five poorest countries in the world, and has an infant mortality rate only surpassed by Angola. It is an enormous country with a great agricultural potential. More than 80% of the inhabitants grow crops such as corn, cassava and rice with small yields - cashew nuts, cotton, sugarcane, tea and shrimp bring most of the export earnings to the country. Mozambique also has unutilized mineral resources and big stocks of coal, iron and natural gas. After more than 400 years of Portuguese colonial rule and an armed liberation war from 1964, Mozambique became independent in 1975, when Mozambique's Liberation Front, Frelimo, became the country's ruling party, and has been so ever since. When the Portuguese were driven out of the country it started moving forward because Frelimo understood the importance of involving the many people in the countryside and among the workers in the development process. President Samora Machel was a great leader, who in spite of the many tribes and languages managed to unite the country, for example by tirelessly traveling around in the country and speaking with people about the country's development. In 1980 he started a political campaign to stop corruption and bureaucracy, and an economic development plan was implemented. Samora Machel was killed during his endeavors, and in the middle of the country's progress, by an unexplained airplane crash in 1986, where also several other government leaders were killed. Joaquim Chissano became his successor. Simultaneously with this progress the country had since its independence been in a constant exhausting state of civil war between the Frelimo government and forces supported by the apartheid regime of South Africa, and earlier also by the Salazar dictatorship of Portugal. Following a peace agreement in 1992, Frelimo won the election in 1994 but the war had then cost one million people killed and driven five million people on the run. The agricultural production was in ruins and big areas were dotted with land mines. Frelimo and Chissano again won the election in 1999, and several donor countries agreed to postpone the repayments of foreign debts after catastrophes such as floods and cholera epidemics. In spite of its extreme poverty, Mozambique is today internationally regarded as a good example of a developing country in progress because of the country's and the population's big achievements in building up the country - in the fight against the all dominating AIDS catastrophe and the enormous natural disasters the population has been devastated by. Drought, floods, and cyclones have ravaged the country at regular intervals and in February 2000 Mozambique was hit by the worst floods ever in the central and southern provinces, further worsened by the cyclone Eline. In the course of a couple of days, 500 mm of rain fell in and around the capital Maputo, where the annual rainfall normally is 750-800 mm, so Maputo and many other places in the region were completely flooded. Several rivers flowing towards Mozambique further added to the catastrophe, because some of the nearby countries, also due to the floods, had to open the gates of their big dams. It is estimated that around 950,000 people, of these 190,000 children, were in need of humanitarian aid. 473,000 people needed food aid, and 250,000 people had to flee from the flooded areas, of these 46,000 children. Hundreds of thousands of people were thus affected, thousands of hectares of land and crops were destroyed, 30% of the cattle died, and hundreds of people drowned. The worst hit areas were the provinces of Gaza and Maputo. ADPP em Moçambique was started in 1982 and worked during the war together with the government and the population to improve the basic living conditions in different areas. The main focus was on economic and social activities, for example agricultural production, construction and education. After the peace agreement in 1992 ADPP continued its efforts in the development of rural areas, education of children and youth, fund raising and construction, education of rural primary school teachers, child aid and the combat of AIDS. In 1996 an agreement was made between the Mozambican government and ADPP about the establishment of 12 teacher training colleges - one in each province of Mozambique. Today there are six, and ADPP runs more than 35 projects all over the country. ADPP has thus throughout many difficult years been a faithful partner to the Mozambican government in its efforts to achieve good development for the country. ADPP had been involved in the emergency relief efforts from the beginning of this flooding disaster - teachers, students, Development Instructors and project leaders took part in the distribution of food and medicine, and 300 people, whose houses had been washed away, were given shelter for three weeks in the ADPP-center in Maputo. It is thus natural that ADPP in the beginning of March 2000 applies to the Foundation for a grant for emergency aid: 200,000 Dkr for packing and distributing 2,000 family packages with clothes for about 12,000 people. The amount was granted. ADPP in Mozambique receives many tons of clothes every year, collected in drop off boxes around Europe. The clothes are either sold in secondhand shops in Europe, where the surplus from the clothes sales go to projects in Africa, or are sent in pressed bales to Humana People to People's sorting centers in Africa. This recycling system has throughout the years greatly benefited the people in southern Africa, while around 10 million people in the rich part of the world have been pleased to give a contribution to poor people in other parts of the world. This recycling system made a very quick effort from ADPP's side possible. The production apparatus was there in the form of the clothes sorting center in the capital Maputo, and volunteer helpers from ADPP's educational centers were ready to help with packing and later distributing to the ones in need. Such a quick effort needs good organizing, and here ADPP could straight-away contribute with a good effort based on its long-lasting and daily work in the country. With the grant from the Foundation ADPP bought the 20 tons of clothes from the Clothes Sales Project in Maputo and could start the distribution. A big hall at the ADPP center was established for the packing of the 2,300 family packages. The Red Cross and other aid organizations also participated, and soaps and blankets from these were added to the packages. The twenty tons were packed in less than two weeks; each package cost 1,25 USD, all inclusive. Also here quick aid was double aid. The faster the emergency aid is organized and distributed to people in need, the greater a help it is - regarding the survival, as well as the moral support. The packages were distributed quickly to 2,300 families in the provinces of Gaza and Maputo during March and April. In the beginning this took place with helicopters because of the floods; later it was possible with trucks made available by the Red Cross. In several places it was not enough to distribute the clothes packages; help was also needed to organize the remaining emergency aid and the 400,000 homeless people. The ADPP teams worked day and night together with the local authorities and other organizations in loading, unloading and storing emergency goods and organizing the distributions. An account of two Development Instructors "The camp at Chiaquelane is the biggest of all the camps, and therefore needs enormous amounts of aid. The number of people living here have transformed Chiaquelane into the fifth biggest 'town' in Mozambique. When we walk through the camp, where people prepare food, sleep, talk, laugh, or just sit ,we can not help thinking of how much time will go, before their lives again will take on a more or less normal form. Most of these people have practically lost everything, and when it at some time will become safe for them to return to their 'home', they will have no home to go back to. Their houses which lay in the deltas of the flooded rivers, and which mostly were made of mud and reeds, were washed away by the water - their crops, which in most cases were the only income the families had, have gone with the waters. Their village, their school, and often their family and relatives are gone. In spite of these hopeless prospects they are still able to laugh and make jokes together with us. For us this kind of courage and endurance in facing life is a lesson learnt, which we hope we never will have use for ourselves. The effect of the emergency packages was especially good, because most of the other aid organizations mainly supplied tents, food and medicine; but the people had to flee so fast from the flood, that they could take nothing with them and there was a great need for clothes. At the same time this help made the people in need feel that they were not alone, that there were other people both in Mozambique and in other parts of the world ready to lend them a helping hand. Development Instructors from the Traveling Folk High Schools, project leaders, Mozambican workers and volunteers in big numbers participated in solidarity and thereby gave people courage and support to continue their lives after the disaster." In its report, ADPP directs a thanks to the Foundation on behalf of the people who benefited from the donation, and furthermore states that they after this project continued with the distribution of 300 tons of clothes, food and kitchen utensils to more than 50,000 people - in cooperation with different other organizations. Thus a group of Danes, who during eleven years have contributed a part of their private income to the Foundation, could be pleased that distressed people on another continent received a much needed helping hand in a disastrous situation - a help from people to people, with a hope that Mozambique quickly can get on its own two feet again and continue its positive development. |
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