Thursday 21 March 2019
The UK Disasters Emergency Committee (the DEC) has today launched an appeal in response devastating impact Cyclone Idai has had on several southern African countries, including Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe.
The Overseas Aid & Development Commission has agreed to donate £30,000 to this appeal. The Commission's donation, on behalf of the people of Guernsey, will help support the work of the DEC's member humanitarian charities and NGOs to scale up support to the Indonesian government-led response in the areas of logistics, shelter, safe water and sanitation, health care, and food aid.
The UK Government has agreed to match pound for pound the first £2 million donated by the public to this appeal and this is in addition to the £6 million the Department for International Development has already committed to fund the pressing and urgent need to meet the needs of the many tens of thousands of people in Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe who have lost everything following Cyclone Idai. The Commission recognises that just £30 will provide food aid for a family for one month and £100 will provide a toilet and washing facilities and so dramatically reduce the very real risk of the devastation of the cyclone being followed by a deadly outbreak of waterborne diseases.
Deputy Emilie Yerby, President of the Overseas Aid & Development Commission said:
"While Brexit continues to dominate the headlines here, halfway across the world Cyclone Idai has unleashed a devastation we can only begin to imagine. Hundreds of people have been killed, thousands injured, tens of thousands uprooted from their homes by destruction and flooding. The photos emerging from east Africa show the immediate, terrible impact; and the cyclone, which has destroyed crops and homes, will have a long tail of hunger, poverty and disease in an already struggling region. We know that the people of Guernsey would want us to respond. So we have made an immediate donation of £30,000 to the DEC's appeal, and are considering individual charities' applications to support the emergency response. Our thoughts are with the affected people at this time.
The Commission's donation will supplement the individual donations made by the community of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the work of other local charities who are addressing this emergency."
