£30K for Cyclone Idai victims

Thursday 21 March 2019

Guernsey is giving £30,000 to the UK Disasters Emergency Committee which has launched an appeal to help those affected by Cyclone Idai.

People in several southern African countries, including Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe have been affected by the devastating cyclone. Yesterday it was reported that "hundreds are injured and many more unaccounted for".

Authorities in Mozambique said then, they feared the death toll could be more than 1,000, while tens of thousands of people were said to have lost their homes there, as well as in nearby Malawi and Zimbabwe.

The United Nations (UN) described victims trapped on rooftops and clinging to trees awaiting rescue, and said roads, bridges and crops have been washed away.

More than 200 were confirmed dead in Mozambique yesterday, more than 100 in Zimbabwe, and around 60 in Malawi, the UN said, adding that hundreds were injured and many more were unaccounted for.

The Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission’s donation, will help support the work of the DEC’s member humanitarian charities and NGOs which are offering support to the Indonesian government-led response managing logistics and arranging shelter, safe water and sanitation, health care, and food aid.

#CycloneIdai has left behind a trail of devastation across #Mozambique, #Malawi and #Zimbabwe.

Please donate NOW to help those affected: https://t.co/lTkBhoWcXK pic.twitter.com/uJUW8QeI7l

— British Red Cross (@BritishRedCross) March 19, 2019

The UK Government had agreed to match pound for pound the first £2 million donated by the public to this appeal and this is in addition to the £6 million the Department for International Development had already committed to fund the 'pressing and urgent need to meet the needs of the many tens of thousands of people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe who have lost everything following Cyclone Idai'.

The Guernsey Overseas Aid Commission has said recognises that just £30 will provide food aid for a family for one month and £100 will provide a toilet and washing facilities, which will help dramatically reduce the very real risk of the devastation of the cyclone being followed by a deadly outbreak of waterborne diseases.

Deputy Emilie Yerby, President of the Overseas Aid & Development Commission said,

“While Brexit continues to dominate the headlines here, halfway across the world Cyclone Idai has unleashed a devastation we can only begin to imagine. Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands injured, tens of thousands uprooted from their homes by destruction and flooding. The photos emerging from east Africa show the immediate, terrible impact; and the cyclone, which has destroyed crops and homes, will have a long tail of hunger, poverty and disease in an already struggling region. We know that the people of Guernsey would want us to respond. So we have made an immediate donation of £30,000 to the DEC's appeal, and are considering individual charities' applications to support the emergency response. Our thoughts are with the affected people at this time.  

"The Commission’s donation will supplement the individual donations made by the community of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the work of other local charities who are addressing this emergency.”

Pictured top: PA image from the scene where Cyclone Idai struck.