The compound in entrance of the blue and white low-rise constructing is buzzing with rushed exercise.
On one facet there are males stacking bins of water bottles. On one other, girls sitting on chairs are choosing by bundles of clothes on the bottom earlier than folding and organising them into piles of males’s, girls’s and youngsters’s sizes.
Directions are being shouted.
By the doorways of the home, within the lounge on the entrance, there’s extra urgency. Right here, some girls are finding out child meals, nappies and sanitary merchandise.
That is the area people response to a name for emergency assist after Mayotte was devastated by Cyclone Chido on Sunday.
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Work to assemble assist is underneath means
The help is being collected right here in a neighbourhood in Reunion’s capital Saint-Denis, an island east of Madagascar.
That is the place Somo helps. She’s carrying a black hijab and her face is framed by her black-rimmed spectacles.
Somo got here to Reunion to check regulation two years in the past. Her mum Echat, dad Saindu and sister Kaounaini reside on Mayotte.
Somo has had no contact with any of them for the reason that lethal storm tore by the island on Sunday.
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Somo
Somo is aware of her mom and father are alive as a result of phrase has reached her from different neighborhood members who reported seeing them after the lethal storm.
Somo has been frantically calling their numbers continuous since Sunday, however no one has answered.
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Hundreds feared lifeless after cyclone
The household’s dwelling has been utterly destroyed. Somo is determined to ship cash to them however there isn’t any means of doing so.
She’s particularly apprehensive about her father as a result of he is alone.
“I don’t know if he has any food or water or anything,” she says.
As I’m about to depart, Somo tries to name them once more. She waits, wanting on the telephone display screen in hope and in desperation. However there’s nonetheless no reply.
