Rebuilding life after the cyclone

I’ve arrived at one of the six transit centres in Guara Guara, region of Buzi, by breakfast time on Easter Sunday. A group of men were moving bags and boxes from trucks to a WFP temporary warehouse when white steam started to rise from one of the sides of the transit centre.

On the left: Trucks with WFP food being offloaded to one of the temporary warehouses in Guara Guara, Buzi. On the right: One of the women cooking breakfast in the transition centre. Photo: WFP/Rafael Tarasantchi.

Behind a pot with boiling water and a cascade of white steam, there was a group of women preparing breakfast, a dish with corn flour boiled with water and sugar named ‘papa’. Maria João was watching one of the women to prepare the meal in the open kitchen and offered to show me the area. Walking through the tents, Maria explained they have arrived there the previous afternoon, after staying a month at a different accommodation centre in the city of Beira.

Recently relocated to the transit centre. Photo: WFP/Rafael Tarasantchi.

Before the cyclone, Maria use to grow maize and rice, approximately 20 kilometres from the transit centre she is currently living. As the cyclone and flood devastated big part of the Buzi region, the rescued population was accommodated in centres in Beira, where they received shelter, food and health items. She explained they were well treated at the centres in Beira, but she wanted to go back to her normal life.

She stopped in front of a tent and introduced her two children, Benildo and Graça, 15 and 11 years old. Since the cyclone devasted the region they are not going to school, “most schools are closed because people are living in them” she added, “but they have notebooks and pencils, so they can practice what they know so they don’t forget anything”.

Maria João, with her two children, Graça (11) and Benildo (15). Photo: WFP/Rafael Tarasantchi.

Maria João, is now back to her home region, with some hope in the future. The government is offering voluntary resettlement for families who lost everything with the floods and the cyclone. They are demarcating 30 per 20 meters pieces of land and will allocate one piece per family. They will receive food and non-food supplies, from WFP and partners, to clean the pieces of land and have a chance for a fresh start.

A preliminary demarcation, with wooden stakes, of the parcel of lands the Government of Mozambique will provide to the affected families. WFP/Rafael Tarasantchi.

While Maria João family and others wait for the parcels to be delimited and to be relocated, they are receiving three meals per day at the transition centres. Maria knows is going to be hard to restart and rebuild their lives after such a traumatic experience, but she is emphatic:

“I just want to be able to work in the land and grow food to raise my family”.

I left the centre with Maria’s story in my head. Knowing that soon she would be the one with the steaming pot cooking ‘papa’ for Benildo and Graça before they leave to school in their new piece of land.