Thank you in advance for your help.

This disaster could become the worst in the southern hemisphere.

There was a week of incessant torrential rain in Malawi even before the cyclone turned back out to sea where it gathered strength then returned inland. We have 659 families who have completely lost their homes and 10 churches destroyed. This is not including the many who have damage to their homes and are also in the camps. We have reports of 5 deaths to church members whose mud constructed houses fell in on them. One family of three perished like this. The district leader managed to reach the isolated village by dug-out canoe to comfort the church there. Today we met as an Executive in order to get a clearer picture from the Pastors on the situation. It will be a long recovery for most and we are looking to the large agencies for help in the immediate. Almost 190 tented camps are now established for the homeless. Long lines of people attend the camps run by NGO’s and they are handing out cooked food person at a time. Some of our churches are being utilised as sleeping quarters for those affected. Our experience is that help is needed immediately for sure, but also consideration for the longer term impact and especially regarding the loss of the crops.

Alan Skene