Flood victims surviving on pumpkins

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Flood victims have appealed for more support saying they are surviving on pumpkins in their camps in Phalombe district.

The victims made Malawi24 after Malawi Environmental Health Association (MEHA) donated some Water and sanitation hygiene (WASH) related items to victims staying at Ming’ambo Primary School.

Chunda making a symbolic presentation

Lidia Fadweck who is one of the victims whose house was destroyed by the heavy rains said they are facing a lot of challenges at their camp such as bed bugs and lack of the food as they are depending on pumpkins every day.

“We are eating pumpkins daily which we get after doing some piece works in other peoples’ gardens around here. We are in need of food and other kitchen utensils.

“We are thanking MEHA for this support and we are also asking for help from other well-wishers to help us with pesticides to kill bed bugs which are here,” she said.

The Head Teacher of the school, Mavuto Mumderanji, said there are over 400 people living at the camp where issues to do with hygiene and their health seem to be a big challenge.

“There are problems here to do with hygiene, you can see that we don’t have enough toilets. Learners and the victims are sharing the same toilets. “However with these items we know that some of these problems will be reduced,” he said.

Mumderanji added that the victims are being accommodated in five blocks but they are forced to move out in the morning up to afternoon and seek shelter under trees during the school days to let the learners use them for their lessons.

Vice President for MEHA, Penjani Chunda, told this publication that they thought that they should not be only be teaching people about hygiene but also help these people with WASH related items which include soap, water guard and buckets.

“As an association we were moved after hearing what happened to people here therefore we thought that apart from civic education which we provide about environmental health also we should help our friends with WASH related items, so we asked our members to do something, we collected money which we used to buy these things.

“This is just a beginning and we hope that we will do more in order to assist our friends who are struggling due to the heavy rains which this country experienced,” he said.

MEHA is a body which is made up of environmental health officers serving both in government and private sector.

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