Our Response

By Chris McIvor, Programme Director for Save the Children UK in Mozambique
January 15, 2008

With each day the floods get worse along the Zambezi: forty thousand people displaced on Saturday, another ten thousand on Sunday and another ten thousand yesterday. The other rivers in the central part of Mozambique are worsening too, swollen by the rains in Zimbabwe flowing off the mountains. Which is why it's so important we're ready to act as more people have to flee their homes.

But it's not enough just to think short-term. At the same time we need to think about the longer term picture and what will happen to communities after this emergency is over. If we don't, we will be storing up problems, not only for ourselves but for the people who will have to get on with their lives once the waters subside.

We all need to be careful when emergencies take place that we don't treat people differently. The media likes to use words like "victims" or "people in need". Aid agencies often refer to ‘beneficiaries" or "flood-displaced populations". With these words there is a temptation to forget that the people we are helping want to be responsible for their own futures: that as much as possible they can and should be included in the solutions to what they are facing. "Treat us like fools and we will behave like fools," is a remark I heard in a community discussion in Mozambique last year. People were complaining that no one had asked them what they needed and wanted, that the emergency effort was something done to them rather than something done with them.

Based on that learning, Save the Children in Mozambique has tried to behave differently. One thing we have done is to provide information to people in areas prone to floods, cyclones and earthquakes, to equip them with the knowledge they need to help protect themselves when a disaster strikes. What is even more exciting is that we have worked with children to communicate these messages. Through drama, music, discussion, debate and simply talking to their parents and friends, children have helped their communities to be better prepared. "These are the same people you will have to work with after these floods are over," is the message we have given to our staff working on the ground with communities. "Treat them in the same way you would want to be treated yourself."