News from the Doctors for Mozambique Foundation
Number 26 extra edition
This is the Doctors for Mozambique Foundation newsletter. If you would prefer not to receive this newsletter in future, please let us know via info@doctorsformozambique.org
Newsletter number 26 is the third extra edition, published following the devastation caused by Cyclone Idai in Mozambique.
FANTASTIC RESPONSE SO FAR; EXTRA SUPPORT STILL WELCOME
The response to our last newsletter asking for extra financial support has been tremendous. Thanks to the generosity shown by private individuals, businesses and legacy foundations, our original target of € 25,000 to make the students’ houses habitable again has been reached! We are extremely grateful, and quite honestly a little overwhelmed. We have already sent out many thankyou messages to people we know and/or whose contact details we have. To those we have not been able to respond to individually, we extend our sincere thanks via this newsletter!
Now what?
In a few weeks, Harrie and Gitta van der Meeren will be travelling back to Beira. As soon as they arrive, they will start arranging for the repairs to be carried out on the students’ houses. (It is not a good idea to send the money to Beira at this stage, as we would have no guarantee that it would actually be spent on the houses.) Harrie and Gitta also plan to cook for our students once or twice per week to boost their vitamin intake. There is a severe shortage of vitamins in the region at present. We are delighted that following mediation by Mr Coolen of chemist’s chain DA Drogisterij Noordveld, the company New Care Supplements has agreed to sponsor vitamin supplements for all our students for a period of two months!
And then??
We have made an initial estimate of the costs of repairing the houses. We won’t find out until Gitta and Harrie are in Beira how accurate our estimate was. And there is another issue causing us concern: as mentioned in our last newsletter, some students will probably need to repeat a year of study. Normally, if our students have to repeat a year, they have to do so at their own expense. We do not feel it would be appropriate to apply this rule in the present circumstances, but the fact is that each year of additional tuition fees costs € 3000, and we have no idea how many of our students will have fallen behind with their studies. So extra support is still very welcome!
MOZAMBIQUE HIT BY SECOND MAJOR CYCLONE
A little over a month after Cyclone Idai swept across Mozambique, Cyclone Kenneth hit the East African coast, lashing it with wind speeds of 280 km per hour and torrential rainfall – up to a metre in some places. That’s more than falls in a whole year in the Netherlands. This time, the northernmost provinces of Mozambique were the worst affected. We do not yet know whether Beira has suffered additional damage. Several of our students come from the north of Mozambique and are terribly concerned for the welfare of their relatives. We are supporting them where possible.
We will continue to keep you updated as best we can via these extra newsletters. Once Gitta and Harrie are in Beira, we will be able to receive first-hand news.