Portugal’s CTT, Graça Machel urge support for cyclone relief efforts

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Portugal’s CTT, Graça Machel urge support for cyclone relief efforts

9:32 CAT | 07 May 2019

in file CoM

Portugal’s postal service CTT and Mozambican activist Graça Machel have joined forces with Unicef to call for donations to help with Mozambique’s reconstruction efforts, the international organisation said on Monday.

Mozambique, which was recently devastated by two cyclones – Idai and Kenneth – in the space of six weeks, needs to rebuild cities, hospitals, schools and basic infrastructure, which will take a long time and will require everyone’s support, Unicef said in a statement.

Unicef’s director, Beatriz Imperatori, said there was a long road to recovery.

“The level of devastation is such that it is fundamental for us to guarantee the support of everyone in every step of this path,” she said.

CTT will be distributing 150,000 cards from Unicef in Portuguese mailboxes. The company also said in a statement on Monday that it has already sent 70 tonnes of donations from people in Portugal collected in its 538 shops around the country.

Following the destruction caused by Cyclone Idai, in March, and Kenneth, in April, CTT made available 200,000 solidary packages under the initiative “Feito de Esperança” (“Made of Hope”) to send clothes to Mozambique in partnership with Mozambique’s postal service.

According to the statement by CTT, the number of people in Portugal that joined the initiative was “massive.”

Graça Machel, president of the Foundation of Community Development and widow of both former South African president Nelson Mandela and former Mozambican president Samora Machel, called for more efforts to help the most affected parts of the country.

“These children are experiencing suffering that none of us can even imagine,” she said in a statement. “They need help – help from the Portuguese people – so that they can escape the threat of cholera, malnutrition, exploitation and the effects that they will later face because they were unable to go to school every day.”

Unicef said 1 million children needed humanitarian aid and that around 6,500 cases of cholera and 14,800 cases of malaria had been registered since Cyclone Idai ravaged the central part of the country.

The situation was made worse after Cyclone Kenneth hit the province of Cabo Delgado, in Northern Mozambique, Unicef added.

According to estimates by the Mozambican authorities, Cyclone Idai killed 603 people and Kenneth killed 43.

Source: Lusa