Save the Children launches appeal for Mozambique floods

UK-based aid agency, Save the Children is today (15 January) launching a £1 million appeal to raise money to help thousands of children who have been forced to leave their homes to avoid devastating floods in Mozambique.

Tuesday 15 January 2008

Around 65,000 people, more than half of them children, have already been made homeless by the rising floodwaters and are living in emergency resettlement camps. It is likely that these will be the biggest floods to hit Mozambique in recent years and Save the Children fears that the number of people affected could rise much higher. Further heavy rains have been predicted and prolonged flooding could last for more than ten weeks.

Save the Children's country director in Mozambique, Chris McIvor, said: "We are already on the ground responding to this emergency but there is no sign of these floods letting up. In fact there is every indication that they will get worse and more children will be forced to flee their homes and seek refuge in the emergency camps, where they are living in cramped and unsafe conditions and at high risk of disease.

"We urgently need your help now to reach these children whose lives have been turned upside down by the flooding - please give generously to Save the Children's appeal for Mozambique so we can reach more children faster."

Save the Children UK is working hard to help children affected by the flooding. Stocks had been pre-positioned before the floods and staff have now begun distributing emergency kits to evacuated families containing blankets, eating utensils, soap, water purifiers, rope and plastic sheeting to help build shelters. Save the Children is also working with local authorities to ensure that children displaced by the floods are kept safe, and is providing school tents where possible, in time for the start of the school term in two weeks.

Save the Children has been present in Mozambique since 1984 and has years of experience of working with families living in the flood-prone regions of the country.

How you can help

  • Call our Save the Children Emergency Appeal Line and Donate: 0800 8148 148 
  • Visit our website and donate: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/
  • Donate items for sale in your local Save the Children Shop: these items can raise much needed funds for the appeal
  • Donate your time: as people begin to donate more items to our shops extra volunteers will be needed within the stores, whether it's just two hours or a whole day every minute of your time will help. Please drop into our local shops and offer your time. 

What your money will Buy

  • £10 can buy school supplies to allow help six displaced children get back to school
  • £15 can buy 5 blankets to provide warmth and comfort for a flood-affected family  living in an emergency camp
  • £25 can buy a household kit containing plastic sheeting to provide children with shelter, water purifiers and containers, so they have drinkable water and kitchen equipment and eating utensils so families can cook for themselves
  • £125 can buy enough equipment to kit out a tented school set up in one of the emergency camps to ensure displaced children don’t miss out on their education

-ENDS-
For more information, spokespeople or eye-witness interviews please call Ben Dempsey in Mozambique on 07899 902886 or contact the Save the Children Media Unit on 020 7012 6841 or out of hours on 07831 650 409.