The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) announced on Thursday 11 January that the Government of Japan has provided 3 million dollars to support the return to school of thousands of Mozambican children affected by Cyclone Freddy and increase the resilience of education in the face of 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, almost a billion children are exposed to extreme risk,” the organisation said.
According to GPE, the Japanese aid will serve to end the crisis in teaching and education and will attract more funds and partners to support the transformation of almost 90 vulnerable countries.
“Cyclone Freddy, the longest-lasting cyclone ever recorded, hit Mozambique twice, between 24 February and 11 March 2023, affecting 1.2 million people and disrupting the education of thousands of children due to the destruction of hundreds of classrooms,” the organisation recalled.
Mozambique is considered one of the countries most severely affected by climate change in the world, facing cyclical floods and tropical cyclones during the rainy season, which runs from October to April.
The 2018-19 rainy season was one of the most severe on record 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, heavy rains and the passage of Cyclone Freddy through the country caused 306 deaths, affected more than 1.3 million people and destroyed 236,000 homes and 3,200 classrooms.
