A Difficult decision during Cyclone IDAI in Mozambique
A single mother of 7 children tells her story on how she managed to survive the cyclone.
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Gondola, MANICA - It’s Tuesday 19th of March and in the accommodation center of Cafumpe in the district of Gondola at least 150 families are sheltered after the cyclone IDAIpassed through this district last Friday. These 150 families came from at least11 different neighborhoods of the Gondola district.
A mobile health team has started to provide primary health care to the population affected, especially women and children. So far at least two (2) cases of Malaria have been confirmed through rapid testing on 2 children, and diarrhea and respiratory infections are common.
First it was the wind blowing hard and then came the heavy rain. I was inside the house with my children, all the sudden, the roof went down over our heads. I’ve lost everything.
One of the mothers approached the health team to tell them her story. Her name is Angelina Paulo and she is 35 years old. She is a single mother of seven (7) children. She told the team how she managed to survive the cyclone
“First it was the wind blowing hard and making noises and then came the heavy rain. I was inside the house with four of my youngest children, I have sent the other three to live with my relatives. All the sudden, the roof went down over our heads. We managed to get out alive and we ran to one of our neighbor’s house where we stayed until the storm passed. Then we moved to find shelter in the nearby school and then we re-allocated into this warehouse. I’ve lost everything, my house, and my crops. I just came from my “machamba” to try to get something, but everything is destroyed,” said Angelina.
Angelina’s 3-year-old son António has a fever. A later examination revealed that little António has Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) with bilateral edema and malaria. She will remain in the temporary shelter and trust that the treatment provided by the health team for Malaria and SAM with Ready to Use Therapeutic Food(RUTF) will alleviate the severity of the situation of António until he can go to the health centre.
UNICEF is on the ground working in close coordination with the government and humanitarian partners to scale up our response to cyclone IDAI and respond to the immediate needs of affected children and their families in central Mozambique.
