As river levels continue to remain high in Mozambique, thousands of children are facing uncertainty, upheaval and disruption as floods threaten to engulf large areas of the country.

Save the Children is working in Zambezia, one of the four affected provinces, where around 2,000 families have already been forced to flee their homes to escape the floodwaters. Thousands of children are now living in camps in the area, where they have nowhere to play, few possessions and no school to go to.

Save the Children is already on the ground responding to the needs of children and their families who have fled to the safety of camps. Families that were evacuated by boat were unable to bring many possessions with them so we have provided 150 household kits containing blankets, plastic sheeting, cooking and eating utensils, water purifier and containers, and will be distributing a further 900 over the coming days.

Save the Children will be providing school tents and supplies to provide emergency education to children living in camps. As part of this work, the agency will also be teaching children and the community about emergencies so they know what to do during the floods and other natural disasters that affect the country. This information will be disseminated in the coming weeks through a series of brochures and radio programmes.

Assessment teams from Save the Children are assisting Government teams in monitoring the situation and the aid agency stands ready to respond rapidly if the flooding worsens.

Chris McIvor, Save the Children’s Programme Director in Mozambique, said: “Families living alongside the Zambezi river are extremely vulnerable to the huge upheaval that these floods bring, which has a massive disruptive impact on a child’s life. We want to bring these children some sense of normality by providing them with everyday things their families need to get by and making sure they stay in school.”