Balaka District Disaster Risk Management Officer, Blessings Kamtema, says 2,300 households have been affected by Tropical Cyclone Freddy in the district and the people are in need of relief items.
Kamtema made the remarks at Mmanga Primary School after humanitarian aid distribution exercise jointly conducted by Better Standard Living and the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA).
While commending various partners for the support, Kamtema stressed on the need for other partners to join the course.
”The situation has not normalised and currently we still have a lot of people that are in need of humanitarian support,” he said.
He further indicated that most survivors are in urgent need of food, clean water, health interventions as well as tents since some evacuation camps are in schools and churches.
During the exercise, 88 households received a 50-kilogram bag of maize from DoDMA, soap, soya meat and salt from Better Standard Living.
The organization’s Executive Director, MacFord Chinonga, said this is in complementing government’s effort in lessening the burden caused by the cyclone.
”We felt duty bound to help our friends reeling from the outcome of Storm Freddy as an organization advocating for a better living standard of people within our societies,” Chinonga said.
A beneficiary, Lia John, 30, a single mother of three from Sub-Traditional Authority Mpilisi, said life is unbearable as she lost everything including a house.
”We are now temporarily camping at a nearby school. However, we are not certain about the future,” a visibly dejected John said as she tried to wipe out tears flowing down her cheeks.
Better Standard Living made the exercise with support from their United States based partner, Hilary Moshman.
Follow us on Twitter:
