wfn.org | How you can help with Mozambique relief

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March 24, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

A lack of clean water, food, and adequate medical care remain major concerns
in the emergency response to flood victims in Mozambique and other parts of
southern Africa.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is asking church members to
participate in its medicine box project as one means of assistance.
Information on the program is available by calling (212) 870-3683.

Volunteers with basic construction skills will be needed for work teams in a
couple of months. Medical volunteers also are being sought. UMCOR officials
warn that the assignments will be under rough conditions. Those interested
in registering their interest can call the volunteer line at (800) 918-3100.

In addition to housing, it is expected that volunteer teams will construct
some small medical clinics, each with a maternity room, examination room and
storage area for medicines and medical supplies, according to Wendy
Whiteside, an UMCOR executive. The clinics would be run in conjunction with
the Mozambique government's ministry of health.

The United Methodist hospital at Chicuque is facing problems with erosion on
its grounds, along with a lack of food, gas, electricity and water because
the road from Maputo, the capital, is blocked.

But Jeremiahs Franca hopes to get the hospital back in order. Franca, a
resident of Chicuque, has been studying at Southwest Texas State University,
Georgetown, Texas, since 1995 and is completing his medical residency at
Seguin Hospital, near San Marcos, Texas. He said the United Methodist Church
in Sweden paid for most of his tuition, while churches in the United States
helped with living expenses and the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries covered his health insurance.

"My biggest concern is upgrading the hospital," Franca told United Methodist
News Service. He said he is working with UMCOR and the Board of Global
Ministries on that project. But he also will have to deal with the
health-related effects of flooding when he returns to Chicuque in mid-June
as the hospital's administrator. "They're having a malaria problem right
now. And they suspect there is an uprising of cholera."

Because of its location and stock of medical supplies, Chicuque Hospital
draws much of the population in the Inhambane province to its doorstep,
Franca said. He welcomes volunteer medical personnel of all specialties to
come and work at the hospital.

To help prevent disease like cholera and diarrhea, safe drinking water is
another concern. UMCOR already has sent some water treatment units and the
United Methodists in Missouri are making safe drinking water the focus of
their support for flood relief, according to Carol Kreamer, coordinator of
the Missouri Area's Mozambique Initiative.

Whiteside said money is needed for a well-drilling machine as well as more
water treatment units. The United Methodist Church in Mozambique also is
using some of its emergency relief money to buy two block-making machines
for home reconstruction. Bishop Joao Somane Machado believes seven to ten
more will be needed.

Richard Brown-Whale, a former missionary from Mozambique who returned there
in March to do assessment for UMCOR, noted in a March 21 e-mail report that
the flooding is more than just a natural disaster. "This calamity which has
befallen Mozambique is the result of human interference in the environment
and of a geopolitical and international system that keeps Mozambique poor
and vulnerable to such disasters," he declared.

People who, economically, live day-to-day, "do not have the resources to
survive such an event as this," Brown-Whale pointed out. Farmers, for
example, "who spent all their resources on seeds to plant their fields
cannot easily replace them when a flood washes topsoil and seeds away
together," he said.

United Methodists can assist by contributing to the Churchwide Appeal for
Flood Recovery in Mozambique and Neighboring Countries. Checks may be
written to UMCOR, designated to Advance No. 156500-0, and placed in church
collection plates or mailed to 475 Riverside Dr., Room 330, New York, NY
10115. Credit-card donations can be made by calling (800) 554-8583.  

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United Methodist News Service
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