Beyond the flood: relief for Oguta after the worst of the flooding

Flooding on the Oguta plain in Imo State displaced families and destroyed homes, possessions and livelihoods. In response, the Nkemjika Development Foundation ran a relief outreach in Oguta, delivering clothing, food and medication to households that had been displaced.

The outreach was built around three things. Clothing, because maintaining a measure of dignity during a displacement matters as much as the practical need. Food, because a household that has lost its stores has nothing to fall back on in the weeks after the water goes down. And medication, because the period after a flood brings the risk of waterborne disease and there was no other supply for families who had lost everything.

Relief of this kind addresses the immediate need, and the foundation is candid that the immediate need is only part of it. Recovery takes far longer than the flooding does, and the foundation stayed in contact with the community as it rebuilt.

The Oguta plain is riverine and floods repeatedly. The foundation's flood relief response remains one of its poverty alleviation programmes, and the Oguta Flood Relief Response is listed on the programmes page.