Japan gives 2.1 million euros to support Mozambican children’s return to school after cyclone – Observer

The government of Japan has allocated three million dollars (2.1 million euros) to support the return to school of thousands of Mozambican children affected by Cyclone Freddy in 2023, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE, in Portuguese) announced this Thursday. acronym in English).

According to information from that organization, Japan’s support will serve to “help children affected by the cyclone in Mozambique to return to school and to increase the resilience of education to climate change”.

“Climate change is already threatening children’s right to education. As the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events increase around the world, nearly one billion girls and boys — approximately half of the planet’s children — live in countries that are at extremely high risk from the impacts of climate change, such as droughts, cyclones and floods”, recalls GPE.

Oh cyclone Freddy, the longest-lasting on record, it hit Mozambique twice, between February 24 and March 11, 2023, affecting 1.2 million people “and disrupting the education of thousands of children” — namely the destruction of hundreds of already precarious classrooms —, emphasizes the organization.

Cyclone Freddy has already killed 605 people in Mozambique, Malawi and Madagascar

GPE presents itself as a “shared commitment to end” the “global crisis” in teaching and education, mobilizing partners and funds to support almost 90 lower-income countries in transforming their education systems through organizations on the ground.

“So that all girls and boys can obtain the quality education they need to unleash their full potential and contribute to building a better world”, describes GPE.

Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, cyclically facing floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs between October and April.

The 2018/2019 rainy season was one of the most severe in memory in Mozambique: 714 people died, including 648 victims of cyclones Idai and Kenneth, two of the biggest ever to hit the country.

In the first quarter of last year, intense rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy across the country caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people and destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms, according to official Government data.