Dear all,

I hope this email finds you well.

Unfortunately I am writing to tell you about a disaster - and to ask you to consider helping to put urgent resource in the hands of our teams.

At the end of last week, we received notice that a nasty storm was brewing in the Indian Ocean and making its way towards Northern Mozambique. Street Child have been working in Cabo Delgado Province, Northern Mozambique, since 2019 - responding to a horrific, but scarcely reported war, which has seen half of the Province’s population flee their homes.

The storm became a cyclone and hit Cabo Delgado on Saturday evening. Very specifically it made landfall in Mecufi District - a centre of Street Child’s work in Mozambique; and where we are the only child-focused international NGO presently operating.

To quote the official UN report on the situation in Mecufi: "The destruction in the area is near total, with 100% of homes damaged and very few structures still standing”.

In the words of Michael, our Country Director in Mozambique, on a call to me yesterday: “Tom, we can be sure that tonight, all 80,000 inhabitants of Mecufi, half of whom are children, will be sleeping in the open air”.

Our team, and partners, are on the ground now drawing on an initial emergency disbursement we have made from our Rapid Response Fund - but they urgently need more support.

We are focusing on providing emergency shelter—not only to protect from the rain but also from the intense sun. Nearly all the trees in the area have been flattened along with the buildings, leaving no shade in this region just South of the Equator.

The event was absolutely terrifying. Michael told me that even though he was in Pemba on Saturday night, 30 miles to the North of landfall at Mecufi, he spent much of the night fearing for his life as the walls shook.

We are organising play and counselling sessions for children who survived this traumatic storm. Very quickly we will need to think about education too. Every school in Mecufi has been obliterated. The academic year begins in the third week of January.

I know it is a hectic, not to mention expensive, time of year - but anything anyone could spare, to give the people of Mecufi some immediate solace and hope for 2025 this Christmas-time - will be deployed as soon as possible, and make a huge difference.

Thank you so much,

Tom Dannatt

CEO & Founder, Street Child