"Thank God I had already escaped when the house collapsed"

54yr old Selina Kadondo and her family were one of the first to settle in Pensulo and establish the community there over 30 years ago. A grandmother with six children, she lost her husband 5 years ago and has been struggling to survive ever since. Three of her children still live at home with her, thankfully they all managed to escape before their house collapsed due to the heavy rains at 3am one morning.

Their home was made from “burnt bricks" with an iron sheet roof. After days and day of continuous heavy rains water started to run down the inside of two of the walls. First one wall collapsed and then at 3am two others, saturated from days of heavy rain followed suit. Selina said "Thank God I had already escaped when the house collapsed." She is now living at Pensulo Camp with other flood victims.

Only one wall of Stella's house remains standing. Thanks to your donations to our Emergency Appeal we have been able to give Selina and her family, plastic sheeting to protect the remaining wall, blankets, soap, rice, cups, lukini phala (fortified porridge,) maize, salt and a bucket for washing.

The future is uncertain for Selina, but thanks to your generous donations she and her family are warm, well fed, safe and clean.

Getting help to flood victims in Mwandika with Capital Radio Malawi

The 40 families with their emergency parcels

We visited Mwandika with Capital Radio Malawi last week to distribute parcels to 40 needy families identified by the local Village Development Committee and Joshua’s Field Officers as being in urgent need of support. 

All 40 families have lost their homes and most of their belongings as a result of the extreme weather. One family had lost everything except what you can see on the grass matt in the picture to the left (second one down) after their house collapsed.

This is all one family had left

As well as our own fundraising efforts here in the UK, Capital Radio Malawi has been helping to raise funds through a local appeal. 

The team from the radio station, along with Joshua staff and Project Trust volunteers helped to pack up the parcels and the radio crew came with us to help with distribution.

Homes are continuing to come down in the heavy rains

They were gobsmacked at the levels of poverty and isolation of the communities just a stone’s throw from Blantyre. And they experienced the full force of the rains when we got trapped in the Community Based Childcare Centre for 45 minutes when a viscous storm hit. It was a hot topic on the morning radio show the next day.  

Unfortunately the heavy rains haven't stopped and when it does rain it brings everything to a standstill, roads are impassable and it's impossible to get out to these rural communities. But thankfully today (Friday 6th Feb) the sun is shining and the team are out in Khola delivering supplies to the flood victims there. Including Mphatso and her family, whose story we shared with you last week.

Thank you again to everyone across the world who has donated to our Malawi Flood Appeal. Your support is making a difference and we'll share more photos and stories with you as and when we can.