In March and April 2019, two consecutive tropical cyclones struck Mozambique. Their winds, rains, and storm surges left a trail of death, injuries, damage, and destruction in their wake. Cyclone Idai, which first struck the city of Beira on March 14, was one of the worst tropical storms on record to affect Africa, and caused catastrophic damage to schools, homes, businesses, and crops. While the storms are long gone, their impact is still palpable: with so many crops ruined, food is scarce, and any expected farming income is gone.
Emergency response
Humanity & Inclusion’s team organized a humanitarian response in the first 24 hours of the emergency. With an office and team in the country since 1986, we mobilized to meet the needs on the ground, with support from local partners.
Once the extent of the destruction was clear to our team, we deployed a logistics expert to strengthen the team already in Beira. Our goal was to understand the immediate needs of the population affected by the storm, with a particular focus on people with disabilities—individuals who are often left on the sidelines during an emergency response.
Six months later
Residents of Beira and the surrounding regions are still recovering from the effects of the Cyclone. Thanks to their resilience, and to Humanity & Inclusion donors for fueling our actions in the collective humanitarian effort, life is slowly returning to normal. But our work won't end until the community is fully back on its feet again.
Over the long term, the goal of the HI Mozambique team is to provide a sustained humanitarian response to people affected by Cyclone Idai. We will continue to work with those identified as highly vulnerable in order to improve their resilience and mitigate the short and long term impacts of future disasters like this.
Humanity & Inclusion in Mozambique
Humanity & Inclusion has worked in Mozambique since 1986, and is best known there for its work helping victims of landmines and other explosive ordnance left from the country’s civil war. We ran a large demining operation that wrapped up when the country declared itself mine free in 2015. Most recently, staff worked to promote the rights and social participation of people with disabilities, to support civil society to improve the social inclusion of people with disabilities, and in particular to see more children with disabilities enjoy learning in inclusive classrooms!