Cyclone Freddy Malawi Relief

Student Cyclone Freddy Survivors

Upon recent meeting with the Dean of Students at College of Health Sciences in Lilongwe, we became aware of student cyclone Freddy survivors and their ongoing struggles to fund the costs of their training as health workers.  It's ironic that the health needs of the population increased during Cyclone Freddy, such was the aftermath of the destruction, yet more student health workers were being challenged due to financial poverty and are unable to afford their training due to the destruction.

We have since started scholarships supporting two students at the College of Health Sciences, Ishmael and Richard.  They are both first year students studying Pharmacy and Environmental Health respectively.  We are continually reminded about the environmental costs associated with climate change but here too is the human cost.  As families adapt to absorb the direct costs associated with climate change and developing resilience, the first thing that is cut back on is education.  We're pleased that we have some appeal money left over that can go towards supporting more students at risk of dropping out of their training.

Education packs distributed

We've now finished distributing the school packs to the children in Ndala village!  We are so grateful for your support.  185 children have been able to continue going to school with these packs.

Trip to Malunda

Last week we were able to visit a village further on from Ndala in Mulanje.  Malunda has 821 families in the village with half the village having homes washed away from Cyclone Freddy and 19 people died.  The loss of life was not as extreme as Ndala, but none the less needless.

We supplied 200 blankets and 200 mosquito nets, 6 baby boxes to newly delivered mothers and 10 elderly care packages...all thanks to the trusted motorbike drivers... it is 2 hours on a bike from the main road, this was exhausting to them - but they made it possible!  We couldn't have taken anything else with us, there were no motorbike drivers left in Muloza to transport us!

Thank you for your support.

Mat making at Ndala & youth group visit

This weekend we stayed in Ndala village to experience what the survivors of Cyclone Freddy are now facing.  It was an opportunity to take time and share experiences together and reflect on the events from March.  Healing will take a long time, but the process has started.  Each time we go back to Ndala village we are welcomed and many of the community come to greet us when we arrive.  

We heard one woman's story, she is in her 40's, she had been alerted by a "strange noise" at around 8pm in mid March. She was at home with the rest of her family, taking shelter.  The noise scared her and she woke her children, telling them to run to higher ground, don't stop to take anything, just run.  It's hard to imagine the fear they must have experienced, children running for their lives in a mid sleep state in the dark with no 999 to call, not knowing what was going on.  She knocked on doors, screaming, alerting her neighbours of imminent danger. Those that left their houses when she knocked survived.   Those that said they'd be ok got swept away, some have not been seen again.  She saved many lives that day.  

The noise is a common thing that we hear about from survivors.  It all started with the noise.  The noise of water tearing through mountains causing a wall of mud to destroy everything in its path.

Before Bertha passed away during Cyclone Freddy, she had taught Pauline, one of the Medic to Medic students staying at the Medic to Medic house in Blantyre how to make doormats out of scrap materials.  The mats are easy to make from waste materials and sold at the market price of 4,000 MK (about £2.80).  

Since Cyclone Freddy, Pauline has taught 7 women in Blantyre and around 50 women at Ndala how to make mats as a way to earn income and help them with their recovery.  Some of the women don't want to sell them, but want to use these skills to make mats for their families so they have something more comfortable to sleep on in their temporary shelters.

Pauline was very busy teaching this weekend.  Women, youth, children all joined in, and the men came out to observe too - it felt like a real community event...meanwhile I watched and baby sat!  Pauline and Innocent (another Medic to Medic student) also visited Ndala youth group and gave a talk to encourage the youth to continue with school.  They had a good discussion about how they will continue to encounter challenges with education and they talked about how to manage these challenges.  It was a fruitful experience all round.

Cyclone Freddy update on projects initiated so far

Dear Supporters,

Introduction 

I firstly must apologise for our delay in sending you more substantial updates since your donations some weeks and months ago.   There is much to update you on and I fear updates may be too long to sustain your interest.  I hope the subheadings will be able to help you skim through to areas of interest to give an overview of how we have so far used your generous donations.  

I will try to be more proactive now at releasing updates now the initial needs assessment has been done and you can browse or delete according to your interest!  It’s always cathartic to write one’s experiences, so for those that may enjoy the longer read I hope this will be of interest to you too.  We will release a full report of Cyclone Freddy once all funds have been fully spent and will share appropriate links with you when the time comes.

Thank you

We were overwhelmed by your generosity during this time of natural disaster within Malawi.  Many of you may know Medic to Medic and know our team well, for others of you, this may be the first time that you have encountered us and I hope that it may be the start of a longer term relationship with our organization.

Medic to Medic

Medic to Medic is a small international development charity providing scholarship support to student health workers who are at risk of dropping out of their courses due to poverty.  Our main projects are in Malawi where at any one time we support between 80-100 students with tuition fees, a once a semester allowance, medical equipment pack, textbooks and if funds allow, a laptop.   The need in Malawi is vast and tuition fees remain the single barrier to continuing with education.  I am deeply intrenched in this community, accessible to all students and faculties with my WhatsApp number being easily shared.  It is through this exposure and communication, though unsustainable at times, I have become increasingly aware of issues and problems affecting our students and it enables us to be responsive and plan appropriately for the future.

Bertha’s Story

I arrived in Malawi at the end of March.  Loosing our dear Bertha during cyclone Freddy was not an easy message to respond to from so far away.  Predictably, the tragedy becomes more personal when it affects people you know. The injustice for her family and for her, all the while knowing that her death was one of many, with no outcry from international media intensifies the injustice all the more.  Bertha was our maid at the Medic to Medic house in Blantyre. Over 1500 people died in Malawi due to Cyclone Freddy, with many still unaccounted for.

Malawi was still experiencing the rainy season when I arrived.  The hills around the southern region throughout the country are scarred with landslips, which have become all the more prominent as time has progressed and the dry season and dust has exposed their course.  Some may become disguised and heal quickly, others will haunt those around them for generations to come, having encased loved ones that they can no longer reach. 

I was dropped off at the Medic to Medic house in Blantyre to find a rather traumatized team.  I burst into tears when I saw Helen our administrator and we hugged for a long time.  Across cultures, generations, roles we are united in grief in losing a friend, coworker and colleague.  As the manager of the Medic to Medic house Helen carried a large weight and led the office through a traumatic time.  I will never be able to convey the depths of my gratitude for what she did for us.  I manage to recover myself, just slightly, walk into the kitchen and start to make tea, I turn around and see Helen walking towards me with our wicker tray and teapot set, and Bertha’s face flashes through my mind.  I am in tears again.  The last time I saw someone with that tray walking towards me was Bertha.  The enormity and loss greet me again as it will do, for several weeks to come.

Helen recounts the circumstances of the last few weeks.  She tells me not to cry that we are together now.  Only we aren’t, because there is an important person missing, Bertha.  Bertha and I didn’t always communicate easily…my Chichewa is rudimentary at best, a source of disappointment as I always wish to have more time to devote to learning.  Bertha’s English not always fluent.  But we had an understanding and I knew I could trust her.  

Helen tells me that Bertha’s sister had called Pauline, one of our students, in the middle of the night, Pauline had called Helen.   Helen had got up from her home, gone to the house to collect Pauline and travelled to Chilobwe with Richard and Leonard (the other Medic to Medic domestic workers) to Bertha’s house.  There they stood with her parents and family.  It was 3am and her parents who lived in the house just next door recalled the noise of the roof collapsing.  They rushed outside in the rain, desperate to reach Bertha and Bridget, and the normal stream running next to Bertha’s house had turned into a gushing river with water completely engulfing her house.  It came with such force that they couldn’t go to reach Bertha or Bridget (Bertha’s oldest daughter), they just had to wait, and watch helpless until the waters subsided and they could search the ruins.  

I’ve seen the picture of the house and there is no evidence that there was even a house there in the first place, such was the force in which it swept.  They found the bodies of Bertha and Bridget and placed them into an ambulance and took them to the mortuary at Queen Elizabeth central hospital.  Maybe it is a blessing they could recover their bodies, when many other families haven’t been able to.  

One of the graduates who was working in the surgical department at Queens recounted that night, “ambulances came every 5 minutes with 10-20 patients all inside, all dead on arrival.” The ones that did survive, many the only survivor of their family, now coping with wounds prone to sepsis, and physical trauma (let alone the mental trauma) taking it’s toll.   It’s hard to imagine the reality of being the sole survivor in your family and having to look through mounds of bodies to identify your loved ones, such is the process during a disaster such as this.

Chilobwe (where Bertha lived) happened in the middle of the night.  Bertha and Bridget really didn’t stand a chance.  The other side of Mount Soche happened 12 hours later in the middle of the day.  Huge mud slides moving boulders 4-5 times the size of modern houses from the top of the mount.  People didn’t go to work that day, the rains were too much.  Most were taking shelter in their homes, caught unawares by the sudden mud slide.  They were still finding bodies (or parts of bodies) within the mud 2 weeks later.   Thereafter the government told them not to continue retrieving bodies, all were dead now anyway and so what was the point?  

I was taken by one of the camp leaders up Mount Soche during my second week in Malawi.  The stench was overwhelming.  It was that that alerted me to the reality, there are probably bodies beneath my feet, together with chickens, dogs, goats, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters.   Yet life was moving on all around this.   Children’s voices filled the air, women washing clothes in the river, people visiting the massive rock like a tourist attraction. 

During my first week, we arranged to meet Bertha’s family.  Different culture, different language, different age, different background, united in a deep sense of loss and tragedy.  I had written a letter in English to Bertha’s family and asked Helen to translate it to Chichewa.  She read it out to Bertha’s family during our meeting and then flung her arms around me in tears at the end.  When there is nothing left to say, we all sat in silence with tears streaming down our faces like the mud slides on Mount Soche.  

Seeing Bertha’s parents pain almost broke me and will always remain one of the most difficult things I will have ever had to do.   Meeting Rhoda, Bertha’s surviving daughter knocked me again.  The only reason she survived was because she had said she was scared, she was going to stay at Gran’s house that night.  Bridget didn’t want to – she had exams in the morning and wanted to stay with mum.   Bertha said that she would be fine.   How did Rhoda know?  But I’m so pleased that she did.  I made some promises that day.  That we would support Rhoda through secondary school.  Is it enough?  What can ever be enough, after you’ve lost your mum and your sister and your entire world has changed in an instant?  

I then gave Helen the week off on annual leave.   Sorted out the office and rearranged shipments, medical books, baby blankets, clothes, primary school books and everything in between.  I had company.  Pauline, one of the Medic to Medic students, has been staying at the house.  I am truly grateful to her for everything she has done, her friendship and support of Helen and the office has been very grounding.  She had also become very good friends with Bertha and has been grieving her loss.  

During this week we sent out the survey of our student community – who has been affected by Cyclone Freddy?  In one way or another, most people have, but some more than others.   Deaths, loss of livelihood, home… we’ve arranged individual counselling sessions for Helen, Bertha’s family and 6 members of our student community who had been affected and wanted to receive support.  We’ve also given additional allowances to students who have been impacted.  Psychological first aid is a buzz word I’ve started to hear more of and is so important during these times of tragedy, loss and uncertainty.   Life was already hard here, made all the worse by the unexpected.

New Covenant IDP Camp Blantyre

We went to one IDP camp in Blantyre at New Covenant church.  This church is not too far from our office.  We bought 50kg of maize flour, a sack of soya pieces, 5L of cooking oil, biscuits for our initial meeting.  We met the camp leader Sean.  He told us that there were in the region of 120 people at this camp.  They were not getting outside support, and indeed there was no evidence of any presence of the big international NGO’s (Red Cross, UNHCR, Save the Children etc).   Most had lost their homes, or their homes were no longer inhabitable.  Not all had jobs, but those that did have jobs were continuing to go to work as best they could.  

Sean said that the government wanted to move another 1000 people here as they had the space.  But, there were huge concerns because they weren’t receiving any government support.   It’s really important in Malawi to try and never make promises that can’t be kept.   Hope can easily be interpreted as a promise and can equally lead to disappointment when expectations are not met.  

We met with those at the camp, offered them opportunities to share their stories.  It was a small camp, with a reasonable number of people that our appeal money may be able to support.  However, within the week the camp had been disbanded.  The rains had subsided and people from the church were asked to leave.   The church wanted their hall back.   Events were taking place and this is the only way that it can earn a modest income.  So some went to relatives, others went back to the village outside of Blantyre, others went to stay in their delabidated houses. The rumours of the camp expanding didn't come to fruition.    2 women remained. 

These were Mercy and Emma.  Mercy is 6 months pregnant and her husband was arrested (I’m not sure what for) and is in custody.  Her 2 children are at secondary school and require school fees.  She can’t go back to the village as she needs to provide food for her husband in custody (I’m not sure of the prison service in Malawi, but Emma told us that you get guaranteed one meal a day, if you want more your family have to bring it for you and if you want a bed, you have to pay for it, otherwise you sleep on the floor).  We asked her what her plans were.  She said she had found a house in another area of Mount Soche for 15,000 MK per month and she wanted to start up her business selling fried cassava and washing powder.  I default to Helen on many of these plans.  She had done this business before and it had worked well.  So we gave her a start up grant of 70,000 MK so she could buy the initial items, pay for 3 months rent in advance and then continue with her business.  We have her number and we’re following her up.  

Mercy has a 4 year old boy with cerebral palsy.   She’s from Thyolo but lives in Blantyre because the child has physiotherapy sessions every month and she doesn’t want to leave, there’s no physiotherapy opportunities she said in Thyolo.   She wanted to start a tomato business and so we also gave her 70,000 as a start up grant.

Ndala – Mulanje 

At the end of the second week in Malawi, I visited my friend Emmanuel in Mulanje.  As a side project through school contacts I have been facilitating a donation of textbooks to a primary school in Mulanje.  The school doesn’t have a library and so, I was delivering 6 boxes of books to help make space in the Medic to Medic house that had been stored there for the last 5 weeks.  Emmanuel wanted to take me to a few camps that side.  We didn’t stop, because we didn’t have anything to bring with us.  

The camps at the road had UNHCR tents and on the surface looked well supported, with people in branded t-shirts and clip boards in charge.  Then he took me to Ndala.  This is a village on the Malawi Mozambique border.  Roads are entirely washed away.  The area is 1 hour away from the main road by motorbike.  The devastation here is indescribable.  Sitting on the back of a bike looking at the destroyed crops, broken buildings, many with mud now half way up their walls was very confronting.   I had to get off the bike a few times.   Make shift bridges of wood and slates with steep mud slopes on either side.  Emmanuel had borrowed his friends motor bike but was not shy in telling me he is “no expert” when it comes to riding.  I discovered that these makeshift bridges are now policed by young boys who demand a toll.  I left all the negotiating to Emmanuel…he said “on the way back” and then proceeded to complain to me how young boys cannot police government roads and cannot be earning money off them.  Doesn’t this show their desperation, I replied, if they have nothing, at least they are trying in some way or another however wrongly to try and get an income in some way. Maybe he said.  

We finally reached Ndala.  We didn’t stop long, though it is a village we have visited many times since.  Spirits cling to the air here.  There is now an empty river bed where the river once flowed.  The river has been redirected.  Cyclone Freddy shifted boulders, stones and tree trunks down from Mulanje to the village.  The rocks flattened everything in their path and meant that water couldn’t go over the top of them, now creating an entirely new river path which has destroyed crops and is now encroaching on a whole new set of homes.  There is nothing left of houses in Ndala.  The only place that survived was the school on the slope.   Large tree stumps and logs from the mountain that are impossible to lift now litter the area.  There is nothing left.  There is no help here.  

Medic to Medic does not do humanitarian relief.   We do not have access to landrovers or 4x4s.  Yet I went there.  We do not promote ourselves as going where others don’t.  So where are MSF, the UNHCR, WFP, Save the Children, the government?  In this village I have seen no evidence of them.

 1 in 4 people in Ndala village died.  60 are still missing.  Those that died were cremated in a mass burial.  There were not enough people to dig graves and not enough food for grave diggers to have energy to dig.  There was also not enough land to bury the dead.  Trauma on an unprecedented scale is present here.  There is no electricity or running water.  This was the village that we have been concentrating the majority of our efforts.  So what have we done so far?

Ndala Projects 

Counselling

Provided 4 days of counselling for the village.  3 mental health workers (including one Medic to Medic alumnus) gave group counselling to men, women, elders, pregnant women and the youth.  This was followed up by individual counselling sessions for those that requested them (over 50 individual counselling sessions were provided over 4 days).

 3 Medic to Medic counsellors - Helix, Given and Eluby

 The women in the village attending group counselling

The chief summoning the next group for counselling.

Elderly care packages

Distributed 27 elderly care packages.  These packs were given to the elderly in the community as directed by the Chief – these included blanket, mosquito net, 2kg maize flour, 3 soya pieces sets, 1 bottle cooking oil, soap, tooth paste, tooth brush, plastic plate, plastic cutlery, thermos flask, warm hat, flip flops, face mask, torch, washing powder, chitenje wrap.

Chief’s packs

Distributed 5 chiefs packs.  These packs included mosquito net, 2kg maize flour, 3 soya pieces sets, 1 bottle cooking coil, soap, tooth brush, tooth paste, plastic plate, thermos flask, cup, face mask, torch, washing powder.

Farming cooperatives 

Supported two farming operatives and given maize seeds, tomato seeds, onion seed, Chinese cabbage seeds, carrots seeds, fertilizer, garden hoes, pesticide to two men’s groups so the community can start being self sustainable again.

Mother and baby boxes

Provided 52 mother and baby boxes to pregnant women.   These packs include baby crib, baby mattress, mosquito net, baby clothes, baby blanket, women’s top, women’s bra, maternity wear, toiletry kits, condoms.

Mosquito nets

250 mosquito nets have been provided

School fee balances

Family incomes are now significantly stretched trying to rebuild their homes and livelihoods, therefore we’ve tried to ensure that normal life continues as best as possible by paying for the school fee balances for 25 secondary school children in the village.  

Reproductive health packages

We’ve supplied over 2000 condoms to the village (they were very excited by these…they didn’t even say goodbye to me that day).  Knowing that at times of natural disaster family planning is going to be the last thing on people’s minds exposing individuals to increased risk of pregnancy and STI an added challenge that they don't need to content with.

Youth club equipment

We’ve supplied some sports equipment to the Ndala Medic to Medic youth group.  This was formed during the counselling sessions.  The counsellors said that they started coming up to solutions to their own problems.  They didn’t want to sit idol and focus on the trauma but they wanted a youth group to do sports and activities to focus on life and the positives.

 Blessings from the youth club receiving farming seeds and sports equipment

Sanitary packages

20 teenage girls received sanitary packages of 5 reuseable pads, laundry soap, 1 bar of soap, 2 underwear and a torch so they can continue to go to school after their possessions were washed away. 

Sanitation

Money for purchasing of bricks so the village can rebuild their toilet blocks.

Education packs

Education packs – 13 students have received packs of backpack, 2 notebooks, 30cm ruler, pencil case with 2x pencils, 2 pens, rubber, sharpener, colour pencils, 15cm ruler, plastic plate and cup, underwear.

The school has received 3 clocks (so that exam period can continue undisrupted), 10 buckets with taps, soap, sanitizer to reduce the risk of cholera within their school community during the epidemic.

All material to the village have been transported on motorbikes giving the motorbike riders consistent income over this period.  All items have been purchased within Malawi, thereby supporting the economy.

What we've got left to do:

1) Provide 170 remaining educational packs to Ndala

2) Provide materials to the early childhood group where 54 pre school children attend at Ndala

In recent weeks we have also been made aware of a village further from Ndala continuing on the muddy rocky road for another 1 hour.  They are also in desperate need having had no international NGO support since the disaster and no government input.  It is only accessible by motorbike for 2 hours from the main road or by helicopter.  With our remaining funds we hope to replicate some of the projects that we have supported at Ndala which include the following:

1) 200 blankets

2) 200 mosquito nets

3) 10 elderly care packages

4) 6 pregnant women / postnatal boxes

5) Counselling sessions

6) Gardening equipment and seeds

There remain huge need in the region and there will continue to be need for many weeks and months ahead.  I hope beyond measure that the government are able to supply the survivors with tents and resources to rebuild their homes before the next rainy reason starts in November.    We are so grateful for your support.  Medic to Medic work continues and we are still working towards our mentorship programme, helpline initiative as well as the usual activities to maintain 100 students with fees, allowances, books and equipment.   

Your donations will continue to be used where they are needed most.

Thank you for reading. 

Voices from Freddy

V O I C E S F R O M F R E D D Y

Our community have been sharing their stories and experiences from #CycloneFreddy.  The scale of devastation has largely been ignored by the international media.  This is wrong.  We hope advocacy of these stories and sharing of challenges will change this.  Listen to Edwards' story via Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2nYMRe3hKZOkCKpNNdNGiF

A big Zikomo to Edward for sharing his challenges.

Get more detailed updates via the Medic to Medic blog:

https://healthprofessionalmalawi.wordpress.com/

Meeting with Blantyre District Health Office

Today the team had a meeting with Ellida, safe motherhood coordinator at Blantyre District Health Office.  We discussed the need for baby boxes and how these can be distributed to those most in need.  She reported that some areas haven't yet received support from well wishers and therefore these boxes would be most useful in these hard to reach camps where they are in desperate need of supplies.   We were also invited to the Blantyre District Health Office Taskforce meeting, which will take place on Friday.  This meeting organises stakeholders, wellwishers and local partners to help coordinate healthcare needs in the internally displaced person camps.  If there is a need, we hope to be able to provide some medical support at one of the IDP camps by providing outpatient care and antenatal care in collaboration with Blantyre DHO.

Tomorrow we have a meeting with the Medic to Medic taskforce to discuss how funds will continue to be spent and used to have maximal and meaningful impact.  We look forward to sharing with you these discussions and how we are going to continue to support our community on the ground in Blantyre.

For the remainder of the day we are scouting out quotes for basic supplies including cooking pots, utensils, blankets and  mosquito nets.  This will help us support the local economy by purchasing supplies in country, whilst we await the shipment of donations from Amersham to arrive next week.

Thank you for your continued support!  It really does mean so much.

Food supplied to Pregnant Women

The team in #Blantyre have been distributing food to pregnant women at one of the camps.  All your funds will be spent on the needs of displaced friends and neighbours in and around Blantyre.

We are combining plans with Tamsin's Baby Box project: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mother-baby-boxes-for-blantyre-malawi to support pregnant women in the displaced camps.  Funding has already been distributed to the tailor and carpenter to begin production for 50 boxes.

Our NZ team are liaising with Medical Aid Abroad in Auckland to package a suitcase of dressings and antibiotics which will go with Tamsin when she leaves over the weekend.

Our team in Amersham is collecting resources for a shipment to Malawi with Tudor Freight and the Salisbury team is investigating chlorine tablets and mosquito nets.  

The rains have currently stopped in Malawi and the scale is devastation is still being assessed.  

Thank you for your ongoing support.

Blantyre - we've started

Today, our team on the ground in Blantyre, have already started buying food for distribution to one of the displacement camps.

Our administrator Helen says:

"For a start we have bought beef, cooking oil, lunch boxes, cabbage and carrots.  We will start distributing the cooked food tomorrow. I went to one camp where I found 28 pregnant mothers."

Thank you for all your generosity. We look forward to getting stuck in on the ground and helping those that have been devastated.

We are beyond proud of Helen.  She has been our representative at Bertha and Bridget's funeral during one of Malawi's mass burials last week, supported the rest of team and now is starting to provide the basic needs of others.  Tamsin will travel to Malawi on the weekend and arrive on Monday to help our small team.

For those in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, if you may have any items listed here, that you know longer need, please drop off to Newlyn Corner HP6 6BW in the wheelie bins:  Tooth brushes, toothpaste, toiletries, soap, vaseline, first aid supplies, flip flops, stationery, hard plastic cutlery plates and bowls.

This is why Malawi needs us:

https://youtu.be/CKzgwQy_SHE

Thank you for your support.