From October 2025, Mozambique entered a rainy season that would become one of its harshest in years. Relentless downpours flooded vast areas from the southern province of Maputo to the central province of Sofala.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 114 people lost their lives, and more than 650,000 were forced to leave shattered homes. Roads, crops, and basic services were swept away or buried in mud.

Amid this, communities, authorities, and volunteers searched for ways not only to survive the floods but to rebuild their lives after the waters receded.

Roads washed away, communities cut off

The floods affected nine provinces across the country. One of the greatest challenges was the collapse of basic infrastructure. More than 5,000 kilometers of roads were destroyed or impassable, some washed away, others buried under thick mud.

This meant trucks loaded with food or medical supplies could not reach many of the worst‑hit districts.

Mozambique Action Aid’s acting executive director, Cossa, described the struggle to reach Gaza Province: they tried to enter by road and found the route gone, forcing responders to rely on boats. Whole communities became “islands” surrounded by water, with families trapped for weeks and running out of safe water and food.

Health specialists warned that with the cyclone season overlapping the rainy season, the lack of clean water and medical care could trigger cholera and other water‑borne diseases, especially dangerous for children.

Great Love Homes: a dry, solid refuge in Sofala

In Sofala Province, the floods destroyed not only fields ready for harvest but also many traditional homes made of earth and thatch. Yet scattered across the mud were a few solid structures that remained safe and dry.

In recent years, Tzu Chi has helped build permanent housing known locally as Tzu Chi Great Love Homes in several resettlement villages, including Sofala. These reinforced homes, designed after Cyclone Idai, became vital during the new floods.

To respond quickly, Sofala volunteers moved up the handover date of houses that were almost finished. Families whose homes had collapsed were invited to move in immediately, even before every final detail was complete.

Machava, a resident who had lost her house, wept after entering her new home. She shared that her family had escaped a destroyed dwelling and expected to sleep out in the open, but now felt that a path had been opened for them.

For residents, the Great Love Homes offered more than dry floors and strong walls. They provided a place where children could sleep without fear of the next storm and where parents could concentrate on their next step, instead of worrying every night about the roof over their heads.

At the same time, local volunteers went house to house in nearby settlements, helping families reinforce damaged homes as much as possible—patching roofs, stabilizing walls, and trying to prevent further loss when the next heavy rain arrived.

Families helping families, neighbors helping neighbors

One of the quiet strengths in Mozambique’s response was the presence of local volunteers.

In the capital Maputo, more than 4,100 Mozambicans have joined Tzu Chi as community volunteers over the years. When the floods came, many of them were affected themselves. Some had water around their homes, others lost belongings, and communications were cut for days.

After the water level dropped and it became safe to move, they did something simple but powerful: four days later, they put on their volunteer uniforms and formed cleaning teams in their own neighborhoods.

They began with what they could reach—public areas, walkways, and community spaces clogged with mud and debris. Working side by side with other residents, they cleared sludge, removed trash, and opened up paths so that people could move again and aid could arrive.

This spirit was summarized in a phrase the volunteers often used: “families helping families, neighbors helping neighbors.” Those who still had some strength and basic stability were determined not to leave others behind.

Medical teams then launched free clinics in shelters, checking older adults and children for diarrhea, fever, respiratory infections, and early signs of cholera. Simple measures—rehydration, antibiotics where needed, hygiene education—aimed to prevent a second wave of suffering after the flood itself.

Food distributions followed, with sacks of staples providing immediate support to families whose granaries and kitchens had been destroyed.

From emergency relief to restoring livelihoods

For many Mozambicans, farming is their only source of income. The timing of the floods was especially painful: fields close to harvest were submerged, wiping out a year’s labor and leaving little seed for the next planting.

Without intervention, today’s flood can easily become next year’s hunger.

To address this, Tzu Chi and Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Reduction and Management (Instituto Nacional de Gestão e Redução do Risco de Desastres, INGD) agreed on a joint “community empowerment” approach.

From early February 2026, the plan focuses on the hardest‑hit provinces—Gaza, Maputo, and Sofala. Families will receive “replanting seed packages” containing peanuts, maize, and basic farming tools. The idea is straightforward: as soon as the land is dry enough, people can plant again.

Although Maputo and Sofala are separated by more than a thousand kilometers—around 14 hours by road—teams committed to delivering the seed packages in person, using whatever safe routes were available.

The hope is that, within a season, families currently relying on food aid will once again be eating from their own harvests and selling surplus crops in local markets. In this way, people can move from being recipients of help to becoming self‑reliant again.

Local roots, shared responsibility

The current floods are not Mozambique’s first large‑scale disaster. In 2019, Cyclone Idai devastated the central region, leading to years of reconstruction. Since then, the steady presence of local volunteers and community projects—housing, schools, health outreach, and farming support—has gradually built trust and networks of mutual help.

Those same networks proved crucial in 2025–2026. They allowed information to travel faster, decisions to be tailored to each area, and relief to be coordinated with government agencies and other organizations.

For families like Machava’s, the meaning of this work is very concrete: a dry, safe house tonight, enough to eat this month, and seeds in hand for the coming season.

For the wider community, it points to a different way of facing disasters—not only reacting to each emergency, but learning, preparing, and supporting one another so that, when the waters rise again, fewer lives and livelihoods are lost.

Written by Xiang‑hui Huang(黃湘卉)