Christian Aid has sent �30,000 to its local partner the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) to help families who have fled flooding in the Zambezi river valley.
The money is being used to help 1,200 families who have lost their harvest to replant new crops, and to fish for food in the meantime.
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The funds are supporting families who have fled their homes for resettlement camps in Morrumbala district, Zambezia province � an area where no other major aid agencies are active.
Christian Aid launched an emergency appeal for flooding in southern Africa in January 2008, when four major rivers in Mozambique first burst their banks.
Baptista's story
Baptista Francisco and his family are among more than 100,000 people who have evacuated their homes. They are currently sheltering in Chipanga camp in Morrumbala district.
Baptista and his wife care for their own four children, as well as four orphaned nieces and nephews.
They�ve lost their chickens, goats and crops to the floodwaters, and Baptista is now struggling to feed his family.
�The camp is very close to the river,� he explains, �I charge people to cross the river in my canoe and I make some money that way. In the future I�d like to earn money by fishing but at the moment I don�t have a fishing net.�
CCM's immediate response
That�s a problem that CCM hopes to solve. As well as providing immediate relief packages, it is focusing on helping people find lasting ways to feed themselves again as soon as possible.
CCM is providing 550 fishing nets for families like Baptista�s. Each net is shared among a �fishing association� made up of three or four families.
CCM is also supplying 1,200 families with seed kits to plant maize, beans, tomatoes, water melons, okra and cabbage. The vegetables in particular are quick growing, and should be ready to harvest within about a month.
In some parts of Mozambique, recent floodwaters have risen higher than the disastrous floods of 2000, which killed 700 people.
This year, fortunately, early evacuations have kept the death toll low. But thousands of poor farmers have still lost crops and livestock � and with them their means to eat.
Parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Angola have also been hit by flooding, but with most of southern Africa�s major rivers flowing through it to reach the ocean, Mozambique remains the country worst affected. When heavy rain swells the rivers upstream, all that water eventually ends up downstream in Mozambique.
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