Food for Life at the Mozambique Floods!

By Harrish Seebaluck (Updated May, 2000)

In the beginning of February, 2000, torrential rains poured continuously over Mozambique causing the biggest flood that country of 18 million inhabitants has known in its history. The damage was severe. Whole villages covered by water, entire crops destroyed, arable land unusable for the next three years, people needing to take refuge on house tops and tree tops - one lady even gave birth to a child on a tree after staying there for a few days. Whole sections of main roads were also washed away isolating many towns and villages, including Maputo, the capital city.

Fortunately the new Maputo-Johannesburg highway was near completion. After about two weeks an emergency alternate route was opened between South Africa and Mozambique using part of the new Highway and Food For Life (FFL) devotees could move into Mozambique. After a 13-hour drive from Durban and crossing Swaziland from South to North, Laksminath Das and Joe finally made their way into Maputo on Saturday 11th March. Food distribution started the next day itself. Cooking facilities were graciously offered by the management of the local Radha Krishna temple that is run by the Gujarati community.

Relying on the mercy of God, the FFL programme had a very humble beginning. Available stock of grains would last for only 3-4 days while cooking only one shift per day. 60 Kg rice and 100 Kg dhal were donated by the staff of the Air Mauritius office while another local company, Teleserve, donated $500. Soon, however, on seeing the dedication and sincere efforts of the FFL volunteers, the local Hindu Community offered more rice, dhal, vegetables as well as cash donation enabling a full 2 week distribution programme with double shift cooking during the second week. About 2 tons of hot vegetarian prasadam* were distributed.For the first day, prior arrangements had been made with the Municipal Council of Matola, a town just outside Maputo which was severely affected by the floods. A welfare officer accompanied the FFL cooks to five refugee camps and while they served 1500 freshly cooked prasadam meals. Flood victims and camp officials also spontaneously began chanting Hare Krishna. The potency of prasadam was once more evident when at one of the camps a child was very sick with fever. The mother was crying in despair, since the medicine supplied by the Red Cross apparently had no effect. As the child could not eat, Laksminath was thinking that the child would certainly benefit by drinking some sanctified water. But no sanctified water was available. With firm faith and relying on the mercy of the Lord, Laksminath then asked the Lord to bless the water before he gave it to the child to drink. The next day, while visiting the camp again, the child was up and dancing! The fever had disappeared and both the mother and child were grateful to Food for Life. It was also very amazing to see how the local people were rapidly picking up the words of the maha mantra** and were joyously participating in the chanting of the Holy names.

For the next few days the FFL devotees were going everyday with a guide from the Municipal council distributing food in the Motola region. The Municipal council even provided one Land Rover to carry the prasadam after the FFL van nearly got stuck in one large water-filled pothole on a muddy road leading to one of the camps. The Mayor of Matola, Mr Carlos Tembe, was very grateful and appreciative of the selfless efforts of the devotees. The Mayor explained, "homeless people can always be relocated to camps and given clothing, but what is required now is to reach out to the hungry and feed them." This is precisely what FFL was doing. Despite lots of aid coming in from abroad in terms of money, clothing and grains, the flood victims were more thankful for the plates of hot prasadam and were ecstatically singing "kanimambo, kanimambo" (thank you, thank you) after enjoying the meal.

Contacts were also made with a local boat club to access places inaccessible by road. There, by Lord Krishna's arrangement, a South African expatriate, Mr Irwin, director of Yamaha Motors in Mozambique, spontaneously offered to organise an expedition to Catembe where the situation was extremely bad. Mr Irwin was amazed as to how devotees could cook massive amounts of food 365 days a year feeding the whole world. He was given some FFL literature and is certainly favourably disposed towards ISKCON now. In Catembe hospital, no food and medicine were available and doctors visited the hospital only once per week. The FFL prasadam was the first meal that the patients had in days. A foreign doctor, who was also part of the expedition, diagnosed some patients with cerebral malaria and said that these people were to die in a couple of days.

Next Mr Irwin took the devotees to Inhaca island which is one hour off the coast from Maputo. FFL was indeed Krishna's special mercy on these people being served prasadam on a remote island off the coast of Mozambique and led into chanting God's holy name. Contacts were also made with a Christian organisation called REMAR and which has a number of relief camps near Maputo. HKFFL did prasadam distribution there about half a dozen times. REMAR officials have requested the devotees to come again. On the whole the HKFFL mission was successful and devotees plan to return to Mozambique soon for another programme. *prasadam: sanctified vegetarian food.