In March in the districts on either side of the Save River's mouth in Mozambique, it hadn't rained in a year and a half. Hundreds of families had lost all their crops for the years 2002 and 2003. Because of drought they are starving. The Christian Council of Mozambique, one of our Christmas Bowl partners, was distributing emergency food - corn, beans, oil.

Then in March, a monstrous cyclone named Japhet hit the coast, with winds and horrendous rains, drowning the parched ground in floods. Japhet was one of Noah's sons on the ark, who survived that 40-day deluge. But for people who survived this flood with Japhet's name, their life which was wretched is now even worse. Cyclonic rains came much too late and heavy to do good. This year's corn died long ago. Instead, eroding torrents stripped soil from fields and left salt water. They gouged out roads and left hundreds of families stranded for weeks.

For the past year these people had been eating wild roots, wild fruits, leaves scrounged in the bush - but Japhet covered these under tons of water, and when earth dried many of the wild plants that the people had depended on were spoiled - inedible or dead. For many days food aid did not come. Then for a time it had to come by boat across the flood-land.

Japhet's winds tore away thatch roofs and knocked down walls of stick houses. A quarter of a million people were affected. Most now no longer have houses. At least drought doesn't take your home away. Japhet's floods have receded. The ground is green now - with tree leaves, savannah grass - but not with anything that humans can eat.

Japhet wrecked more than 3,000 houses, 9 water wells and 32 fishing nets. Hundreds of goats, a thousand chickens and ducks, eight cows perished - families' entire capital. 297 families fled their homes, and set up stick-and-plastic shelters under trees on higher ground. With no houses nor dry firewood, they couldn't even prepare the corn and beans supplied to feed them. They cooked communally, sharing fires and huge kettles.
Families who were being fed since the drought made their way through the soaking land to a central distribution point to collect beans and corn and oil - mostly women with children, and some older, older, frailer adults - as always, the most vulnerable in Mozambican society.

Elias Samissone is one of the old ones. He doesn't know how old he is. He worked in South African gold-mines but retired back to Govuro, though now he has no family here. Govuro's climate lately, he said, is the worst he has known. 'Because of the drought we had to go into the bush to look for food we don't normally eat. After that was the cyclone, my house was broken in pieces, now I'm living in a shelter next to where my house was.'
Almost everyone here depends largely on farming to survive. With global climate change, disasters like drought, flood, and cyclones look more and more a part of their future. They need different, more drought-resistant crops - cassava, pineapple, sweet potato. The Christian Council of Mozambique will help with this. But it's hard when you've grown a few staple crops for generations, crops that you know and are used to.
Geraldo Chale from CCM says: "Life in this region can be tough, and every day is more unpredictable. But people here are strong and determined, and we are doing what we can. We want to help and show God's love, and with his grace we can still make a difference."

Further information and photograph:

Colleen Hodge, Christian World Service, Telephones 02 9299 2215/0419 6852 48
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