LLU&MC Scope Autumn 2000-Mozambique Adventure

Mozambique adventure

School of Public Health graduate works with African flood victims

A crowd gathers outside the distribution center for non-food items in the town of Canicado, an important city in Mozambique with a medical facility that serves 60,000 people in the region.

She had just finished her final courses toward her master's of public health degree in international health at Loma Linda University. Now she would have some time to rest-she thought.

"The day after completing classes, I received a call from Samaritan's Purse," recalls Leslie Bramson, MPH, RN, a member of the School of Public Health class of 2000. "They wanted to know if I would be interested in working with them in Mozambique."

Samaritan's Purse is a non-government organization (NGO) which provides international disaster relief and was founded by Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham.

I was being asked to work in a remote village named Canicado with flood victims, Ms. Bramson explains. Flight arrangements and visas were arranged, and I was to leave in a week.

On March 24 she found herself on her way to Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. She was met at the airport by a representative from Samaritan's Purse and they immediately headed for her new post at a remote village recently surrounded by flood watersnow an island. Two means of transportation were available to the site-helicopter or boat.

Lelise Bramson, MPH (on left, facing camera), a recent graduate of the School of Public Health, rides across the Limpopo River on an overcrowded boat on her way to the devastated village of Canicado to assist in disaster relief efforts.

Ms. Bramson and her fellow passengers boarded a boat designed to carry four to five passengers. When we crossed the Limpopo River, our boat carried 12 people and all of their belongings, she remembers. We sat on the sides and our luggage was piled in the center.

Before arriving in Canicado, the group traversed an island, each individual hand-carrying his or her luggage. Then they crossed a second river. The trip took the better part of a day, she remembers.

The town of Canicado was home to 7,500 people before the flood, but there was no telling how many people were left.

The villagers explained to the arrivals about the day the flood came. They were told that it would flood in four days, says Ms. Bramson, but it flooded that very evening. Apparently one of Mozambique's neighbors had opened its floodgates sooner than promised without any warning.

Ms. Bramson arrived six weeks after the initial disaster. The devastation and human suffering she found were more than she could have imagined.

People were living out in the open, she describes, without a change of clothes and with little or no food only what they had foraged from crops that were under water. The crops of maize had rotted and were contaminated by the polluted waters.

A villager follows the practice of well-water sanitation she learned from the Samaritan's Purse team in Canicado.

There were three flood warnings while I was there, she continues. A few cement structures lined the only road into town, and families still had their meager belongings on the roofs.

Each of these bombed-out buildings was shared by eight to ten families who had no clean water. Flies and mosquitoes covered the faces of the children, food, and cooking utensils.

Housed with the team from Samaritan's Pursea project director, two physicians, an environmental specialist, two translators, and herself, Ms. Bramson wasn't sure what her job would be when she arrived.

In addition to her recent MPH degree in international health with an emphasis in humanitarian aid, Ms. Bramson is also a registered nurse.

Things were fluid, and we did what we needed to do to meet the needs of the villagers, she recounts.

Our main objective was to bring their medical hospital back up to pre-flood conditions, as well as work out a way to restore clean water to the community.

Once they had accomplished these objectives, the team turned its attention toward educating the villagers about various public health measures to improve their general health, making non-food distributions, working with well-water sanitation, and giving directions to helicopter pilots who were lost.

The pilots would see me in the village as they were flying over, she smiles, and would stop to ask for directions.

The son of the district mayor served as Ms. Bramson's translator. The two acted as liaisons between the local government, the NGO, and the Mozambique government. Canicado is an important village since its medical facility serves 60,000 people.

An ordinary day in Canicado was long, hot, and humid, she says. Our food consisted mostly of pasta, rice, and rolls that we brought in ourselves. We purified our own water and none of the team members became sick while there.

The hospital's cookhouse had been demolished by the flood waters, and meals were prepared over a three-stone stove in the hospital yard.

Latrines were at a premium. There were no working toilets in the hospital facility itself and only two latrines were available on the hospital grounds.

Each day posed its own challenges, and the team was often forced to carefully prioritize and evaluate its efforts. The nearby displaced-person camps would be closed in the coming weeks and the hospital would undoubtedly be inundated as the villagers returned to their homes.

One translator, also a plumber, translated during the day and directed the team responsible for restoring the hospital's water system in the evening.

Ms. Bramson's experiences in Mozambique proved to be life-changing. God, life, love, and family have once again become my priorities, she says.

The people of Mozambique are kind, open, generous, and caring, Ms. Bramson reflects. They have suffered through many years of turmoil, but have not been overcome by their circumstances. I felt safe and at home among the townspeople. The women would come by just so that I could hold their babies and hold their hands.

The prime minister of Mozambique visited Canicado while the team was there. I had met Prime Minister Pascoal Mocumbi in Washington, D.C., this past year, she reminisces, and he remembered me.

Ms. Bramson, who returned to her home in Crestline (a town in the San Bernardino mountains overlooking Loma Linda) on May 1, plans to return to Mozambique in the near future, to continue working there in the resettlement efforts for the disaster victims.

[Scope, Autumn 2000]