March 22, 2000
Mozambique team back; second there
___Texas Baptist disaster relief volunteers who joined North Carolina and South Africa Baptists in establishing a water purification base camp in southeastern Mozambique returned to the United States after briefing a second volunteer team.
___Dick Talley, logistics coordinator for Texas Baptist Men, and Mel Goodwin of Clarksville City Baptist Church in White Oak arrived at D/FW International Airport March 14 after 10 days in southern Africa.
___That same day a second group, including Walt Kriss from Midway Road Baptist Church in Dallas and Rex Campbell with Texas Baptist Communications, arrived safely in Maputo, Mozambique, from Johannesburg, South Africa. They were flown by helicopter March 15 to the water purification camp set up at Jantique.
___The second crew began using the equipment and teaching water purification techniques.
___The water purifiers, assembled in South Africa by the Texas Baptists, were providing potable water for four refugee camps in Chibuto.
___"As long as we can keep the sand wash from upstream under control, the units can each turn out 8 gallons of water a minute," Talley said.
___The volunteers--including local authorities and South African Baptists--were operating the water purifiers 24 hours a day, filling three swimming pools with pure water. Tanker trucks provided by the Save the Children organization then delivered the water to refugee camps in Chibuto.
___Estimates as to the number of people housed in the refugee camps varied widely because the refugees were constantly moving, looking for relatives in other camps, Talley explained.
___"When they were rescued by helicopter from the rising water, they were selected on the basis of height, so children were pulled out first. Later, when they came back for adults, the adults may or may not have been delivered to same camp as the children," he said.
___Cyclone Eline and subsequent storms forced more than 1 million people in southern Mozambique from their homes over the past month. In addition to destroying villages and displacing residents, the floodwaters introduced cholera, water-borne bores and other diseases and parasites into the water supplies.
___At one point near where the volunteers worked, the Limpopo River was 28 miles wide, Talley said.
___Individuals wishing to contribute to the relief efforts should designate checks "disaster relief," and mail them to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, 333 N. Washington, Dallas 75246-1798.
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