In the wake of Cyclone Idai that devastated central Mozambique, causing more than 400 deaths and affecting more than 2 million people, the Port of Maputo became the centre of National Solidarity for a week and provided warehouses for storage of donated items.
Many private and public sectors donated to this cause and over 4 800 volunteers from all over the country participated in the packaging and organising of the 2 000 tonnes of humanitarian cargo, all coordinated by 28 volunteers from civil society organisations.
With the collaboration of Sturrock Grindrod Maritime a subsidiary of Grindrod, Maputo Intermodal Container Depot (MICD), and DP World, Grindrod managed to contribute and pack one of the 40ft containers with relief cargo. Grindrod also sponsored a gas stove, 2 solar lights, and bowls towards a second soup kitchen in Beira to provide hot meals to those in dire need.
Grindrod released the MV Border, a 14,357-ton deadweight container vessel presently deployed within its Southern African sea-freight business Ocean Africa Container Lines, to perform a relief voyage from Maputo to Beira. The vessel arrived in Maputo during the early hours of Thursday morning 21 March 2019, loaded the much-needed relief cargo and discharged the cargo in Beira on 26 March 2019.
“MPDC would like to send you a special thanks for releasing the MV Border as soon as the first news of the terrible impact of Idai began to emerge. All this would not have been possible without OACL and its wonderful team. You were relentless in your efforts to bring humanitarian aid to its destination,” said Osório Lucas, CEO MPDC.
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