Eunica Simango sits\u00a0 as she waits at a relief centre in Chimanimani.<\/p>\n
A week ago, everything she owned, including a poultry run where she kept chickens, was swept away by a mudslide when Cyclone Idai, after lashing Mozambique, turned its wrath on eastern Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n
Yet this material loss is nothing compared to the gnawing absence of her teenage daughter, who was washed away in the raging tide.<\/p>\n
She is one of nearly 200 people who are listed as missing, 30 of them schoolchildren, in addition to 139 confirmed dead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost everything,\u201d Simango, 34, said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy house, my property, chickens. I am now surviving on handouts something I never imagined myself doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most painful thing is: I don\u2019t know where my daughter is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well-wishers set up the temporary shelter in a conference room at a local majestic Chimanimani Hotel to feed victims of the storm.<\/p>\n
But resources in this impoverished country are slender, and there is no guarantee that the centre can stay open.<\/p>\n
\u2018This is the situation\u2019
\nAt another relief centre, food too was meagre.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo with the little that we have,\u201d volunteer Daina Mandevhana told the hungry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should not expect to eat until our tummies are full or complain saying \u2018at my house I used to have my tea with milk\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the situation we have, and we should accept it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fears are growing of starvation in communities that have been cut off after winds and torrential rain smashed bridges and swamped or destroyed roads.<\/p>\n
Families in Chimanimani are still rummaging through debris, hoping to recover remains of missing relatives.<\/p>\n
Some people on long-term treatment for conditions such as HIV have lost their medication and appealed for urgent supplies.<\/p>\n
President Emmerson Mnangagwa, after touring the area, said he had seen \u201cunmitigated despair\u201d.<\/p>\n
Zimbabwe has declared a state of disaster and appealed for assistance. According to the UN, 200,000 people have been affected.<\/p>\n
Crops and livestock have been destroyed, threatening enduring hunger and poverty for those who do survive.<\/p>\n
Need for helicopters
\n\u201cThere are people who have lost their homes and property places in places like Kopa and Rusitu,\u201d said Shawne Kidd, a local businessman who is helping in relief and recovery efforts.<\/p>\n
He and other volunteers are running a feeding centre, in some cases digging into their own pockets to buy food for victims who lost their homes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe villagers want food but we have limited means of getting in and out. Roads were damaged and bridges broken.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kidd said the big problem was not lack of willpower, but the means to move things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are hundreds of organisations willing to help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is plenty of aid outside. The problem is getting it in. There is no airstrip. Helicopters are being used to bring in medical supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Eunica Simango sits\u00a0 as she waits at a relief centre in Chimanimani. A week ago, everything she owned, including a poultry run where she kept chickens, was swept away by a mudslide when Cyclone Idai, after lashing Mozambique, turned its wrath on eastern Zimbabwe. Yet this material loss is nothing compared to the gnawing absence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":2818,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[216,487,228,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-6156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-community","9":"tag-children","10":"tag-cyclone","11":"tag-flood-victims","12":"tag-mnangagwa"},"yoast_head":"\n