Unprecedented floods in Malawi

A few days ago, terrible floods destroyed homes and livelihoods in Southern Malawi.

Flooded areas in Nsanje ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

The true extent of the damage is still not known but Lendwithcare's microfinance partner in Malawi, the MicroLoan Foundation, has told us that clients from at least two of their branches have been badly affected. It will take around six weeks for the water to subside enough for  MicroLoan Foundation staff to assess the impact of the floods on their client’s lives and businesses and in the meantime they are simply going out to reassure all their clients that they will help them through this crisis.

We have of course informed our local partner that Lendwithcare will also support them through this difficult time so as soon as we receive more information on which clients have been affected and to what extend we will let you know.

As we wait for more  information , here is the testimony of Innocent Mbvundula, a CARE Malawi member of staff.

“The devastation of floods as we saw it in Nsanje”

Flooded areas in Nsanje district, Malawi where waters have damaged houses, livestock and property. ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

Malawi’s Nsanje District in the lower Shire River basin lies 150 feet above sea level. While the district has been hit by floods on many occasions in the past, the recent continuous, heavy rains that pelted the region for five consecutive days led to heavy flooding in areas that have never experienced flooding before.

Floods have, for many people of Nsanje, become a normal annual occurrence, but the scale of this year’s floods are unprecedented. Travelling from Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre to Nsanje at the southern tip of Malawi, one is greeted by the sorry sight of damaged houses, hectares of land where the crops have been washed away, and men, women and children in dire need of basic amenities in various evacuation centres. All this is as a result of floods that have left over 50 people, including numerous children, dead in the district.

In traditional authority Mlolo, all public services have been suspended. Health centres and schools are submerged in water. Access to the area is only possible by helicopter and boats, making it difficult to reach the affected households. Listening to the affected people, especially women, it is clear this is a tragedy that they will never forget.

Grace Lawrence, a 20-year old pregnant woman relocated to Nyachilenda evacuation centre, will always remember this tragedy due to the loss of her daughter; Grace’s second born daughter, 3-year old Marita, could not be traced at the time of the rescue operation undertaken by the Malawi Defence Forces. Apparently, she fell from the roof and died but Grace does not know exactly what happened. 

Grace Lawrence at evacuation camp. ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

For Mathews Damiano of Brighton village in traditional authority Mbenje, life will never be the same. The floods happened at a time when his business was growing from strength to strength. From a humble beginning, his vegetable and fruit business grew steadily to become a reliable source of income. Today, a family that had become self-sufficient is now at the Bangula evacuation centre, destitute.

In a matter of days, the house he and his wife, Elube, laboured to build is but rubble as a result of floods. He lost all his property including a store house located 50 meters from their house. At the time of destruction, the store house had merchandise worth K50, 000 (US$104) in it.

“It will take us some time to recover from this damage. It took us years of hard work to build our house and the store house. We don’t know what to do now,” says Mathews Damiano.

In some areas of Nsanje district essential public services have been suspended. School has been disrupted for thousands of students. The floods have forced children to stop going to school because some schools have been damaged by the floods while others have been turned into evacuation centres. This disruption in school is particularly hard on students waiting to sit for their national examinations in May.

Marita Samuel, an elderly woman in her 80’s we met at Marka camp site, on the Malawi-Mozambique border, says in her life time she has never seen such devastating floods.

“We have experienced floods in the past. It is not a strange occurrence. I remember we had extensive flooding in 1986 and it was destructive, but this flooding is worse than that one. I’m lost for a word,” said Marita.

Clearly, these floods have brought catastrophic effects to the people of Nsanje. It will take time to recover from the loss. In some cases it will be impossible to fully recover, as is the case of loss of life. Families, relatives and close friends have been separated, in some cases, forever. History will record these floods as one of the worst disasters in the history of the lower Shire district.

By Innocent Mbvundula , CARE Malawi”

January 26, 2015

Lendwithcare in the Philippines | Stories from survivors of Typhoon Haiyan

Tracey Horner, Head of Lendwithcare, has spent the last 14 days visiting lendwithcare entrepreneurs in typhoon-affected areas of the Philippines. Below she retells the stories of just some of the entrepreneurs she met ...

Lendwithcare entrepreneur, Anecito Rivera, before Typhoon Haiyan

Two days ago I met a widow called Generosa Pantuan who has six boys aged between sixteen and thirty three, she also has five grandchildren.  Her business is selling ready to wear clothes. Her house was destroyed by the typhoon.  Her son reconstructed the shelter above her business with tin sheeting donated by an NGO, however it is was not enough to repair the house as well.  The typhoon destroyed all her stock of clothes, luckily she has been able to buy new stock on a sale or return basis.  The savings she had built up with FCCT helped her a little.

Generosa lives with one of her sons and his wife who fish and then cook and sell the fish. The fish she was cooking when we arrived is called Kitong and is one of the tastiest fish I have ever eaten. She insisted on giving me some, I pointed out that she needed it more than me but she was insistent and it would have offended her to refuse – we had the fish at dinner that night and it was delicious – this really sums up the Filipino spirit. The family fishing boat was partially destroyed by falling debris during the typhoon, they have mended part if it but don’t have the money to repair it properly, making fishing too dangerous in the boat right now.

Generosa at work before Typhoon Haiyan

Since the family house was destroyed they have converted a pig pen into a temporary shelter. I saw that there were many holes in the roof that had been patched with bits of plastic sheeting. They hope and wait for more relief.  Proper shelter is their biggest problem. They hear a rumour that they might get some galvanised iron sheeting but haven’t heard anything yet and are waiting patiently.  They did get some rice, sardines and noodles as relief supplies in the early days.

Next I met Anecito Rivera, he has four children, all boys aged between 11 – 17.  They all live here in one room house.  Anecito can only afford to send one child to school.  Although there is a government school with free tuition, you have to pay for books and uniforms and other extras which makes it unaffordable for lots of poor families.

Anecito is a fruit and vegetable vendor. He used to buy and sell in the local market but his entire stock was lost during the typhoon and he can’t afford to buy more.  Right now he is reliant on the income his wife brings in from her job at a drug store.

I had been asking everyone I met “tell me how Yolanda has affected you” and Anecito simply replied “Yolanda had a big impact on me – so badly affected I can’t explain.”  He has a small plot of land by his house where he plants crops and he had a mango tree which was bearing fruit. He told me that when he saw his mango tree was ruined by Yolanda he cried.

He has recently re-planted some crops of banana, sweet potato, and papaya. He hopes to harvest and sell these at the local market in the future.  The banana crops will take one and a half years to fruit but the others can be harvested in four months.

When I asked him how he felt about the future he said that he never loses hope and has optimism that he will be able to revive his businesses.  He will take out one of FCCT’s restoration loans soon to revitalise his business and do some repairs to his house.  Like the others he received some food aid and he also received some tarpaulin like material. 

For more updates from the Philippines stay tuned to the lendwithcare blog and our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Make a loan to a small business owner today and help them and their families find a sustainable route out of poverty - www.lendwithcare.org  

More from Lendwithcare in the Philippines | The impact of Typhoon Haiyan

Day 12 and Tracey retells the stories of the Lendwithcare entrepreneurs she has met whilst in the Philippines ...

I had to accept that we were not going to get to Leyte or any of the other worst affected islands due to the bad weather. There has been an area of low pressure over the Philippines for the last couple of weeks which has been causing constant rain and high winds and severe flooding in some areas. 

CARE/Peter Caton

Instead we decided to travel four hours north of Cebu city to meet with one of Lendwithcare’s partners, a Co-operative called FCCT. FCCT have many branches, including two in the north of Cebu which was affected by typhoon Yolanda, as it is known here (if you say typhoon Haiyan people look at you blankly). 

Tracey's original route

First I met with the staff of FCCT who explained all the services they offer to their members, including loans. You can tell from their motto “only having savings breaks the bonds of poverty” that they strongly believe in encouraging their members to save. In fact, they even have a “kiddies savings plan” where children, from the moment they start school to when they finish year six, can save a third of any allowance they get from their parents. When these mini-savers graduate junior school they can withdraw their savings to spend on a graduation dress or new shoes. The interest rate they receive is 5% - I could only dream of finding a savings account that pays that much to my own son in a children’s account in the UK. FFCT also offer a good rate of savings to adults which they pay from the interest they charge on loans. 

Loan repayments are collected by staff every week – they go and visit the borrower to avoid them having to interrupt their business to travel to the office to make their loan repayments. Any profit FCCT makes is returned to their members at the end of the year. As well as savings and loans, FCCT offer mobile money transfer services. 

By the time I finished hearing about FCCT’s services it was the end of a very long day. We had dinner with the FCCT staff and they told me how terrifying it was to be in the middle of such a “super typhoon”. Luckily typhoon Yolanda hit during the day which meant that a lot of people had time to get to an evacuation centre (which in practice are schools or churches). They all said it was the most terrifying experience of their lives and most of the staff had experienced around 70% damage to their own homes. They told me this in a very matter of fact way. Apparently the Philippines experiences an average of 20 typhoons a year so they hadn’t realised quite how bad this one was going to be. After a night in a simple guest house, we breakfasted on the tastiest fried eggs on toast I have ever had – I wish I knew how the chef, who was a member of FCCT, had made them so delicious. We then left the FCCT office to meet some of their members who had been affected by the typhoon. 

First I met Melbina Tuico who has four children. She runs a food stall and as a side line rents DVDs to provide an additional source of income for her family. Both her business and home were completely destroyed during the typhoon. But she needs to feed her family and send kids to school so Melbina immediately moved her business next door to an area outside her sister in law’s house, which is manageable in the short-term. She said that business has been OK since the typhoon since people still come to eat. She provides breakfast lunch and dinner, her customers are neighbours but also people from other villages since she prepares such delicious BBQ food. 

When I asked her about the future she replied “only god knows my future”. She is hoping and praying that someone will help her rebuild her house and restaurant area again. Shelter is her main problem as they are now all sharing her sister in law’s house. The children keep asking when they can go back to their own home. Melbina and her family received some relief goods from humanitarian organisations working in Cebu but she has not been able to get any construction materials. She said she can’t focus on her business properly while she is worrying about whether her house will be rebuilt. I wished her good luck, not knowing quite what could be done for her in the short term. CARE and other relief agencies, who have specialised expertise in emergency shelter relief, are rightly focusing on the most vulnerable who don’t have anywhere else to go. 

However it is very likely that FCCT will offer her what they call a “rehabilitation loan”, which will be on a deferred repayment basis and at a very low interest rate. I asked them to send me details as soon as possible so that we can put it on the lendwithcare as I know our lenders will want to help. 

Stay tuned for more stories from the Philippines here and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Make a loan to an entrepreneur trying to build a stable future for themselves and their families today by visiting lendwithcare.org 

Day 8: "How is the Philippines coping after [Typhoon] Haiyan?"

Tracey Horner, Head of Lendwithcare, is still battling the elements in the Visayas (the Philippines) to find out more about the impact of Typhoon Haiyan on local businesses and livelihoods.

Most typhoon affected said they were just thankful they still had their loved ones. Feel inspired by their courage.
— Tracey (@traceymohabir) January 17, 2014

CARE-ACCORD distribution of household items in Ormoc

Tracey's journey that had included a visit to one of the worst affected areas of Typhoon Haiyan - Tacloban - has been less than smooth

Tried to get to most affected island ,Leyte but bad weather forced the ferry to do a u turn. Now on way to visit LWC partner in Cebu.
— Tracey (@traceymohabir) January 16, 2014

Very lucky I don't get sea sick as the abandoned ferry crossing was very rough. Unlikely to get to Tacloban, v disappointed.
— Tracey (@traceymohabir) January 16, 2014

But she has managed to meet a number of lendwithcare entrepreneurs on the island of Cebu and learnt a lot about how businesses and families have coped in the aftermath of the strongest typhoon to ever hit landfall and how our local partner, SEEDFINANCE, is helping communities get back on their feet

Post by lendwithcare.org.

Post by lendwithcare.org.

What happens with loan repayments when a natural disaster occurs?

© CARE/Ami Vitale

I am currently in Cambodia where months of heavy rainfall have resulted in the worst flooding in a decade. This has left at least 247 people dead and damaged more than 390,000 hectares of agricultural land, including more than 10% of the country’s rice harvest. The floods have affected 1.2 million people across the country, but particularly those living along the Mekong River. Around 34,000 households have been evacuated to higher ground, and many roads, schools and homes have suffered damage.

Since early 2011 lendwithcare has been partnering with a local microfinance organisation, Cambodia Community Savings Federation (CCSF), which provides loans and other financial services to microentrepreneurs in the north-western provinces of Battambang and Banteay Meanchey, near the border with Thailand. While not as badly affected as other parts of Cambodia, many villages in the province remain isolated and under water. In some parts, cattle have been put in pens on small man made islands of earth, surrounded by flood waters. Many farmers have lost their entire rice crop as their farms have turned into lakes. In these situations, what happens to loan repayments?

 

Since many entrepreneurs have more than one source of income, they may in fact be able to continue making loan repayments from income generated from activities not affected by the flooding. For example, Saret Bou took out a loan of about £360 from the Ek Phnom Credit Union a few months ago. His loan was re-financed through lendwithcare (you can see more details at http://www.lendwithcare.org/entrepreneurs/index/703). He used the loan to prepare his land and buy fertiliser in order to ensure a good rice yield.

However, one hectare of his land has remained under water for the last month and he has lost any rice he planted there. Despite this, he hopes that the two hectares that escaped the flooding will provide him with a reasonable yield when he finally harvests the rice in January. However, Saret is confident that he will continue to be able to meet his monthly loan repayments over the next few months because he and his wife also produce ‘Sambok Nem’. This is a thin type of pastry that can be stuffed with meat, fish or other food and then cooked. They produce and sell Sambok Nem on a daily basis and it provides them with a regular income.

© CARE

Other entrepreneurs though are not as fortunate as Saret Bou, and will be unable to make full and on time repayments. Indeed it would be unfair on borrowers for lenders to insist. In these cases, CCSF and the local credit unions are planning to re-schedule repayments without penalty charges for late repayments and without, importantly, imposing an unreasonable level of debt on borrowers. Usually, this means that entrepreneurs will make much smaller than expected repayments, or suspend repayments altogether for some months while extending the length of the loan. Nobody is quite sure what needs to be done and what the scale of default might be though until the floodwaters subside and they have had the opportunity to visit entrepreneurs and assess the extent of the damage.

Thon Meas, Operations Manager for CCSF, remarked “This level of flooding is unprecedented during the many years that I have worked for CCSF. It is a worrying time for the organisation, but we are determined to continue supporting the credit unions and ensure that our borrowers receive the support they need to re-establish their livelihoods”. In fact, when they have lost their entire rice crop and have few other sources of income, farmers actually need credit more than ever; in order to buy seeds, fertiliser and even in the short-term food to survive. In situations where borrowers are unable to repay their existing loans it is not uncommon therefore for them to be given new loans so that they can buy the necessary inputs and begin producing again as quickly as possible.

By Ajaz Ahmed Khan, microfinance organiser at lendwithcare.org