Malawi Writers Union (MAWU) Visits the Cyclone Freddy Victims
Malawi Writers Union (MAWU) Visits the Cyclone Freddy
Victims
By Matilda Phiri
Malawi Writers Union (MAWU) members on Saturday, 29th
April, 2023 visited two Cyclone Freddy victims’ camps Nanjiriri and Nanthoka in
Machinjiri, Blantyre. The writers donated food and non-food items to victims.
The items donated included assorted clothes, shoes and food items. The victims
were so grateful to what the writers did as they are lacking a lot of things in
their life. I’m glad to be part of the team that visited the victims and
cheered them on. I managed to give a few books I authored to school children
and they were so excited with the books.
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| The Vice president of MAWU Mr Davie Chingwalu presenting clothes to the victims |
Every day, every morning, they have to go to look for manual work in people’s houses to have food for that day; no work no food. As we visited the camps, most adults were not there; they had already gone to look for piece works. They said they are lacking food, charcoal or trees for cooking food, blankets, mosquito nets, soap etc. they are still calling out well-wishers to continue supporting them to make their lives easier. If you want to support them, you can get in touch with MAWU in Blantyre, to help with the donations.
The Cyclone Freddy victims are very strong people and
survivors. Listening to their story narrating how the cyclone happened these
people have gone through a lot. They need our love, counselling and material
support. They experienced a torture and wrath of mother earth that they will
never forget in their lives. They saw their houses and properties going away
with the cyclone. They saw their neighbours being washed away like they were
coming back again. They cried seeing their bags of maize being carried away by
mother earth. How will they start over again? This is a very sad situation that
no human being should experience in his lifetime but it happened.
The March, 2023, tropical Cyclone Freddy which has killed over 507 people and rendered several others in the Southern Region homeless and destitute. And 500 people are still missing, meaning that there is a probability they died as well. What a tragedy! The lives being lost, properties, food, roads and many other things. This has never happened in our time except other cyclones that have happened but this one was the worst. The rains had poured for almost a week without stopping. The vice president of Malawi Dr. Saulosi Klaus Chilima said that relocation of households from settlements in hilly areas could avert and minimise the devastating impact of natural disasters perennially hitting some part of our country, Malawi. The hilly areas need to be declared places, where people shouldn’t be residing. Our environment has degraded a lot and we need to reafforest our mountains. If we have relatives who live in hilly places or close to streams, rivers and lakes it is better to warn them to move to another area and use that place to plant trees at least they will sell one day, rather than them losing their lives. Let’s all work hand in hand in fighting for humankind to survive. We can avoid this.
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