Mennonite Central Committee and its partners in Burundi are working together to respond to immense needs after torrential rainfall and a series of floods and landslides displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
The effects of climate change and an El Niño weather season brought an unprecedented amount of rainfall to the East African nation over the last year. 2024 has seen the highest water levels in 60 years in Lake Tanganyika, the second-largest lake in Africa. Burundi’s economic capital, Bujumbura, and many other places that border the lake are facing dangerous conditions.
Whole villages have been submerged or leveled by landslides. More than 300,000 people are in desperate need of relief. Nearly 90% of Burundians are subsistence farmers, and many have lost their livelihoods as their farmland is washed away.
Working with partners — Help Channel Burundi, World Outreach Initiatives, The Christian Union for the Education and Development of the Underprivileged, Great Lakes Peacebuilding Initiative, Mission for Peace and Reconciliation Under the Cross and Restore Burundi — MCC has begun an emergency response for 500 families. Each family will receive rice, beans, a bucket, a package of sanitary pads (where needed), a carton of soap and a flashlight with batteries.
Mulanda Jimmy Juma, MCC Rwanda and Burundi representative, said the situation was dire, but collaborating with MCC’s local partners benefits people both now and in the future.
“MCC is creating a synergy, a network among the partners, and this makes our response to this disaster more effective,” he said. “Our partners also grow in capacity as they learn from each other.”
In addition to emergency food and hygiene items, MCC partners are providing counseling services to help those who are losing their homes, livelihoods or loved ones in the disaster.
Juma said the disaster comes at a tumultuous time for the country.
“Send prayers for the displaced people and for Burundi,” he said. “We have an election coming very soon, and just a few weeks ago two bomb blasts very near our MCC office killed two people and injured several others.”
Source link : https://anabaptistworld.org/mcc-responds-to-floods-in-burundi/
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Publish date : 2024-07-01 07:40:24
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