IOM teams working in Angola’s Eastern Moxico province have
started distributing seed kits to some 2,300 particularly
vulnerable families living in the remote Cazombo district, which
suffered the brunt of last February’s devastating floods.




This initiative, funded by the Office of US Foreign Disaster
Assistance, aims to enable vulnerable flood-affected households to
help them produce their own food in order to reduce the need for
food aid support.



“Now the water levels are receding, it is essential to help
flood-affected families resume their agricultural activities to
ensure they become more self-sufficient,” says Katharina
Schnoring, IOM’s Chief of Mission in Angola.



With many fields destroyed by the recent floods, food production
and food availability in Moxico province remain below the national
average and many families will still require food assistance in the
coming weeks and months.



In some areas, IOM’s work continues to be hampered by the
fact that infrastructures, such as roads or bridges that were
damaged by the floods, have not been repaired, leaving a number of
villages isolated and communities marooned.



Nevertheless, IOM continues to assist more than 10,000
flood-affected persons by providing shelter material to affected
families and by building shelters on higher grounds.



In the villages of Lunachi and Mupachi, a hundred transitional
shelters have been built in cooperation with the local authorities
and with the assistance of the communities.



“Those temporary shelters can easily be transformed into
permanent ones by replacing plastic sheeting with corrugated iron
sheets,” says Schnoring.



To meet some of the most urgent needs, IOM continues to work with
the Angolan Red Cross and the Angolan Evangelic Church to
distribute non-food items to affected families.



So far 16 tons of corrugated iron sheets have been purchased with
funding from the United Nations’ Central Emergency Response
Fund. As the winter season approaches, IOM will continue to provide
clothes and blankets to the neediest. Another 10,000 blankets,
which have been purchased in South Africa will be distributed in
the coming days.



For more information, please contact



Katharina Schnoring

IOM Luanda

Tel. +244 912 207 362

E-mail "mailto:kschnoring@iom.int">kschnoring@iom.int